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YOUTH & THE INTERNET:
Blog, blog blog...
Alaska has recently received national attention with the trial
of teen, Rachelle Waterman, accused of conspiring to have
her mother, Laurie Waterman killed. Two former boyfriends,
of Rachelle’s have confessed to the murder of Laurie
Waterman. The two plead guilty to this crime and are awaiting
sentencing. Both also served as witnesses for the prosecution.
After a three-week trial and thirty-three hours of deliberation,
the jury announced they were hung and a mistrial was declared.
Whether the prosecutor will pursue another trial remains
to be seen. But regardless of the outcome of this most interesting
case, adults-parents are now more aware of blogging, Internet
diaries, and websites youth are creating about themselves.
Blogging: Blogging
is a term used to refer to an Internet diary.
Blog: is the name of the internet diary
Blogger: Someone who puts their diary online for
all to read
It is available for all
to “pull up” and read. What teens aren’t
aware of is they become responsible for what they write.
Many of us have had negative thoughts when we’ve
been frustrated, angry, disappointed, embarrassed. But
once we commit those thoughts to paper or in this case,
to the Internet, it opens up an entirely different set
of problems that youth don’t even think about. Some
of them embellish a problem; exaggerate their feelings
for all to see. Another problem is when someone does a
goggle search on them, even years later, their blogs can
appear to prospective employers years after the youth
has matured. Youth seldom think about this.
Another new activity on
the Internet involves youth creating websites like
those found on myspace.com, ???. On these websites, youth
inadvertently give out more information than they should,
such as, where they live, where, they work, go to school,
etc. Many cases of missing youth, sexual abuse of a minor,
and other crimes can be traced back to youth displaying
too much personal information on their websites. Some
youth decide to really let go and live their fantasies
on their websites. For example, they might want to appear
that they are more experienced than they really are so
their website reveals what is really their fantasy not
their reality. But to the reader, they think they are
reading the blogger’s reality. All the while, parents
have no clue all the personal information their child
has shared with anyone interested in reading their website.
Some youth think it’s cool to have a blog. It is
uncool not to have one. Having a website and blogging
is fine as long and together parents and their teens talk
about the dangers associated with it, Sometimes youth
don’t think about the consequences down the road
from being pursued by a pedophile to ramifications for
future job and career opportunities.
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