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Risky Business
Teens and the Internet: How technology is affecting the adolescent behavior and what parents need to know
by Susan Gemmill
March 1, 2006
A
teenager comes home from high school at the usual time, mumbles something to his mother
about a load of homework then bounds upstairs to his room and closes the door. He sits at his desk,
and furtively opens a magazine tucked under his shirt. The monthly falls open to the centerfold,
Miss November 1969.
That was nearly
two generations ago but in many ways the story is the same. The major difference between then and
now is that instead of sneaking magazines, today's teen boots up the computer on his or her desk.
From there, the world is theirs and the web casts a wide net. According to a survey by the Pew
Internet & American Life Project, approximately 21 million adolescents - 87 percent of children
aged 12-17 - use the Internet. Of this group, 57 percent have "blogged" or created their own
personal web log where they post original journals, videos, artwork, personal photographs and, in
some cases, way too much information to people they don't even know.
Experts remind us that it is the job of adolescents to learn everything they can about the
world. In doing so, they take varying degrees of risk. The parent's job is to help them minimize
that risk. How are the two jobs to be reconciled in this age of high-speed technology?
"The Internet revolutionized our society," says Stacey Dewitt, president and CEO of Connect
With Kids (CWK), a youth intelligence agency headquartered in Atlanta (www.connectwithkids.com). "Exploration at this age is
completely normal. Before, you had to buy the magazine or get out of the house. Today, the kid is
online surfing the web and, by his very nature, has to click on that pop-up link to a porn site.
He's an adolescent and he's curious."
Dewitt's passion is to educate children and parents about today's issues; to begin a "common
conversation between schools, parents and corporate citizens; to keep them informed, to keep them
connected with each other.
"Through our local and national network we can educate families through the mass media about
how to react and interact with some of the cultural influences that are happening," Dewitt says.
The human tendency for "group think" is bigger now primarily because of technology. Two
really hot sites for teens today are
www.myspace.com and
www.facebook.com. Teens can manipulate and influence each
other, develop a trend or a culture in ways they never could before. The bar has been raised.
"Teens are seeing their peers do riskier things," says Dewitt. "Moderately risky behaviors
are not all that new to them now. It's harder for a child to be a normal adolescent because she's
got to reach farther to get to the bar. What we're really talking about is peer culture - who I
hang out with; what do my friends think. They don't have control over their world. The world is
bigger consequently their world is bigger. Teens are being influenced by far more sophisticated
issues and complex technologies than were available to us [as teens]."
In the Internet Age, children who have more information than ever may be bright and
superficially know a lot but their level of experience is questionable. Part of being able to
appreciate risk is having experienced behavioral consequences.
"Until it becomes real in their life in some way, adolescents are going to
do things that we might consider high risk. Part of what teens are doing is turning knowledge about
the world into experience," explains Dr. Stanley L. Millman, an Atlanta-based psychiatrist who is
board-certified in child and adult psychiatry. "In human development, adolescence is
definitely the stage of that classic struggle between dependency and autonomy. At the same time,
adolescents are learning to live with their biology, their sexuality. If we understand this stage
of life in terms of what we are like as human beings - how children learn from what they hear and
see about the world - then we have some ability to expose [them] to things at appropriate times in
life."
But still, the risk (whether to online predators, porn, hate groups and so forth) is real
and present. How high that risk becomes depends in large part upon parenting styles and is a highly
personal decision. Parents can try to monitor and control but no matter how "tech-savvy" the
parents, Junior can out-maneuver Dad online, or he can text message the entire Declaration of
Independence (to his friend's cell phone) in under a minute and in tx msg cd (text message code),
because he wants to. His sister is following at his heels, downloading a tax form for Mom,
searching the 'Net for the latest fashion trend, or capturing that cool new video...all on her cell
phone.
Dewitt sees three major influences driving teen behavior today: accessibility, affluence and
the pace of living. To counter the immense access to information teens have today, she points out
that although there are several types of software and blocking sites available to parents, "nothing
works better for kids than a connection; honest, open communication."
"Awareness is a big issue," Dewitt emphasizes. "If you're aware, you begin to think
differently ... by and large, kids are great; they want to do right."
Abdicating parenting to the media and technology is risky in itself. Dewitt again refers to
education. "Parents have to know something about the Web. They have to be educated about all the
influences their children are receiving, and the sources. And probably, more importantly, they need
to offer emotional guidance to help them navigate a world they aren't emotionally ready for. I
think we have the opportunity to have a generation of kids become a generation of adults who can
really take society to a whole new level, but we have to work with them and make sure that all
those tools and all that access is being used for good. That's the challenge."
