Five years ago was, I think, was the first time I wrote about young Net users needing to be good spin doctors and get in touch with their inner political consultants. I was thinking more about protecting reputations and future prospects than opportunities to run for office. But now we've had the first election in which politicians have had to confront the social-Web skeletons in their closets, the … [Read more...] about The social Web, reputations & an election
Risk & Safety
Parenting & overparenting in the digital age
What struck me about danah boyd's post about the helicopter-parenting of social media users was that the banning of Facebook forces young people "to choose between social status and parental obedience." Though I wouldn't put it exactly that way, my own parenting experience tells me she's right. My 18-year-old and 13-year-old both use Facebook, although (and quite naturally) differently, because … [Read more...] about Parenting & overparenting in the digital age
Talking privacy at household & international levels
We – all of us (well, maybe all of us above the age of around 28) – are in a very uncomfortable place where personal privacy's concerned. It seems all of our children are social Web users and we all have growing digital footprints ourselves, whether we're on Facebook or not, and we're pretty uneasy about the implications of all this intentional and inadvertent sharing for us as well as our kids. … [Read more...] about Talking privacy at household & international levels
Our children’s digital dossiers
New parents probably don't think of baby blogs and online photo albums as part of their children's digital dossiers or footprints, but that's what they are. The computer security company AVG recently surveyed parents with Internet access and children under age two in 10 countries (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, Spain, the UK, and the US), asking them "when they … [Read more...] about Our children’s digital dossiers
The freedom to *not* fit in
...and to be oneself is something every young person deserves, President Obama said this week, when he spoke of his sadness over the suicides of gay youth. "We've got to dispel this myth that bullying is a rite of passage, some inevitable part of growing up. It's not. We have the job of ensuring our schools are safe for all of our kids." Ensuring that every child not only has that freedom but is … [Read more...] about The freedom to *not* fit in