"Growing Up Online"

"Growing Up Online" is a documentary that discusses many of the issues and effects social networking has caused on teenagers in this day and age.

The topic discussed in the documentary was the issue of the internet taking over the lives teenagers in the U.S. About 90% of all teens in the U.S. are connected to the internet. Many of these teenagers are using some sort of social network, such as MySpace or Facebook. Through these websites, teenagers can communicate with hundreds of people. Many teenagers are constantly on these websites, waiting for any new updates or comments any of their friends have left them. This form of online socialization is replacing spending time with friends in person for a large number of teenagers. Because of these sites and the feeling of anonymity the internet gives, teenagers feel free to behave and express themselves in ways they would not do in person. A main concern this causes is the fact that many of their parents have no idea of these social networks that their kids are involved in and most parents who do have great difficulty controlling their kids' actions online. In an attempt to work with this internet age some school teachers using different methods to give lectures and assignments, such as using computer presentations in class and posting class material on websites to adapt to what kids nowadays are used to. Two growing concerns are the threats of online predators and cyberbullying. While most teens know to avoid suspicious and prying messages online, there are some kids that do become victims of these online predators. However, these kids are usually not deceived and know that they are going to meet a stranger but end up exploited by these predators. Cyberbullying is another growing problem with kids on the internet. Because of the lack of limitations on the internet, bullying in school continues even after kids have gone home. There have been some cases which have resulted in kids committing suicide because of the harassment they have received from people on the internet.