LDS Media Talk

93% of U.S. teens use the Internet, and more of them than ever are treating it as a venue for social interaction. As they embrace the conversational nature of interactive online media, they find it easier to share creations, tell stories, and interact with others. Recent studies show that content creation by teenagers continues to grow. 64% of online teenagers (ages 12 to 17) engage in at least one type of user-generated content, up from 57% in 2004.

• 39% of online teens share their own artistic creations online, such as artwork, photos, stories, or videos (up from 33% in 2004).
• 33% create or work on Web pages or blogs for others, including those for groups they belong to, friends, or school assignments (basically unchanged from 32% in 2004).
• 28% have created their own online journal or blog, up from 19% in 2004.
• 27% maintain their own personal Web page, up from 22% in 2004.
• 26% remix content they find online into their own creations, up from 19% in 2004.

Girls continue to dominate most elements of content creation. 35% of all teen girls blog, compared with 20% of online boys, and 54% of those wired girls post photos online compared with 40% of online boys. Boys, however, do dominate one area–posting of video content online. Online teen boys are nearly twice as likely as online girls (19% vs. 10%) to have posted a video online somewhere where someone else could see it.

However, content creation is not just about sharing creative output. It is also about participating in conversations fueled by that content. For example, nearly half (47%) of online teens have posted photos where others can see them, and 89% of those teens who post photos say that people comment on the images at least “some of the time.”

Not all teen content creators simply plaster their creative endeavors on the Web for anyone to view; many teens limit access to the content they share.

A subset of teens (28%) are super-communicators–teens who use a host of technology options to interact with friends and family, including traditional landline phones, mobile phones, texting, social network sites, instant messaging, and e-mail.

To learn more on this subject, read the Pew/Internet report “Family, Friends & Community.”

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Online social networks are communities of people who share common interests and activities. Social networking sites provide the ability to create a personal profile and various ways to interact with other people, such as  messaging, e-mail, video, text or voice chat, file sharing, blogging, and discussion groups. Social networking has revolutionized the way many people communicate and share information with each another. Social networking Web sites are used by millions of people everyday on a regular basis. For many people, online social networking has become a part of everyday life.

Most social networking services contain directories of categories (such as former classmates) and methods for connecting with people (usually based on some system of referral and trust).

Three very popular social networks:

MySpace has 120 million registered users who create their own profiles (Web pages) for the purpose of linking to friends, posting their interests, photos, music, and videos. MySpace is very popular in the United States and moderately popular worldwide. It is open to people 14 and older; most of the users are under 30. MySpace was purchased by News Corp. in 2005 for $580 million. It is now valued at over $65 billion.

Facebook has more than 80 million users worldwide. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can add friends and send them messages and update their personal profile to notify friends about themselves. Recently, Facebook opened its platform to anyone to develop applications within Facebook. The site was initially limited to Harvard University students as a way to get to know other people on campus, but was later expanded to other colleges, and now is open to anyone aged 13 and over. Facebook was started in 2004 by Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg. Today,  at age 24, he is at the helm of this privately-owned company, turning down billion-dollar purchase offers. Facebook is valued at $15 billion.

LinkedIn is an on online social network that connects people with their friends, family, and business associates. It is primarily a business networking site that lets you post resume information and connect with other people in your profession. It currently has about 23 million registered users in 150 countries, with another 1.2 million signing up each month. LinkedIn started just 5 years ago, and is already valued at $1billion.

Sources: Wikipedia, USA Today, New York Post

There are also several social networks targeted at LDS audiences, such as LDS.net, LDS Online, LDS Link Up, and The Hive.

Below is a short video that explains social networks:

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Teenagers typically feel they know much more about technology than their parents. But do they really understand the issues of security and privacy on the Internet?

It goes way beyond identity theft. What about computer ethics? What should your children do if they stumble across an adult site? Do they understand the risks of Internet predators? Youth often have to learn about the pitfalls of the Internet on their own because parents and schools tend not to know how to address the subject of security and privacy on the Internet.

“Every kid, when they reach a certain age, [should] have ‘The Talk’ with their parents,” said one16-year-old. “We need to have the same sort of discussion in terms of privacy. The majority of teenagers know about the sexual diseases out there because of this conversation that they have with their parents or because they have the talk in the school in sex ed. I think [security] needs to be addressed the same as well.”

A major problem for kids is that they are, in general, far ahead of their parents in terms of internet usage. Teenagers blog regularly, use instant messaging to keep up with their friends, and are usually able to circumvent any computer security measures at school, said a recent panel of five teenagers.

“I think it is hard for the parents and educators because we are moving at a different pace than they are… no offense,” said one teenager. “It feels like we are done and on to the next thing by the time other people are aware of it.”

Some students are still not aware of the dangers of an open blog under their real names that include many real life details. “If you want to give out your first name, then go ahead, nobody is going to stop you,” said one 17-year-old. “But you should know that there are [dangerous] types of people out there.”

The teenagers had mixed opinions on how much should be taught at school regarding Internet safety. Some believed that ethics in the digital world should be a required topic, while others thought that only basic safety should be taught. However, they did agree that parents and schools should be talking about the Internet with their kids far sooner than they do today - by the age of 10 at the latest, they said.

Sometimes it is tricky for parents to balance their fear for their children’s safety with what teenagers may see as violations of privacy.

“My mom has blocked the TV, the computer and I’m not allowed to listen to a lot of radio stations right now,” said one teen. “I really feel like she doesn’t trust me anymore. She hasn’t demanded my password, but I know that she knows it, and I’m pretty sure she has gone onto my computer.”

Many teens easily find ways around their parents’ security measures. Some have e-mail accounts that the parents don’t know about in order to protect their privacy. “My parents wanted to check my computer, so I stopped using that computer,” said a 17-year-old boy. “I use the computers at school. There are things that they don’t need to know.”

The general feeling among the teenagers, however, was that parents should talk about the issues with their kids. “The most important thing is don’t talk down to us,” said one young man. “For the most part, we are not dumb.”

Source: Teenagers want computer security lessons

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