For the most part, my teens communicate with "real life" friends through the internet. But they do seem to have some online friends that they don't know in real life, too. Sometimes I comment on people's blogs--I kind of have some online friends, but most of us don't even use our real names or give personal info so it is strictly online. I am trying to decide how I feel about teens and online friendships--are they good or bad? If they are innocent and do not give their real info, I guess it can be just as safe as when I correspond with strangers through blogs and email. But we all know about those scary internet prowlers pretending to be friendly teens. I always worry about that. My teens have made their Myspace profiles private, but I still think strangers can find them on there--and if they agree to add people to their friends list, then they are "in." I guess all I can do is to continue to monitor what they do online--and I do that quite often. And I have talked to them endlessly about safe internet use--protecting their privacy is of utmost importance. Even when they are communicating with people they know in the "real world", it seems that they sometimes spend more time online with them than in face-to-face contact. I want them to get out from behind the computer screen and get out into the real world more than they have lately. I guess putting some limits on their online time will help. Friendships are great, but are they REALLY friendships if they are mostly limited to the internet?
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