BigShinyThing

We have posted before on the current moral panic concerning the dangers of social networking sites such as MySpace and Bebo. As the PR wars between rival sites reach crescendo we’d thought we’d check out blogsafety.com – the advice and social networking site about… social networking. And it appears that little has been learned from the sex education wars. Just a few observations. One, when you are trying to talk to teens it’s best not to look and sound like a teacher from the 1970s. Two, teenagers (and people in general) don’t tend to respond well to being patronised — kids in particular don’t need the Internet explaining to them — it’s part of their reality. Three is the sole comment in response to the following advice:

“We recommend that you do give them the web address of your blog and it’s a very good idea to talk with them about what you’re doing and reassure them that you understand basic safety and privacy rules.”

Nope, I’m never sharing my blog with my parents — and that’s final.