Give & Take

Let's Talk

Blogs, or "spaces," have become extremely popular among teenagers. In other areas of staysafe.org (see Blogging: Blogging is great. Just be smart about what you share) we discuss the advantages and safety issues associated with these services, but we thought it would be interesting to get the perspective of a teenager blog user and her parent.

Both mother and daughter are smart and net savvy and both have put some thought into how to safely use these services. Still, there are differences between the two of them; including the girl's willingness to provide personal information that mom considers to be inappropriate for a public blog. What would you do?

Susan, 14-Year-Old Daughter

Tell me about some of the things you put up on your blog that maybe some people might consider inappropriate.

I do put my first and last name. I don't write blogs - but I have friends who do - what they put up is what they did today or how they feel at the time, but it's not, in my opinion, something anyone would look at and get the wrong impression. In my opinion if you read someone's blog, then you kind of know that person and, if not, what are you going to do besides read something that you don't know?

You do put your first and last name, you put your school and you put photographs of yourself. Is that right?

Yes I do.

Are you at all concerned about whether that's appropriate or safe?

I know the risks, and if someone wants to look at my profile, I let them, but if someone wants to be my friend, I always check out their profile and make sure I know them before I add them as a friend. And if someone wants to send me a message, I don't respond to anyone who I don't know.

When you say profile, what are the privileges that a member of the general public would have if you just publish your profile versus making them your friend?

You can have a private profile where no one can look it unless they're friends, and you can have a public one where everyone can see it, and the only privilege that a friend has is that they can post comments on your picture and your profile.

So you're saying that anything you post on your space is available to anyone in the public.

Yes.

The fact that you put your first and last name and your school: What do you think are the risks associated with putting your first and last name?

Personally, I don't see the risks that much. Like, I know that if a predator wanted to find me, then I guess so, but you don't see my profile unless you know how to find me. If you type my name in the search you would see my profile. But who would type it in who doesn't know me?

What if you typed in the name of your school, your town and the word "Female?"

Then you'd probably get a thousand other things. I'm not the only one under those categories and if they look at my school's name they'd probably get a thousand people there.

But let's say that I were a predator and I was looking for a girl who went to that high school because I knew I lived nearby and would have access to her. Could I find you?

Yes.

Does that at all concern you?

Kind of, but how would they pick me out of everyone at my school? Like I don't post my schedule or anything and I know friends who do post their schedules - you can post it, but I just don't.