PBS's "Growing Up Online"

PBS's presentation "Growing Up Online (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline) outlines the effects of the internet on society, with most focus on kid/parent related issues. The generation of kids in the presentation is the first to come of age that is deeply involved in a virtual world outside the reach of adults. Some 90% of teenagers today are online, a number that's still growing. The internet is largely hidden from parents and teachers. Someone in the presentation called the internet "The New Wild West" as nobody is in charge. Growing Up Online outlines issues adults have with the internet's effect on their kids, and includes the kids' point of view as well. It's been said that the internet has created the greatest generation gap since the advent of rock and roll. Kids who grew up with the internet have much more positive views about it than their parents who did not grow up with it and have little understanding of it.

Obsession
Someone in the presentation says that for lots of kids, the internet is not a place you go, but is a "continuation of their existence".  A teacher who taught for 3 decades pointed out that there are more students who struggle with the ability to focus than there were 30 years ago. "They are so overexposed to the quickness of things and the immediate responses". "When you have to reverse that and have them be quiet and give answers and carve out meaning - I think it's difficult for a lot of students". People in charge at this school are aware that they can't expect the learner of today to be engrossed by someone "who speaks in a monotone voice with a piece of chalk in their hand". They compare walking into a classroom that doesn't have media with walking into a desert for the students.

The internet is a new means to connect with each other, but seemingly became a need to connect with each other too. A kid interviewed said "If I were to disconnect now, I'd probably sit in this chair for the rest of the night - I wouldn't know what to do with myself. You need to have the internet on to talk to your friends because everybody uses it. it's like a currency". People choosing to be online rather than going to their friend's house or outside means that people are in a way forced to go online if they want to continue being in contact with their friends. His mother says "There's like no break - They're unwilling to be out of the loop for more than, you know, an hour"

Parent's fear of predators
The major thing parents were afraid of was online predators. That was the fear that the adults, with little internet knowledge, were constantly exposed to by television media, raising their fears of the internet and causing them to become overprotective and a nuisance to their kids.

One girl who wasn't comfortable with her real self gave herself a whole different name and personality on the internet and gathered an enormous amount of followers, making her happy, but when her parents found out, they asked her to delete everything and stated that it was "A lesson she had to learn".

A girl in the presentation said "I'd rather not use our computer and just use it when I'm at my friends house than have my mom go into my like personal things and my private life, and like, take charge of it. It's my own stuff".

The narrator of the presentation states: "At the time of the presentation, there had only been 1 major study of the threat of sexual predators online. Funded by the DOJ, the study confirmed what many kids have been saying all along. That most of them know to ignore unwanted solicitations they received on the internet." 1/7 kids said they had been sexually solicited online, but researchers found most of those solicitations were mild. "Most of it is the 19 year old saying to the 17 year old "hey baby"". Someone says "They've engaged in a lot more risky behavior offline".

Loss of privacy, cyberfights and bullying



The internet has become a new weapon in the arsenal of adolescents. Myspace and Facebook were the top 2 sites used at the time of the making of the presentation, and were increasingly the place where kids hashed out their conflicts rather than at school. At Morristown High School in the fall of 2006, 2 groups of girls began trading insults on Myspace. "We would leave comments on their pages and leave messages to them just talking junk, we just...picked the big fight for no reason over Myspace", a girl said. "The whole...like..verbal fighting was all on Myspace, never in front of like you know, never in school, always on Myspace, like they would never confront us about anything". A girl pointed out someones unwillingness to say insults to her in real life and begun a fight in their school cafeteria. During the fight, kids recorded the event with their phones, and the video was on YouTube quickly. Seven girls were suspended after the fight.

A girl in the hallway of her school pointed out the concern she had of how easy it was for people to see things you did in the past due to the internet: "My college is probably gonna see it, I probably cant get this or that, everything's out there...and it sucks" People who have conflicts or do embarrassing/negative things now have these events permanently on record online. Also, the online generation is more comfortable with being very public, and it is said "Discretion, privacy, almost seems like a thing of the past" by one adult.