My church has an active youth group. Like most youths in today's society, the kids are very connected with MySpace, Facebook, texting and email. It's part of the social scene to make new friends through technology. One of the girls made an inappropriate connection with someone else that she met through MySpace, and now she's run away from home. She's 15 years old, and there's reason to believe she's staying with a 26 year-old man. She's been gone over 3 weeks, and her parents have not heard from her in over 2 weeks. They've been trying to get her MySpace password in order to help determine her whereabouts. One of the most frustrating parts for them has been trying to get her password from MySpace. The laws/company seem to be protecting/hiding the wrong things in a case like this. Their daughter emailed them from a library, but they haven't been able to trace which library.
Technology has blurred our personal boundaries; we can pretend to be someone we aren't and project that image to the world instantaneously. Sometimes this isn't as important, but for youth who are still exploring who they are and trying to define their boundaries, this is a crucial time to provide protection. Perhaps it is like the adage "guns don't kill people, people kill people" in that the technology is not bad in itself, only when it's misused. However, where and when are teenagers provided with the guidelines? Should we have MySpace 101 in schools? There will always be teenagers who make poor decisions (part of rebelling against their parents), but society has upped the ante with the accessibility that technology offers.
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