As a parent, you could probably begin rattling off a list of your teen's friends -- most of whom you have met on one occasion or another. But these are their offline friends; does your teen have these same friends online? Probably so and many more!
Social networking has brought about a concept known as 'friending' which describes the act of making friends online through sites such as Bebo, MySpace and Facebook. It's easy - all you have to do is send a request asking someone to be a friend. Teens typically start with sending requests to their own friends and then their friends' friends. Through 'friending' teens can have an ever expanding list of friends. In fact, the number of friends one has online is often equated to their online popularity and can often reach into the hundreds.
But are they all really friends? No, must of them are not - they are simply acquaintances and sometimes not even that. Teens often grant friend requests because they don't want to hurt someone's feelings, or so that they can feel more popular by having a large number of friends. So what are some of the concerns with 'friending'? Well, to start, as soon as your teen 'friends' someone, that person has access to your teen's profile. Information that would be appropriate to share with a close friend such as pictures, party invites and school happenings should not be shared with acquaintances, or someone they know very little about. There is always a chance that the information could be used in an abusive manner such as sharing without permission, altering photos, cyberbullying, and even stalking.
Talk to your teen about who is on their friends list and the risks posed by sharing too much information with people they really don't know. Most social networking sites offer privacy preferences that allow users to determine who from their list of friends can view certain information. Make certain that your teen is taking full advantage of these tools to protect themselves and their information.
For more information, see our article "Privacy Settings for Social Networks".
