From the article: "The way my friends and I see it, Facebook is a closed network. It's a network of people and friends that you trust to be connected to, and to share information like your email address, AIM screen name, and phone number. You know who's getting your status messages, because you either approved or added each person to your network."

-- Parents / Teachers
-- Friends
-- Media

Can you imagine a world where everything we say and share - thoughts, opinions, images - is 'recorded' for others to snag and use at will? Can you imagine your mistakes captured and played back over and over again for you to relive and anyone else to see?

Most of us would probably say that we couldn't imagine it and certainly wouldn't want to live in a world like that, but we do and so do our kids. The Internet is that world and our kids are growing up there. They are exploring, pushing limits, and taking risks on the Internet – all behaviors associated with gaining independence.

This road to independence gets complicated and often results in devastating consequences when teens use the Internet to explore sexual experiences. Today's teens are increasingly using the Internet to share sexually suggestive text messages and/or risqué photos and videos of themselves. This activity is occurring more and more over cell phones (known as 'sexting') – cell phones are mobile and can be used spontaneously.

The consequences of this behavior have been played out in recent headlines and range from child pornography charges, to registering as a sex offender, to taunting by peers and to suicide (see below for recent news stories).

The media blitz and ensuing consumer outcry over Facebook's recent attempt to change their Terms of Service indicating complete ownership of anything its users post even after they are long gone has, if nothing else, raised awareness of the privacy (or perceived privacy) of content we post on the Internet.

Whether you believe that Facebook really wanted to own and use everything that you ever posted at any time in the foreseeable future or if they were attempting to legally capture what actually happens to the content we post, or if you're somewhere in between, you should realize the potential consequences of posting and sharing content online.

As a social media user or a parent of a child who use social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo, here is the takeaway:

Be cautious of what you post and share with others. Once you share content - pictures, videos, stories, artwork or any other originally created work - with just one person online, you relinquish control over its potential distribution and use.

This is not a new phenomenon brought about by social networks, it has been around since the advent of e-mail, however, the volume of content has grown and become much more personal today. Social networks have become an extension of our lives – they're our family photo albums, our high school reunions, our workplace meeting ground, our venting platform and much more. So, the thought of this information circulating and used in a manner that we didn't intend can be disconcerting.

Your Online Persona Can Help or Hinder College and Work Prospects

Imagine this: You've spent your high school years taking the most challenging course work offered, juggling multiple extracurricular activities and preparing for and excelling in your SAT's − all with the hopes of getting into your dream college. But ultimately you are denied entry for something you had never considered would become a factor: the content posted on your social networking profile.

This can and does happen. Colleges and universities are turning to social networking sites to learn more about their applicants. A recent survey conducted by Kaplan of 320 admissions officers from the nation's top colleges and universities revealed that one out of ten had used an applicant's social networking site in making the admissions decision. The survey found the social networking site could either benefit or harm the applicant.

Specifically:

? 25% of those who reported viewing applicants' sites said that these viewings had a positive impact on their evaluation; while,

? 38% reported that the applicants' social networking sites had a negative impact on their admissions evaluation.

(Read more about the study in the Kaplan press release.)

Content that had negative impact on the admissions decision included party pictures, underage drinking, reckless behavior, and fighting.

In the real world, my children need my permission anytime they want to have friends over. I know when they arrive, when they leave, and all the activities that go on in between (usually because they're so loud that I can't help from knowing, or they are so bored that I am expected to help them 'find something to do').

In the virtual world, though, we don't always have the same ability to monitor our kids' online activities, and this is especially true in the case of webcams. Webcams pose a significant threat to online safety because they can allow virtual strangers to peek inside your home, almost as if they were looking through a window. If children aren't taking the right precautions, outsiders can potentially see how they are dressed, what they look like, what they're doing and, just as with pictures, they can learn a lot about your kids from what is within view in the background.

Does your child have a webcam? Before you answer take a good look at your computer monitor or laptop because they are now being built-in and are so inconspicuous you could look right over them (especially with the newer Mac laptops). And, if they do, do you know how the camera being used?

Privacy settings allow users to determine who can see their profile, or portions thereof, on social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo. They are powerful tools in helping to protect your teen's information, including blog entries, videos and pictures.

Most social networking sites offer a default privacy setting. Younger users are typically defaulted to private whereas adults are defaulted to public. The default setting helps protect users who may not fully understand the risks of sharing information online with people they don't know. On some sites, users who are changing their default setting from private to public are presented with safety messaging alerting them to the risks of making their profile public. This messaging helps them to make an informed decision.