Teens Online -- What You as a Parent Need to Know

When Michael’s not hanging out with friends, or giving a presentation like this one, he lives on the internet. He has over 550 Facebook friends, sends over 3,000 text messages monthly, and yells at his parents more than he talks to them. He’s a typical teenager. In this presentation he will demystify these social phenomena that teens are using. Whether it be Twitter or Facebook or Formspring, he will help make sense of them all, what they are, how they work, and what they do. He will also allow, the audience, to participate in live demos and experience for themselves what teens are doing online. He will discuss the arguments for and against parental controls, and give you a real overview of what the most important things you need to look for when raising a teen in the digital generation.

Bullying that takes place over the internet? How can that be? Can’t you just close out of the window or sign off? These are the attitudes so commonly taken by parents and educators today. Even some teens themselves fail to understand the implications of Cyber Bullying. Cyber Bullying reaches deeper than just online verbal harassment. The nature of the internet allows for an entire audience of people to watch it happen. Cyber Bullying need not even specifically involve the victim in direct communication. So whereas verbal or physical bullying in a school setting is often directly aimed at an individual, Cyber Bullying can impose an equal if not greater trauma from anywhere, around the clock, and with a crowd of onlookers. Michael will talk about cyber bullying and the best ways to recognize and stop it immediately.