The ShenBot

I feel like it’s been ages since I’ve blogged for class, and that is probably because it has been. A lot has happened in the last few weeks since my last entry – my three week vacation came to an end, I started my new job, I had a birthday, and I even put down a bid on a townhouse (by far the scariest thing I’ve ever done). But one thing that has notably changed is how much time I’ve spent thinking about kids and how they interact on the web. I previously had no reason to think about this topic before, and therefore…didn’t really think about it at all. And then two big things changed – I discovered that my nine-year-old cousin has become a huge fan of the Net and I started working for Disney.

All of a sudden, this understandable buzz-worthy topic is the focus of all my web-related discussions. It started with me finding the “Growing up Online” special at PBS.com. That special really intrigued me in respects to the dichotomy between parents and kids in terms of their perceptions of the web and how they perceive the web as being a part of their lives. That special really got me thinking about how we’re really in the middle of a culture shift here – the new “texting” language, the fact that kids feel safe to express their deepest fears and emotions in what is possibly the most public place they could go, and the reality that social interaction through avatars and pokes is as real as walking up to someone on the street and saying “hello.”

Then of course I start my new gig, and now kids on the web is officially all I can think about. I guess it was a meant-to-be situation. This week I read about KidZui - the new “kid safe” Web browsing tool. It seems fairly robust, and even though Walt Mossberg found some interesting hacks it seems fairly difficult to break the system considering the demographic (I don’t know many 9-year-olds that would try and get to The Wall Street Journal online).

There are several communities online for parents (and some for kids as well) to come together and discuss web safety. But, I’d argue that web safety isn’t the biggest threat at the moment. Based on research quoted in the “Growing up Online” special, a good number of kids and teens using the web know what is safe and unsafe online (i.e. something as simple as not accepting a friend request or an IM from someone who you clearly don’t know or doesn’t know any of your friends). To me, the biggest potential threat is this breakdown in understanding between parents and kids in terms of the overall relationship to the web. What does the web mean to kids, how do they perceive it as being a part of their lives (peripheral or integral?), how do their social interactions change depending on whether they are online or offline? I’ve been watching the new series on WE called “High School Confidential” for two reasons: I am still in withdrawl from losing 90210 and again, I’ve been on this kick about parents and kids growing up in these times. And although the special doesn’t focus on the girls’ relationships online it does show that parents are starting to understand that things just aren’t the same anymore, especially as it pertains to experimentation (drugs, booze, sex, etc). And because they are starting to understand that their kids are probably going to be exposed to way more than they were, they are talking about it more openly and earlier (at least in the case of the girl profiled last Monday). It’s just as important for parents to know what their kids are doing online now as what they do offline. Any ideas how to get the ball rolling on this?