Kids keep online threats secret from parents Schoolchildren are being "victimized, teased and mocked" on an internet "spider web" of instant messaging and blogging kept secret from parents, including instances of students exchanging insults, threats and explicit pictures via a network of home computers. Police say they have investigated and, in some cases, charged children for such cyber-bullying crimes as stalking, harassment and menacing other students, as well as child pornography. The reputations of children who make a mistake can be trashed. Kids can be victimized, teased and mocked for their boy or girl friends. Criminal offences relating to the behavior of school children online have definitely been reported to police and they have been investigated," he said.

Teen Use of Eating Disorders Web Sites on the Rise
"People have always picked up and shared dangerous information," said one of the study's authors, Dr. Rebecka Peebles, an instructor of adolescent medicine at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford University School of Medicine. "The Internet gives instant access to new and potentially dangerous information kids may not have encountered on their own." And parents often unaware children are visiting dangerous sites, study finds. Teens with eating disorders often turn to the Web -- sometimes for help with their problem but also for new suggestions on ways to lose weight. Parents, however, seem largely unaware that their children are using the Internet to visit eating disorder Web sites. Those are two conclusions from a new study in the December issue of Pediatrics that also found that teens who look for eating disorder information on the Internet are more likely to be hospitalized for their condition than teens who don't turn to the Web.

Anxiety grows around teen net use  A strange dichotomy relates to teen use of the Internet. According to the National Attitudinal Poll conducted in June 2006, 77 percent of parents recognize the importance of the internet as an educational tool. But that same poll reports that 85 percent of parents say that it poses "the greatest risk to their children among all forms of media." "With supervision, young kids can be impacted by the Internet in a positive way which should allow them to be more prepared for the world that awaits them," said Joanna Guest, an elementary school teacher who was somewhat awed by her pupils' prospects. According to a 2005 Pew study, Web utilization has grown by 24 percent from the same period four years prior. Staying connected, be it to friends, teachers, or to current events, is now a priority and something of a birthright.
"The digital revolution is increasing, not decreasing, the connection between American teens and news," said Eric Newton, director of Knight Foundation's Journalism Initiatives.
Weighing the benefits against the fears, real or imagined, of how the Internet affects youth is likely to be a process under continuous scrutiny for some time to come, or at least until the next boogieman rears its head. 

Tackling the threat of child abuse online

Peter Robbins is the Chief executive, of the Internet Watch Foundation, a UK watchdog set up to combat potentially illegal content online, involving a partnership between the government, police and the internet service provider industry that was needed to tackle the distribution of child abuse images online. Get involved!  http://www.iwf.org.uk/