Across the country, Facebook users are contemplating similar questions when they log onto their accounts. More and more moms and dads are signing onto Facebook to keep up with their offspring. Not only are they friending (or attempting to friend) their sons and daughters, they're friending their sons' and daughters' friends.

Some, like Matt, take the requests in stride. He ultimately friended his dad. Others are less sanguine, voicing their dismay via online groups that decry parental intrusion and offer tips on how to screen out mom and dad. ("Just go onto their computers and delete their accounts." "Just don't add them as a friend or any1 that is a co-worker with ur parents duh.") Even parenting experts are getting involved, offering their own tips on proper Facebook etiquette.

"I do not know if this has happened to anybody, but this morning I log on to Facebook and I have a new friend request!" wrote 19-year-old Mike Yeamans, a sophomore at James Madison University, on one of several "No Parents on Facebook" groups that have popped up on the site. "I am excited to make a new friend so I click on the link. I could not believe what I saw. My father! This is an outrage!"

As housing officials at colleges around the country send out roommate assignments to freshmen this summer, a growing number of schools say they're getting more requests for changes - from parents who don't like the roommates' Facebook profiles.

"They were getting an impression - false or accurate - of what the student would be like to live with," says Magda Manetas of The College of New Jersey in Ewing.

About a dozen other colleges contacted by USA TODAY report similar complaints. And this may be just the beginning: Some schools already have mailed roommate assignments for fall, but many more say they will be sending them out in the next few weeks.

Housing officials say parents who cite Facebook most frequently mention party-related content and photos as their primary concerns. Parents sometimes see cups in photos and make the leap to alcohol and drugs, Manetas says.

But Robin Berkowitz-Smith of Syracuse University says race, religion and sexual orientation are the top three concerns from parents contacting officials there.

Fans of MySpace and Facebook are divided by much more than which music they like, suggests a study.

A six-month research project has revealed a sharp division along class lines among the American teenagers flocking to the social network sites.

The research suggests those using Facebook come from wealthier homes and are more likely to attend college.

By contrast, MySpace users tend to get a job after finishing high school rather than continue their education.

The goodie two shoes, jocks, athletes, or other "good" kids are now going to Facebook. These kids tend to come from families who emphasize education and going to college. They are part of what we'd call hegemonic society. They are primarily white, but not exclusively. They are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom, and live in a world dictated by after school activities.

MySpace is still home for Latino/Hispanic teens, immigrant teens, "burnouts," "alternative kids," "art fags," punks, emos, goths, gangstas, queer kids, and other kids who didn't play into the dominant high school popularity paradigm. These are kids whose parents didn't go to college, who are expected to get a job when they finish high school. These are the teens who plan to go into the military immediately after schools. Teens who are really into music or in a band are also on MySpace. MySpace has most of the kids who are socially ostracized at school because they are geeks, freaks, or queers.

Most teens who exclusively use Facebook are familiar with and have an opinion about MySpace. These teens are very aware of MySpace and they often have a negative opinion about it. They see it as gaudy, immature, and "so middle school." They prefer the "clean" look of Facebook, noting that it is more mature and that MySpace is "so lame." What hegemonic teens call gaudy can also be labeled as "glitzy" or "bling" or "fly" (or what my generation would call "phat") by subaltern teens. Terms like "bling" come out of hip-hop culture where showy, sparkly, brash visual displays are acceptable and valued. The look and feel of MySpace resonates far better with subaltern communities than it does with the upwardly mobile hegemonic teens. This is even clear in the blogosphere where people talk about how gauche MySpace is while commending Facebook on its aesthetics. I'm sure that a visual analyst would be able to explain how classed aesthetics are, but aesthetics are more than simply the "eye of the beholder" - they are culturally narrated and replicated. That "clean" or "modern" look of Facebook is akin to West Elm or Pottery Barn or any poshy Scandinavian design house (that I admit I'm drawn to) while the more flashy look of MySpace resembles the Las Vegas imagery that attracts millions every year. I suspect that lifestyles have aesthetic values and that these are being reproduced on MySpace and Facebook.

The largest cohort of activity (wholly 30%) takes place in the Gaia forums, and here's where the truly staggering numbers come in: Averaging a million posts a day and a billion posts so far, Gaia's message boards (with topics running the gamut from pop culture to politics) is second only to Yahoo in popularity.

Craig Sherman has been thinking what the value-proposition of his site in the era of MySpace or Facebook. "In a world where teens are constantly branding and packaging themselves" on sites like those, he points out, "Gaia is where you get away from it all."

Instead of monthly subscriptions, Gaia Online sells "rare items" - treasures, fantastically cool fashion accessories for player avatars, and so on - two offered a month for $2.50 each. Subscribers buy them via credit card, Pay Pay, cellphone - or cash on the barrel. ("We employ someone full time whose job is getting dollars and quarters" out of envelopes kids send them, Sherman notes.)

Students at a suburban Catholic school are being ordered to take down their photos, snappy comments, or anything else they may have posted on MySpace.com.

Friday is the deadline for students at St. Hugo of the Hills Catholic School to follow orders or risk suspension. School Principal Sister Margaret Van Velzen sent letters home to parents this week saying, in part, that if families allow children to continue their MySpace.com sites, they will not be allowed to return to school. The school plans to use its computer-savvy staff members to monitor the site for student activity.The principal declined comment, but St. Hugo office manager Judy Martinek said the principal just wants to keep the students safe.

"We've stated our position and we hope all students are in the process of taking down their sites by tomorrow," said Martinek.

"She likes how he blogs, her texts turn him on. It's intense. For right now."

I wasn't sure what the "technosexual generation" is either. Lucky, he goes on to explain. "Technosexuals" is apparently a new marketing buzz word for young people who use text messaging and blogging in order to meet and arrange hookups.

Yeah, yeah, I know. All the cool kids are doing it these days. But ew. Something about that description kind of makes me want to stop blogging forever and communicate with others only through Morse code. I feel, I dunno. Dirty.

Teens are not dreaming of portability (like so many adults i meet). They are happy to make new accounts on new sites; they enjoy building out profiles. (Part of this could be that they have a lot more time on their hands.) The idea of taking MySpace material to Facebook when they transition is completely foreign. They're going to a new site, they want to start over.

While this feeling of ephemerality is not universal amongst teens, it's far more prevalent than you'd ever see in adult culture and it has some significant implications for design:

Focusing on "lock-in" will fail with these teens - they don't care if they lose track of something they put hours into building.

Teens are not looking for universal anything; that's far too much of a burden if losing track of things is the norm.

Paying for an account can help truly engaged teens remember their accounts (i haven't found any teen who permanently lost their MMO login) but it can also be a strong deterrent for those accustomed to starting over.

The numbers that people cite concerning accounts created are astoundingly inaccurate and are worthless for talking about usage or unique participants. (added tx to a comment by Rich)

I should note that i don't think that the answer is "help teens remember passwords." I actually think that this tendency to shed is advantageous in the way that we shed clothes every year because the "old me" is no longer relevant. Technology is a bit too obsessed with remembering; there's a lot of value in forgetting.

Even enthusiastic Stickam users say the site often feels lawless. "People are very vulgar and like to 'get their jollies' from harassing people, mainly girls, to take off their clothes," said Chelsey, a 17-year-old user from Saskatchewan in Canada, who signed up after her 13-year-old sister violated the site's age rules and joined the service.

"I'm pretty sure none of their parents know or even think about the things that they are doing on this site," said Chelsey, who said in an e-mail message that she did not feel comfortable using her last name in an interview.

Other companies that offer Web cam chats say that the technology seems to attract abuse. "There are just some people who, if you give them a Web cam, are going to take off their clothes," said Jason Katz, founder of PalTalk, an eight-year-old service that lets users converse over Web cams on various topics. Unlike Stickam, PalTalk asks for a credit card and charges a monthly fee, which it says prevents minors from signing up.

Mr. Kihioka of Stickam said that in some respects, his site was actually safer than other social networks. Live video feeds let users "know who they are talking to," he said. "Unlike MySpace, it is hard to disguise yourself." But he added that his company had the same concerns about child safety as MySpace and was working on an automated system that would monitor live video feeds for indecency.

"I think it's definitely going down -- a lot of my friends have deleted their MySpaces and are more into Facebook now," said Birnbaum, a junior who spends more time on her Facebook profile, where she messages and shares photos with other students in her network.

From the other side of the classroom, E.J. Kim chimes in that in the past three months, she's gone from slaving over her MySpace profile up to four hours a day -- decorating it, posting notes and pictures to her friends' pages -- to deleting the whole thing.

"I've grown out of it," Kim said. "I thought it was kind of pointless."

Such is the social life of teens on the Internet: Powerful but fickle. Within several months' time, a site can garner tens of millions of users who, just as quickly, might flock to the next place, making it hard for corporate America to make lasting investments in whatever's hot now.

Take Xanga, the hot social networking site before MySpace: In October 2002, the typical Xanga user spent an average of 1 hour and 39 minutes a month on the site, a figure that declined steadily, reaching only 11 minutes last month, according to Nielsen-NetRatings. Friendster, another older site, hit its first usage peak of 1 hour and 51 minutes in October 2003, and then hit another peak of 3 hours and 3 minutes in February 2006. But last month, the average user was on Friendster for a mere 7 minutes.

"They're not loyal," Ben Bajarin, a market analyst for Creative Strategies Inc., said of the youth demographic. Young audiences search for innovative and new features. They're constantly looking for new ways to communicate and share content they find or create, and because of that group mentality, friends shift from service to service in blocs.

Consider the most popular teen sites tracked by Nielsen-NetRatings. Topping the list last month were Snapvine.com, PLyrics.com, Picgames.com -- none of which appeared among the top 10 for April, or the list a year ago.

Reality must smack even harder just after the blockbuster deal in which Google agreed to pay $1.65 billion for YouTube, the video-sharing Web site that has yet to celebrate its first anniversary or its first profits. Friendster essentially created the social networking sector three years ago by offering users a site where they could browse profiles posted by friends and the friends of friends in search of dates and playmates. But so badly did Friendster fumble its early lead that, as of last month, it ranked 14th among all social networking sites tracked by comScore Media Metrix, trailing even myYearbook.com, a site started last year by a 16-year-old high school student.

For some, it would be unthinkable – certain social suicide. But Gabe Henderson is finding freedom in a recent decision: He canceled his MySpace account.

No longer enthralled with the world of social networking, the 26-year-old graduate student pulled the plug after realizing that a lot of the online friends he had accumulated were really just acquaintances.

He's also phasing out his profile on Facebook, a popular social networking site that, like others, allows users to create profiles, swap message and share photos - all with the goal of expanding their circle of online friends.

"The superficial emptiness clouded the excitement I had once felt," Mr. Henderson wrote in a column in the student newspaper at Iowa State University, where he studies history. "It seems we have lost, to some degree, that special depth that true friendship entails."

Though he's not anti-technology, Dr. Bugeja often lectures students about "interpersonal intelligence" - knowing when, where and for what purpose technology is most appropriate.

He points out the students he's seen walking across campus, holding hands with significant others while talking on cellphones to someone else. He's also observed them in coffee shops, surrounded by people, but staring instead at a computer screen.

"True friends," he tells them, "need to learn when to stop blogging and go across campus to help a friend."

Steve Miller, a sophomore at Rollins College in Winter Park, Fla., joined Facebook as a way to meet people, but also quickly learned that it had limitations, too.

"I discovered, after meeting many of these [online] friends, that a good Facebook profile could make even the most boring person somewhat interesting," says Mr. Miller.

"Text messaging has become the easy way out," Mr. Miller says.

He's had friends cancel a night out with a text message to avoid having to explain. He's also seen some people ask for dates via text to escape the humiliation of hearing a "no" on the phone or in person.

"Our generation needs to get over this fear of confrontation and rejection," he says.

MySpace, which has been criticized for not doing enough to protect its youngest members from sexual predators, said its partnership with Seventeen, the National School Board Association and the National Association of Independent Schools would target parents, teens and teachers with tips, suggestions and information on safe online behavior.

***

The site, which is owned by News Corp., launched in June security measures to protect 14 and 15 year olds. The measures included preventing a person 18 or older from contacting a member under 16 years old, unless he knows either the email address or first and last name of the minor. MySpace at the time also launched more options for privacy settings and restrictions on ad placements to teens.

The additional security followed within days after a 14-year-old girl sued the site in Texas, claiming she was sexually assaulted by a man she met on MySpace.

Earlier this year, MySpace hired Hemanshu Nigam as chief security officer. Nigam is a former federal prosecutor against Internet child exploitation for the U.S. Department of Justice.

This is Your Government on YouTube
It's true. Last night, ONDCP became the first government agency to begin using YouTube.com to post video content using the popular YouTube Web site. We hope that this ground-breaking effort will enable us to reach more Americans online and to help combat some of the misinformation that has spread across the internet regarding drugs.

You can watch ONDCP video content on
www.YouTube.com/ONDCP

On any given day, Nick opines about anything from his favorite Detroit sports franchises to NASCAR to which players have the best and worst hair in the World Cup. On average, he makes two posts a day, combining his love of writing and sports to create what has already earned the designation of AOL's Sports Blog of the Week.

"I'm most impressed with how prolific he is," said Jamie Mottram, who appears on ESPN2's "Cold Pizza" as the program's blogging expert.

"Nick posts something just about every day and offers a nice mix of commentary, links, photos and quotes."

When I get home.....I will be doing my homework, because school comes before everything. Then with other stuff, I have hockey and friends.

So don't expect me to make as many entries and I usually do.

Results indicate that 43 percent of the students that completed the survey spend 10 hours or more a week on the internet. Google, Yahoo and Myspace are the most visited sites. Sixty-two percent of the students that completed the survey download photos; 24 percent of the students participate in online bulletin boards, groups or chats.

Twenty-two percent of the students write blogs. With regards to advertisements that are displayed online, 40 percent of the students are more likely to respond to an advertisement that is humorous while 28 percent prefer fact-based advertisements.

"College students spend the majority of their time on the internet as opposed to other mediums and their usage behaviors have evolved," says Jennifer Floren, founder and CEO of Experience Inc. "They no longer just surf websites, rather they now use [the internet] to communicate with peers, conduct research, share photos and view videos. As a result, advertisers have a much greater opportunity to reach 18- to 24-year-olds online in a far more meaningful way."

BLY
My mom always uses the excuse about the internet being "public" when she defends herself. It's not like I do anything to be ashamed of, but a girl needs her privacy. I do online journals so I can communicate with my friends. Not so my mother could catch up on the latest gossip of my life.

The truth is many of these sites are becoming lame because everyone is on them. It's not so cool anymore as teachers and parents like my mom are doing their own pages.

MOM (on tape)
Yes I did have a site on MySpace. I had a few pictures of myself...they were very candid shots that I might not normally hang up in my house or show to my friends. And I am an adult, so I put my true first name and my true age, but I didn’t give too much personal information.
BLY: Did you make friends on MySpace?
MOM: Yes I did. And I didn't even do it to make friends, I did it to stay in touch with some friends. And I was a little weirded out the first time someone I didn't know contacted me.

BLY
She might have been creeped out at first, but Mom ended up going to a hockey game with one guy. What a hypocrite! Especially since Mom is always warning me about strangers online. My mom having a Myspace? So embarrassing!

It also speaks to the tipping point that I think is happening with a lot of the social networking sites that have been getting the most media coverage -- now that everyone (parents, teachers, police, etc.) has discovered them, they are losing their allure with teens. Bly, the teen in this conversation, also talks about how her mom now has a MySpace page (and even went on a date with someone she met there), and how it's SO embarrassing.

From large public schools such as Western Kentucky to smaller private ones like Birmingham-Southern and Smith, colleges around the country have revamped their orientation talks to students and parents to include online behavior. Others, Susquehanna University and Washington University in St. Louis among them, have new role-playing skits on the topic that students will watch and then break into smaller groups to discuss.

Facebook, geared toward college students and boasting 7.5 million registered users, is a particular focus. But students are also hearing stories about those who came to regret postings to other online venues, from party photos on sites such as Webshots.com to comments about professors in blogs.

"The particular focus is the public nature of this," said Tracy Tyree, Susquehanna's dean of student life. "That seems to be what surprises students most. They think of it as part of their own little world, not a bigger electronic world."

The sites actually help with one of the major goals of orientation: bonding. At Birmingham Southern, dozens of members of the incoming class of about 350 had already formed a Class of 2010 Facebook group long before the start of school.

"That's great," said Renie Moss, the school's dean of students. "That's what should be happening, forming that camaraderie. But we're hoping to just maybe give the students a moment to pause and make sure they put out something they can be proud of."

WHAT KIND OF PRIZES ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?
We're talking awesome Sony stuff from laptops to High Def Camcorders and all the gear that comes with them! We've also got another prize package that will really give you the celeb treatment: A trip for 2 to LA that includes spending money and a chance to meet some pretty impressive people in the industry of your choice!

SERIOUSLY?!
It's the real deal, guys, these prizes are out of control! All you have to do is make a page or submit a video clip to get your chance to win!

WHO'S BEHIND THIS GENIUS WEB DESTINATION?
The guys from Wal-Mart and Sony teamed up to bring you all the sweet stuff you'll find on the HUB!

The opening page shows video of four teens -- a bubbly fashionista, a Texas football player, a quirky skateboarder and an aspiring R&B singer from New York -- who are clearly actors reading a script, although the videos are positioned to appear authentic. Within, there are pages such as "Beth's Backyard Club," where you find a picture of her in a strapless prom dress above the approved quote: "I'll school my way by looking hot in my Wal-Mart clothes to school to catch a cute boy's eye. ..."

The site is an attempt at closing the trend gap Wal-Mart now faces as Target wins more teen-apparel dollars. But if Wal-Mart thought it could win over Amy Kandel, 14, of Columbus, Ohio, it was wrong. "Some of the kids looked like they were trying to be supercool, but they weren't at all, and they were just being kind of weird," she said. "Are these real kids?"

Nor did it impress Pete Hughes, 18. "It just seemed kind of corny to me," he said.

In fact, the News Corp. site has recently experienced declines in its audience aged 12 to 17, 12 to 24 and 12 to 34, while seeing increases in the 21-to-34, 25-to-34, and 35-to-54 demographics, according to data from comScore Networks.

"A lot of people have a faulty perception about the MySpace audience,'' says Phil Carpenter, vice president of marketing of Simply Hired, the job-search engine that powers the newly launched MySpace careers section. "It's a lot more diverse than what people believe it to be.''

The change in audience demographics may be attributable to factors beyond MySpace's control, such as the fact that many college students take final exams in May and should in theory be studying instead of hanging out online. Some leveling off in younger users is also to be expected, given the explosive growth of the site, which launched in January 2004.

The board of Community High School District 128 voted unanimously on Monday to require that all students participating in extracurricular activities sign a pledge agreeing that evidence of "illegal or inappropriate" behavior posted on the Internet could be grounds for disciplinary action.

The rule will take effect at the start of the next school year, officials said.

District officials won't regularly search students' sites, but will monitor them if they get a worrisome tip from another student, a parent or a community member.

Mary Greenberg of Lake Bluff, who has a son at Libertyville High School, argued the district is overstepping its bounds.

"I don't think they need to police what students are doing online," she said. "That's my job."

Associate Superintendent Prentiss Lea rebuffed that criticism.

"The concept that searching a blog site is an invasion of privacy is almost an oxymoron," he said. "It is called the World Wide Web."

Now MySpace and other social-networking sites like LiveJournal.com and Facebook are facing a new threat: a proposed federal law that would effectively require most schools and libraries to render those Web sites inaccessible to minors, an age group that includes some of the category's most ardent users.

"When children leave the home and go to school or the public library and have access to social-networking sites, we have reason to be concerned," Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania Republican, told CNET News.com in an interview. Fitzpatrick and fellow Republicans, including House Speaker Dennis Hastert, on Wednesday endorsed new legislation (click here for PDF) that would cordon off access to commercial Web sites that let users create public "Web pages or profiles" and also offer a discussion board, chat room, or e-mail service.

That's a broad category that covers far more than social-networking sites such as Friendster and Google's Orkut.com. It would also sweep in a wide range of interactive Web sites and services, including Blogger.com, AOL and Yahoo's instant-messaging features, and Microsoft's Xbox 360, which permits in-game chat.

But, banning the sites in schools and libraries not only isn't the answer, it actually is likely to make the situation worse. In schools and libraries, at least, adults can monitor the students while helping to educate them about the dangers online, rather than pretending they don't exist. This law doesn't protect the children -- it takes away the responsibility of teaching them how to be safe online.

Hastert said on Wednesday that it "would put filters in schools and libraries so that kids can be protected... We've all heard stories of children on some of these social Web sites meeting up with dangerous predators. This legislation adds another layer of protection."

Teenagers are so obsessed with the site that last year it saw more traffic than Yahoo's email service, Tesco's website and Amazon. Only eBay, Google and Hotmail are viewed more often in Britain.

The site allows its 6 million members to send each other messages. Members have their own mini-sites with pictures of themselves and details of their tastes. They can browse other members' sites and start conversations with thousands of people they have never met.

'I check my messages every single day,' explained 16-year-old James Hardman from Leeds. 'All my mates do it. We want to find some nice lasses and just text and email each other. We're meeting a couple of them in the school holidays.'

James is one of the rare members brave enough to put his phone number on the site, but says he has only been bothered by 'weirdos' once or twice. He is more coy about the 'adult section' of his site, where members can put up naked pictures of themselves and choose who gets to see them. 'My pictures are quite rude but I haven't let anyone see them yet. I'd be very careful about that.'

The popularity of the site has raised concerns: some parents are worried about inappropriate banter on the site, and the possibility that some 'young people' are adults posing as teenagers.

Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer of News Corp, told the Financial Times that, although he and Mr Murdoch were very optimistic about its prospects when they acquired it last year, MySpace had exceeded their expectations.

"MySpace is more potent and powerful than even we knew," Mr Chernin says. "And it is becoming a more integrated part of people's lives." However, as efforts grow to attract more advertisers to the site, News Corp is facing two challenges. Young users have to keep wanting to use the site, rather than switch to a "cooler" alternative.

Also, advertisers have to feel confident their reputation will not be tainted by "inappropriate" content. Teachers and parents are concerned that, because information on MySpace is publicly available, it might put teenagers in contact with predatory adults. In terms of retaining its appeal, Mr Chernin said users had to keep feeling the site was theirs. "We don't want to change the fundamental look and feel of the site," he said. "We do not want users to have any sense that it is corporatised."

It took students one day to hack their way back to blogging Web sites after technicians blocked them on school computers.

But Fort Wayne Community Schools will keep trying to keep students away from the popular sites, spokeswoman Debbie Morgan told The Journal Gazette for a Sunday story.

School officials say blogging not only distracts students but makes them vulnerable to online predators.

"We don't put all these thousands of dollars of equipment out there in the schools for personal use," said Doug Coutts, the district's chief operations officer. "They're out there for educational purposes."

Students had been able to log on to popular sites including Facebook and MySpace during school, though they were not supposed to do so. Technicians started blocking the sites Thursday, but students had found ways around the new blocks by Friday.

Employers, bankers, insurance brokers, and college admissions officers are becoming wise by using social networking and blogging sites as an addition to traditional background checks, such as credit and criminal history.

The more than 70 million people using these sites make it easy for anyone who wants to learn about them.

"Unfortunately, I think most of the people who are posting those are only thinking about their intended readers," said Steven Rothberg, president and founder of CollegeRecruiter.com, the highest traffic career site used by students, recent graduates, and employers.

"If you're a 20-year-old college student and you like to get drunk on the weekends, you're probably going to put that on your profile because you want to hook up with other people that do the same."

Pennsylvania State University police used Facebook to identify 50 students who stormed the field after the football game against Ohio State this past season.

Naively, the students formed a Facebook group that university police said was titled something like "I stormed the field after Ohio State game."

Police officers were searching for another student who was accused of online harassment when they stumbled upon the group, complete with university e-mails and pictures that clearly incriminated the students.

Punishments for the students ranged from warnings to suspensions.

Q. How do I block a user?
A. To block a user you will need to visit that user's profile click 'Block User' (found underneath 'Send Message').

Clicking 'Block User' will block that user.

Blocked users can still view your profile, but they cannot send you a message or communicate with you. There is no way to prevent someone from seeing your profile.

myspaceWatch.com is a service that allows you to monitor login activity, track profile changes, and keep a running history of up to 3 myspace.com profiles. Are you a parent who banned your child from myspace only to see that they keep logging on, or keeping multiple accounts? Is your significant other living a double life? We keep track and monitor activity so you don't have to. We also don't ask for any of your personal information.

Welcome to a world that, if you're older than 25, you likely know little about, and if you're older than 35 you almost certainly don't.

But if you're part of the legion of users - some 41 million at last count for MySpace.com alone - it's the center of your social existence, and people who have hopped the train can’t imagine life without it.

"I've had my MySpace page for about a year," said Harmony Johnson of Hendersonville. "I probably check my MySpace page at least three times a day - it's very addicting. Some people call it 'MyCrack.' You want to see who's posted a new blog or a new photo or left a comment on your page or sent you a message or sent you a friend request."

Jack Stewart, an eighth-grader at Rugby Middle School, laughed when asked if he still used e-mails, now that MySpace and Xanga are on the scene.

"The only reason I use my e-mail is because my grandma sends me e-mails," he said. "She lives in Florida and she'll send me pictures. ... That's about it."

Many teens access MySpace at least once a day or whenever computer access is possible. Teens that have a computer at home keep MySpace opened while they are doing homework or talking on instant messenger. In schools where it is not banned or blocked, teens check MySpace during passing period, lunch, study hall and before/after school. This is particularly important for teens who don't have computer access at home. For most teens, it is simply a part of everyday life - they are there because their friends are there and they are there to hang out with those friends.

Publics are critical to the coming-of-age narrative because they provide the framework for building cultural knowledge. Restricting youth to controlled spaces typically results in rebellion and the destruction of trust. Of course, for a parent, letting go and allowing youth to navigate risks is terrifying. Unfortunately, it's necessary for youth to mature.

What we're seeing right now is a cultural shift due to the introduction of a new medium and the emergence of greater restrictions on youth mobility and access. The long-term implications of this are unclear. Regardless of what will come, youth are doing what they've always done - repurposing new mediums in order to learn about social culture.

Technology will have an effect because the underlying architecture and the opportunities afforded are fundamentally different. But youth will continue to work out identity issues, hang out and create spaces that are their own, regardless of what technologies are available.

On MySpace, comments provide a channel for feedback and not surprisingly, teens relish comments. Of course, getting a comment is not such a haphazard affair. Friends are _expected_ to comment as a sign of their affection. Furthermore, a comment to a friend's profile or photo is intended to be reciprocated. It is also not uncommon to hear teens request comments from each other in other social settings or on the bulletin boards. In MySpace, comments are a form of cultural currency.

The Professor said he started the site after a colleague was rated poorly on RateMyProfessor.com.

"He was a great teacher with a family and received slanderous and homophobic comments," he said. "He was embarrassed and lost a little of his spirit."

The Professor said RateMyProfessor.com is a car-wreck of information and character assassination because the site does not prevent students from rating teachers at schools outside of their own.

"If you go to Penn State, you should only be permitted to rate Penn State professors," he said.

Besides posting grievances of professors and retorts from students, the site also allows professors to write reviews of students, which remain unnamed.

A history professor in Indiana, who submitted a summary review of several students referred to with single initials, wrote, "Avoid this student if you can. She spends more on eyeliner than she does on textbooks. She wears more face powder than a 60-year-old stripper. She believes she's destined for greatness. She's destined to work at a laundromat."

What do teachers think of this site?
Well, that depends on the teacher!! We get a lot of emails from teachers telling us they like the site, and we've even had some telling us how the site has helped them. We also get some pretty hateful emails telling us how inappropriate the site is, how they are going to shut us down, etc.

Some bloggers are paid for posting their observations. At Wofford, for instance, student bloggers receive $25 per week. Allison Kretz, a sophomore at the University of Dayton in Dayton, Ohio, earns $500 per semester for being an online scribe. Colgate's Burnham, on the other hand, received no compensation.

Until the university approached her, Kretz had never considered becoming a blogger. "I had applied for a tour guide position, but I didn't get the job," she said. "But they had my references from professors." The recommendations, and her desire to share her college experiences with family and friends, made her an ideal blogger. "I've really fallen in love with the university, and it's a good way to let people at home know how I'm doing," Kretz said.

Bloggers don't rely on a set of rules or a handbook to guide them on the content of their posts. Instead, the universities rely on the students' good judgment. "As for the rules, we don't have formal written guidelines," said Colgate's O'Keeffe. "But I sit down with the students and have a good discussion about the university's expectations and goals. I let the students know we're not interested in posts about parties or trips to the local taverns."

"MY MOM READ MY BLOG!!!" one 14-year-old wrote in July on her blog on Xanga. "My life is so over." Upon discovering a parent reads her blog, another girl using Google Inc.'s Blogger service wrote, "I think I'm going to be sick."

"My dad is a retard who ruins everything!!!!" wrote Michelle Davis recently after she found out her father read her blog. Ms. Davis, 18, says she thought her parents had no idea that her blog existed. "Once I wrote an entire post about porn," says Ms. Davis. "That's something I would never, ever say in front of my parents."

The most surefire -- and intrusive -- option is for parents to install special monitoring software on the home computers used by their children. Features vary among the different offerings, but most can record every keystroke a computer user types and log every Web site he visits. Many log incoming and outgoing email and instant messages and record "screen shots," or images of what the user does online. The software -- including packages called Specter Pro, eBlaster, and IamBigBrother -- is designed to prevent children from tampering with its operation. It allows parents to see sites, including blogs, their children are accessing. The keystroke logging permits them to capture login and password information their kids have entered for blogs. That could allow parents to access even blogs that are password protected or are otherwise restricted.

But there can be a down side. Teens are doing more than just pouring their hearts out in these online forums; many are posting provocative pictures, discussing real or imagined sex lives, berating and threatening one another, and recounting drinking and drug use. And that can get them in trouble with stalkers, authority figures and even future employers, experts say.

"Kids are doing outrageous things to get attention," said Parry Aftab, a privacy lawyer and executive director of WiredSafety.org, a Web site dedicated to online child safety. "They are looking for their day in the sun, 15 minutes of fame, something to show how they are special."

Aftab tells parents to focus on the "three Cs": content, contact and commercialism. Content -- what kids are actually saying online and how they say it -- often comes as a shock to parents but isn't always the most critical thing. "Their first concern is (obscene) language," Aftab said. "Their bigger concern should be about contact: who can communicate with them that they don't know."

Many of the teen-oriented blog sites now have privacy options that let users restrict who can view their site, giving access only to people they know. Parents concerned about safety may want to suggest or insist their teen use those access controls, Aftab added.

Facebook is on a tear. There are rumors that their total page views will surpass some of the top internet sites in the next few months. 85%+ of all college students us it and 70% of them log in daily.

Facebook supports 882 colleges today - there are about 2,000 in the U.S. if you count community colleges. Their goal is to support all of these over time.

The penetration rate is staggering - about 85% of students in supported colleges have a profile up on FaceBook. That's 3.85 million members. Chris tells me that 60% log in daily. About 85% log in at least once a week, and 93% log in at least once a month.

Online neighbors can be a fickle lot. At one time, it was assumed that communities like AOL, Geocities and the Well would be the metropoli of the digital universe. Today, AOL is struggling, Geocities has been subsumed into Yahoo, and the Well is up for sale.

So it should be little surprise that online community Friendster has fallen on hard times as a younger generation seeks out other networks such as MySpace and Facebook -- at least until they move on to the next cool place to hang out. The sobering fact is that hot virtual neighborhoods can turn into suburbs practically overnight in the cyberspace, the same way they do in the physical world.

I have been overseas doing promotional press and performances of Wake Up which is coming out in the UK on October 24th. America got it first, and now it's spreading overseas. My first stop was France where it was rainy and kind of cold. The travel time was long because we stopped in Frankfurt so that we could fly Lufthansa because they provide Internet on their international flights. It's hard to go very long without internet access! Don't you agree?

Those are some of the findings from a survey of 12- to 17-year-olds conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

The survey also found that older school-age girls with online access were most likely to keep a blog. About a quarter of girls, ages 15 to 17, did so, compared with 15 percent of boys in that age group.

Among adults, Pew says about 7 percent of Internet users have created their own blogs, or online diaries. And while 26 percent of adults say they read blogs, 38 percent of young people with online access said they do so.

Teens complain about parents and homework, using language that would make Tony Soprano blush. They share daily dramas, post songs from the latest bands, display pictures of themselves, sometimes wearing next to nothing or taking bong hits. They write angst-ridden poetry, detail supposed sexual exploits and complain about each other or offer support. But mostly they simply relay the details of their daily lives.

Teens are ecstatic, hooked and hopeful about the medium. Law enforcement officials are wary. There have been cases where predators have found kids who posted too much information about themselves. And parents -- those who actually know what their kids are doing online -- are "freaked," says Parry Aftab, executive director of online child safety site WiredSafety.

"Parents look at this and see the kids are talking about how they got drunk last weekend, how they had sex last weekend, and using language that's unbelievable."

Besides hearing from their friends, teen bloggers also tell of receiving "creepy" solicitations from strangers. Most of the time, it's older men asking to meet teenage girls, according to New Hampshire bloggers.

"They'll just try to chat to you and talk to you. You can tell from their user pictures they're older men," said Cara Cabral, a 17-year-old Manchester Memorial High School student. "They're just real creepy. You'll find that the strangest people will want to be your friend on myspace.com," which is a popular teen blogging Web site.

Teens agreed, saying they know there are dangerous people on the Internet, as well as in the real world.

Angel Drouin, 17, a junior at Manchester Memorial High School, says she is up to date on how to protect herself: "I watch Oprah. I know what happens."

In our society, it's customary to speak well of the departed. Over the past few years, I've noticed that when a friend passes away, our instinct as students is apparently to visit their profile and pay homage by eulogizing in the testimonials area. This makes for some awkward maneuvering as we, suddenly somber, try to ignore our own earlier, teasing messages still staring up from the screen. Worse yet, while we wax lyrical about the merits of the deceased, we do so mere pixels below their now-irrevocable keg-stand photo, or a transcribed drunk-text they'd surely rather forget. One has to wince.

No Right of Survivorship and Non-Transferability. You agree that your Yahoo! account is non-transferable and any rights to your Yahoo! ID or contents within your account terminate upon your death. Upon receipt of a copy of a death certificate, your account may be terminated and all contents therein permanently deleted.

You'd think someone would have dealt with this -- after all, people die all the time -- and to some extent, they have. Friendster has an official policy wherein deceased members' profiles can be converted to memorial pages. However, since this process requires that the user -- presumably someone in possession of his password, not the deceased himself -- log in and make it so, to date only a handful of people have actually exercised this option.

"I don't have enough information to comment on the case," says Edward Parmelee, a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's cyber crime squad in Jackson. "But (her blog) certainly could have been a factor.

"Blogging, in a sense, is the equivalent of hanging out at the mall. You can be talking to friends, but there could also be someone standing behind you listening to your conversations. Providing personal information for anyone in the world to go online and read increases the potential for something bad to happen."

Adds Robert Mahaffey, criminal investigator for the Mississippi Attorney General's cyber crime unit: "The Internet is the wild, wild West of the 21st century, and it should be viewed that way."

One of the problems with blogging, Parmelee says, is that "youngsters can get lured into a false sense of anonymity by sitting behind a computer screen ... they don't see the creepy old guy in the yellow raincoat who is out to do them harm."

Students at Pope John XXIII Regional High School in Sparta appear to be heeding a directive from the principal, the Rev. Kieran McHugh, to remove personal postings about the school or themselves from Web sites like myspace.com or xanga.com, even if they were posted from the students' home computers.

Officials with the Diocese of Paterson say the directive is a matter of safety, not censorship. But constitutional experts say the case raises interesting questions about the intersection of free speech and voluntary agreements with private institutions.

Frank Askin, director of Rutgers University's Constitutional Law Clinic, said the case could be an interesting free speech test if someone took it to court.

"They are a private school, and they can have whatever rules they want," he said. "But students do have rights in this matter, especially in New Jersey. Under our state's constitution, private entities that exercise some kind of dominion over people have to respect their free speech rights."

If I can become their friend...if I can become their hero...then why can't their friends become my friend...my hero. I can propagate the program to their profile, can't I. If someone views my profile and gets this program added to their profile, that means anyone who views THEIR profile also adds me as a friend and hero, and then anyone who hits THOSE people's profiles add me as a friend and hero... So if 5 people viewed my profile, that's 5 new friends. If 5 people viewed each of their profiles, that's 25 more new friends. And after that, well, that's when things get difficult. The math, I mean.

Using a self-propagating worm that exploits a scripting vulnerability common to most dynamic Web sites, a Los Angeles teenager made himself the most popular member of community Web site MySpace.com earlier this month. While the attack caused little damage, the technique could be used to destroy Web site data or steal private information -- even from enterprise users behind protected networks, according to an Internet security firm.

MySpace.com has replaced the shopping mall, the CD store, the local Subway, as a hangout. The current generation of young people are turning to computer screens, cell phones, instant messaging, and online social networking for support and sharing common interests. In fact, it is reflective of a culture that doesn't trust big media, big business, or authority. The youngsters throwing themselves into this online culture, simply put, trust each other.

Blogs let students engage in a form of journalism. Their journals work best when they become sustained conversations - when students write and reflect about a particular topic or issue over time and when that writing inspires response from an audience. The conversation might incorporate the works of others, breaking news in the form of newsfeeds, and students linking to and responding to the external resources.

When it works well as an educational tool, blogging involves students in content, critical reading, and thoughtful, reflective writing.

David Warlick, educational technology consultant, author and director of the Landmark Project, sees blogs as strategies for encouraging writing. When blogs are effective, students write for an audience and receive authentic response.

Warlick notes that blog writing might occasionally warrant a more casual approach. Traditional writing assignments are "for teacher's eyes only. We are teaching rules and syntax and students have to follow rules. Blogging is much more about communication and kids are all about communication."

Researchers who have studied teenage internet use have discovered websites where children vote for the ugliest, most unpopular or fattest girl in their school. "As teenagers increasingly turn to blogs, some of these diaries have become a hotbed of cruelties," Aftab added.

On one popular website, a 17-year-old boy invited his friends to "take a moment and really think about who you hate in our school, then choose the one that you have the most disdain for and write it here for all to see". His message drew 240 replies and featured everyone from "that stupid blind girl" to a school dinner lady.

At a Boston school recently, several students were disciplined for creating a lewd website about a teenage girl's supposed sexual activities. The site included her name, photograph and phone number. In New York a 14-year-old girl who foolishly sent her boyfriend a camera phone picture of herself topless was mortified when he posted it on a website used by everyone at their school.

About five years ago, the popularity of personal Web sites was booming. Everyone with a buddy list had his or her own Web site. It was a simple site, with a few pictures, some text, and some outdated information that no one ever read. Since then, the birth and the growing epidemic of people who realize they have opinions replaced the humble personal Web page. Enter the Internet blog.

Some blog sites would like to maintain the image of being an online diary, but diaries are personal. The purpose of a diary is to write for yourself, but most people don't do this. Not everyone is out to impress or gain something from their blog. Some people blog for absolutely no reason at all, and it shows.

Finally, there are the most hated of all bloggers: The quiz whores. Why would anyone else want to know what "Napoleon Dynamite" character you're most like?

But for many younger than 30, a blog is as much an ace in the dating game as a flashy car or a nice smile. Not everybody is looking to influence society.

Norris, a self-described geek with a slight frame and, until recently, no car, says he has had better luck with women in the past year. The reason? His discovery of MySpace, a blogging conduit that allows anyone to register, create a personal profile with pictures, and be linked to people anywhere in the world.

Norris says he has more than 300 "friends" on his MySpace account, and he has communicated with each of them.

"Over the past year, I've met so many people I'd never have met otherwise," he says. "My social skills are so much stronger now, and it began with the sort of training that blogging provided."

"Anonymity emboldens the person doing it -- and it increases the fear factor for the victim," says Kowalski. Parry Aftab, founder of an online nonprofit called WiredSafety.org says teens "are exploring who they are -- and they role-play by being mean, horrible and hateful in ways they would never be off-line." Aftab recalls meeting a New Jersey 13-year-old with a preppie-perfect appearance--khakis, button-down shirt, penny loafers complete with pennies--and a creepy hobby of making online death threats against strangers. He would gather information from chat rooms or people's websites, then threaten them as if he knew them. Says Aftab: "He said to me, 'I would never do anything in real life. I'm a good kid. But I can do it online because it doesn't matter.'"

Actually, it does. When a cyberbully lashes out, it can be a sign of emotional or psychological problems. And cyberbullying is viral. The Clemson study found that kids who are victimized "seem to be heavily involved in bullying others," says psychologist Sue Limber. In the real world, physical intimidation may keep those who are bullied from retaliating, but that's not a problem online. "Cyberbullying can also lead to other forms of victimization," Limber says. If someone insults a classmate on a Xanga, the effects could include ostracization at school. "Passing notes or writing on lockers was nothing," says Limber. "This takes public to a whole other level."

My daughter discovered online journals, or "blogs," when she was 16. After a lot of negotiating, she was allowed to start her blog on www.xanga.com. Her "xanga" had to be accessible by me. She couldn't post her real name, photos of herself, or her location, and I encouraged her to warn her friends not to either. But in keeping an eye on her xanga, I also had access to her friends' xangas. Surprise - this opened me up to a whole new world of insight into today's teenager. These kids can write.

To keep a blog going, you have to have the discipline to write daily. This puts today's young bloggers on the fast track to future Pulitzers. To keep your friends coming back, you have to be interesting, funny, intelligent, relevant. These kids are all that and more. Once I got past the immature spelling and punctuation (along with usual teen slang and vulgarity), I was treated to some of the best poetry I've ever read. All of their blogs together are a veritable anthropological study of high school life. One senior I know has, in four years, transformed from what seemed like functional illiteracy - incomplete sentences, poor spelling - into a blossoming philosopher headed for a major university.

Teens now use a broader array of online content and services. E-mail is still the number one activity at 89 percent, though it slipped marginally from the 92 percent reported in 2000. Visits to entertainment Web sites (TV, music, sport and movies) were noted by 84 percent of teens (up from 83 percent in 2000). The likelihood of teens going online to play games jumped to 81 percent, up from only 66 percent in 2000. Checking online news (76 percent), purchasing online (43 percent) and getting health information (31 percent) were also up.

In comparison with adults, teen play more online games, IM more, and have a higher propensity to go online to get news on current events.

Edited by two young women, Angela, 23, and Aredhel, 18, the site lists tons of amazing blogs -- many of them written by teens from all over the world (Australia, Singapore, Ireland, etc.). I haven't finished going through them all yet, but what is really cool about Glitter is that they are constantly making sure the sites they list are still live and updating. Since many teen blogs come and go, this is really invaluable.

Some also speculate that more scandalous blog entries -- especially those about partying and dating exploits -- will have ramifications down the road.

"I would bet that in the 2016 election, somebody's Facebook entry will come back to bite them," Steve Jones, head of the communications department at the University of Illinois at Chicago, says, referring to thefacebook.com, a networking site for college students and alumni that is something of a cross between a yearbook and a blog.

More traditional blog sites -- which allow easy creation of a Web site with text, photos and often music -- include Xanga, LiveJournal and MySpace. And they've gotten more popular in recent years, especially among the younger set.

Caitlin Hoistion, a 15-year-old in Neptune, N.J., says she knows people who go as far as posting their cell phone numbers on their blogs -- something she doesn't do. She also often shows her postings to her mom, which has helped her mom give her some space and privacy online.

"That's not to say if I thought something dangerous was going on, I wouldn't ever spy on her," says her mother, Melissa Hoistion. "But she has given me no need to do so."

The best analogy is like meeting in a public park. I get into conversations all the time with other parents, or other dog walkers. A shared interest brings people together. You'll find that total strangers on the other side of the world are sometimes very interested in how you got your three-year-old to eat carrots.

"When they do something, they tend to pursue it to the fullest extent. In that respect, Ana may almost become a religion for them," says Carmen Mikhail, director of the eating disorders clinic at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston.

She and others point to the "Ana creed," a litany of beliefs about control and starvation, that appears on many Web sites and blogs. At least one site encourages followers to make a vow to Ana and sign it in blood.

People with eating disorders who've been involved in the movement confirm its cult-like feel.

"People pray to Ana to make them skinny," says Sara, a 17-year-old in Columbus, Ohio, who was an avid organizer of Ana followers until she recently entered treatment for her eating disorder. She spoke on the condition that her last name not be used.

Would you say that blogging is very addictive? How many people have you convinced to also start blogging?

True! Blogging is very addictive. In a sense you feel empowered whenever you voice out certain opinions or simply share whatever musings youve got on life in general. Plus, it's a great way to reach your circle. I mean not everyone will be a loyal fan of your site -- that's a given (and a good thing). It's comforting though to know that the people who matter most to you can drop by from time to time and know what's been happening to you lately.

"The downside of prohibiting it is worse than the downside of allowing it," Dr. Steinberg says. "A good parent-child relationship is based on trust, and trust is a reciprocal feeling. I think people do get especially worked up for some reason over the Internet. But snooping on what your child does on the Internet, to me in some ways, is no different from snooping through your child's dresser drawers or eavesdropping on your child's telephone conversation or reading your child's diary.

"Any of those things done without cause [for suspicion] are to me violations of what I think is the reasonable right that teenagers have, which is to have some aspect of their lives that their parents are not privy to," he says.

As times change, so do teenagers and the way they talk. Telephones are giving way to computers and popular chat rooms and blog sites.

Xanga.com is one of the more popular blogging Web sites, Kansas City television station KMBC reported.

"It's kind of like an online diary. If something makes you mad or happy, you can just go and let it out," high school senior Jessica Hacker said.

Warwick University is playing a pioneering role with its Warwick Blogs project, which is available to all students, teachers and staff. The idea behind it, says John Dale, head of IT services at Warwick, was "self-publishing for all". Students were allowed to create homepages on the university's network, he says, but few bothered because it was too difficult. In contrast, setting up a Warwick Blog is easy. The hope is that once students start blogging, says Dale, it could build a community, foster collaboration and perhaps help with the personal development planning that students and tutors have to work on.

Max Hammond, a chemistry PhD student, says that blogs are a useful social tool, but that the service's acceptable usage policy is draconian. "The blogs admin appears to suspend student blogs on some very shaky reasons."

Blogging is very much the province of the young. Fully 19% of online Americans ages 18-29 have created blogs, compared to 5% of those 50 and older. When it comes to blog reading, online men and women are equally as likely to have browsed the blogosphere. Again, those ages 18-29 are much more likely to have read blogs than their elders: 36% of online younger adults have read blogs compared to 18% of those who use the internet and are 50 and older.

With that, Marcy made a discovery thousands of parents around the country are making -- teenagers are among the most active Internet bloggers, and many are posting pictures, names, addresses, schools, even phone numbers, almost always without their parent's knowledge.

About half of all blogs are authored by teenagers, according to a 2003 study by Perseus Development Corp.; and according to comScore Media Metrix, a majority of the top 15 sites visited by teens 17 and under in January 2005 were either blogs or social networking sites.

"It's not so much a school concern as it is an issue for students and parents," he said. "This site particularly was getting a lot of hits. It's a blog site but they also post pictures and biographical information and then send each other notes." He added, "My concern is less as a principal and more as a dad." Sousa said he found the prospect of students putting information on the Internet, potentially available to predators, was a serious concern. "As soon as someone has a name and a general geographic location, it can take an Internet predator 20 minutes to find their address and directions to their house," he said. "Any time a teen puts their own photo or biographical information on a Web site, it's something that parents at least need to know about."

The ways cyberbullies harass their victims expand every day as new technologies are released and the cyberbullies find ways to abuse them. They use e-mail, instant messaging, blogs, bulletin boards, chatrooms, profiles, photo and videophones, text messaging and Web sites. They often pose as their victim, doing things or saying thing to get them into trouble online. They may even break-into their victim’s accounts by either misusing or guessing their passwords, and once there either spam their victim’s friends or even change the password locking the victim out of their own account.