Are You Ready for Web 2.0?

Here's the Mother Tongue column for April:

Are You Ready for Web 2.0?
My daughter is no longer my friend. She decided that it was weird being friends with her mom, so she dropped me. I was sad when I stopped getting her daily updates. When I tried to ask her something, I couldn’t communicate with her at all.

Not on Facebook, anyway. She had terminated our friend status.

Facebook is one of the fastest growing companies behind Web 2.0, the wave of websites designed to document and broadcast as much of your daily life, beliefs, and shopping habits as you deem fit. Sign up with Facebook, and within a few days you will be in easy contact with old friends, family, and local pals.

Anyone with a Facebook account can share as much information as they want, filling their page with personal photos, virtual cupcakes, political rants, or just a simple listing of vital stats. Privacy settings can prevent anyone but friends from seeing your page, but anyone can request to add you as friend, or view a list of who’s already “friended” you. Yes, “friend” is now a verb.
All of this sharing, coupled with accessibility, is a red flag for parents, who worry about predators and usually have a different notion of what should be private in the first place. Besides, Internet privacy is subjective. Just ask the Oregon mayor who was recalled over her saucy photos on MySpace. Her defense? “That's my space," she said. "That's why they call it MySpace.”

We may worry too much about our kids being victimized on social networking sites. A recent study in Pediatrics showed that children are more likely to be harassed via instant message than on social sites like Facebook. Banning IM or social networking may not work in your house, but staying on top of what’s happening in your kids’ world always will. Children who get into trouble online are often having difficulties offline as well.
Kids may be better at the ins and outs of these programs—my daughter has twice as many Facebook friends as I do—but in the end it’s parents who are responsible for seeing that they’re used safely.