Telling the world their secrets

At a recent meeting of the Lexington Herald-Leader Teen Board, "most members said they had blogs, but when an adult said she'd like to read them, there was a universal 'Nooooo.' The 'it's on the Internet, where anyone can read it' argument was lost on them," reports Herald-Leader writer Mary Mehan. She cites the work of David Huffaker, a PhD student at Northwestern University who has studied 3,000 teen blogs, finding that - in terms of blogging topics - "struggles with parents or sexuality are presented with the same frankness as small ones, say, what somebody had for lunch or the glory of a sundress." But it's not so much these intimate details that add risk to blogging; it's information that helps strangers figure out who and where they are. The Pew Internet & American Life project has found that 62% of teens online have been contacted by strangers; blogs are just another tool they can use. This is a readable, meaty article that you'd also find great fodder for a family discussion. Another good one is at MSNBC. As for *secure* blogging, here's Wall Street Journal tech writer Walt Mossberg on MSN Spaces, which - along with AOL's new RED Blogs (as described by CNET) - offers bloggers varying degrees of privacy.