Who are children reaching out to online and why?

There is a growing concern on how youngsters can easily create multiple accounts on social media that will allow them to speak to strangers. Since parents are preoccupied with the sexual dangers associated with it, they never ask a very important question: why?

 

According to danah boyd, author of It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens, parents should be concerned with why their child feels the need to go online and reach out to complete strangers rather than going to them.

 

In her eyes, the lack of emotional support from loved ones is driving these children to seek approval elsewhere.

 

In a recent interview, the author made this a key point when speaking of teenagers and technology. She also pointed out that parents need to build a support network for their children:

 

She said: “As a parent, there are times your child won’t want to talk to you. So the more you’ve thought through how they have a support network that’s not just you, the better off they’ll be when they hit a bump.”

 

Rather than focusing on the dangers associated with easy access to the internet, perhaps we should focus on creating an environment that makes it comfortable for our children to speak to us or a support network which we've built for them.