Teenage behaviour problem and social network sites

Read a news item in today's paper that a class X student of a Delhi school stabbed another class X student with a paper cutter and the victim suffered 6 stab wounds.The injured boy was shifted to a nearby hospital for an emergency operation to stop bleeding.Both the boys are 15 years old and turned hostile to each other.The enmity was because one bullied the other in Facebook .Present day teens resort to cyber bullying to harass another person through social networking sites.Harassing, threatening, embarrassing, or targeting another person in internet is known as cyber bullying.This may include creating profiles impersonating another person,mean and cruel response to status updates,posting personal photos ,videos with an ulterior motive to embarrass another person.In this incident it is reported an embarrassing photo was uploaded by the victim to embarrass the attacker.Even before the internet era,there was bullying among teenagers.But it was no more than a flamboyant adventurous display associated with growing up and adolescent age.But now bullying has become high tech .Even sending hurting SMS messages come under cyber bullying.Fake websites are created to harass others and published in net so that others can also humiliate the victim by their harsh comments .The internet is all pervasive and the derogatory comments spread like wild fire .This publicity causes the kids to suffer psychological damage.

Some surveys reveal Indian kids are the most bullied in the internet .Most parents are also aware that their kids are subjected to cyber bullying.A study, conducted among 500 children in the 9 to 17 age group across 10 cities, including Delhi Mumbai Bangalore and Chennai found that 62% of children shared personal information online .39% of parents were unaware of what their children do online.Those days life style change between generations was slow compared to the fast paced present day life style changes.Majority of today's parents do not know the technology and devices the present day children use. Apart from generation gap ,now present day parents have to cope with this 'digital divide ' also.Experts say that if a kid is not inclined to go to school,it is quite possible that he is a victim of cyber bullying .The union Home ministry has advised state governments to book those indulging in cyber bullying under existing provisions of the IT Act 2008 and the IPC, which carry sentences ranging between two to five years .

Our teens and their parents need to be trained to make their children use internet in a responsible manner.Because social networking sites have a good side too .The impact of the social networking sites on society and youngsters in particular are far reaching.Linked-in is an important site for job related information.Facebook and Orkut help build contacts and friends. It connects people virtually at no cost.Twitter helps in exchanging views through micro blogging.Old school mates reunite through social networking sites.Can join communities with like minded people,can share ideas.There are social media sites for specific purposes.There are sites for life threatening diseases,drug addiction,alcoholism,autism,weight loss etc.In such sites people with similar issues share their valuable experience.Business sites are also promoted through social networking sites.people looking for jobs also post their resumes in social networking sites.people belonging to various cultural diversities share their common interest .Sharing of photos, audios, videos, texts etc. had never been so easy.Investigating agencies and police also use social media to track criminals .Recently a rape victim in Kolkatta identified 3 suspects by their Facebook pages and helped police to nab them.The police claim several cases of fake Facebook accounts used to post objectionable matter had come to light in recent months. FBI in US is developing a new software to scan social networks Twitter and Facebook to look for possible threats and predict crimes.police in Britain use Facebook routinely to ascertain the whereabouts of criminals.

If we look at the downside,the private space is lost.There is nothing private for today's younger generation.Everything is shared in the public domain including the relations made and broken.The moot point is how safe it is to share all personal information to the world at large.Teenagers should bear in mind ,the online profile that you create should only help you to advance your career academically and professionally at a later date.Don't post anything that would make you repent at a later date.Once published it is available for the whole world to see it online.Don't share anything that would make one susceptible to attack.Avoid sharing email ids,phone number,contact address etc.Change settings to block potentially dangerous users,if required.It is believed now a days HR recruiters also check social networking sites and reject candidates based on their profile and status updates .

Educate children to be selective in accepting friend requests.Fake profiles are created by some people to steal identity by accessing all private information.But most people are honest while creating profiles.Nevertheless one has to be watchful. Even before the internet era,parents used to warn children,especially girl children against acquaintances with strangers .This is all the more true with social networking sites. Most of us do not know much about our next door neighbor in this fast paced life.But a faceless adult stranger can become your kids friend in a social networking site by creating a profile by giving a false age .

The social networking site addiction is not limited to teenagers. Even some corporate houses have banned social media sites in office premises.Though corporates don't encourage social media in office,they closely monitor social media sites to study about their employee's attitude .Many people have lost their jobs because of their Facebook comments about company policies,about boss and customers. Not only kids,even adults have to learn to be selective in their comments in social media networks.Indiscreet twitter comments have landed even many celebrities in trouble.Too many tweets cost Sashi Tharoor his minister's job and Lalit Modi his IPL crown.Omar Abdullah's Afzal Guru tweet,Chetan Bhagat's tweet on Narayanmurthy,Salman Rushdies tweets on his middle name,Ram Gopal Varma's tweet on Big B,poonam Pandey's tweet on Stripping for Team India if they win world cup,Taslima Nasreen's tweet on Nepal were all controversial.Even the Prime minister's office has a twitter account @PMOIndia.Obama used Facebook for his presidential election campaign.

Social networking sites have upside and downsides.Encourage teenagers to use them to connect and build meaningful relationships.Impress upon youngsters not to use the social media to wreck any existing relationship.What is required is the discretion and comprehension as to where to draw the line.