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Live feeds from social networking sites make it easy to monitor the actions of friends. But how much information constitutes "too much information" is a conversation that needs to take place with teens. Not everything is as private as it may seem.

Media stories over the past year have heightened public awareness regarding cyber safety, teens and the use of information and communication technology (ICT) use. The emphasis of media attention has often been on the victimization and bullying of teens occurring on social network sites such as Myspace and Facebook. The prominence placed on ICT platforms, such as the Internet and Cell Phones, as threatening spheres has resulted in a narrow view of cyber security. Instead, I argue that we need to rethink the meaning of cyber safety for teens and begin a more complex dialog about best cyber safety practices.

Experts warn users to be careful about what they post...and download Using those cool little applications designed to enhance social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook can make personal information as public as posting it on a billboard.Trouble is, most students (and educators) never have a clue.

Danah Boyd participated in the Berkman Luncheon Series [Harvard] to discuss her work and research in the area of social networks. She provided a great historical context to the various sites that have come and gone from the center of Internet activity, as well as some insight into what brought about their successes and failures.\n\nPrior to her presentation she explained, "Publics offer youth a space to engage in cultural identity development. By engaging in public life, youth learn to interpret the cultural signals that surround them and incorporate these cultural elements into their life. For a diverse array of reasons, contemporary youth have limited access to the types of publics with which most adults grew up. As a substitute for these inaccessible publics, networked publics like MySpace and Facebook are emerging to provide contemporary American youth with a necessary site for peer engagement."

Eighty-one percent of kids have visited a social networking site such as MySpace \nor Facebook. Yet more than 50% of schools block social networking altogether and \nover 80% block instant messaging and chatting services.

Social networks and digital media are making it easy for us to share our lives not just with our small circle of friends, but the entire world. With the invention of YouTube, Facebook and MySpace, we are creating a massive digital archive of our lives. The benefit of such a digital archive is that we no longer have to rely just on remembering memorable events: There are video and photos of it online. Besides just video and photos, there's also a massive text archive we are establishing with personal blogs. Every column I write for the Courier & Press is obviously archived for the history books, but so are the things that I write online.

A new law aimed at deterring the proliferation of cyberbullying at public schools goes into effect Jan. 1, bolstering educators' ability to tackle the problem head-on.The law gives school administrators the leverage to suspend or expel students for bullying other students by means of an electronic device such as a mobile phone or on an Internet social networking site like MySpace or Facebook; the law, however, only applies to bullying that occurs during school hours or during a school-related activity.

Facebook's millions of users are in the crosshairs of a computer virus dubbed Koobface that is being spread through the social networking site's messaging system. Users whose computers are infected may have their credit card numbers stolen or their searches on Google, Yahoo and MSN diverted to fraudulent Web sites.

Facebook chief privacy officer Chris Kelly has put out a statement to the Keeping the Internet Devoid of Sexual Predators Act (KIDS), which President George W. Bush signed on Monday (10/13/08) along with the Protect Our Children Act.

Teaching literacy-reading and writing-is a core mission for schools, but today's young people increasingly "read" 3-D computer simulations and "write" via social networks such as Facebook. A growing chorus of experts say schools should add these forms of communication to their literacy mission as "technology literacy."

The concept of anytime, anywhere learning is not new to the majority of Northeastern University students. With personal Web sites, multi-functional cell phones, MP3 players, YouTube accounts, Facebook profiles, and gaming personas, students are sharing and creating knowledge at an unprecedented rate.\n\n

Findings from the PEW RESEARCH REPORT: "Social Media and Mobile Internet Use Among Teens and Young Adults."

Little or no grammar teaching, cellphone texting, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, all are being blamed for an increasingly unacceptable number of post-secondary students who can't write properly.

Did you know you could lose insurance benefits from putting photos online? Or that a Tweet can put you in jail? Or that the FBI might be friending you on Facebook? Or that even brand-new service Chatroulette isn't truly anonymous?

How and when social network sites go about such policing of their users is up to them. Do the sites take such matters seriously? Some good (and bad features) of each are reviewed.

Even after the Long Island girl killed herself, the harassing Internet messages kept on coming, posted on a page meant to stand as a tribute.

Cyberbullying is sending inappropriate or mean messages and pictures to others and/or sharing personal, private information about others through technological channels. With texting and the use of social networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace, it is a big problem facing preteens and teenagers. There are things teachers can do to better understand cyberbullying and help students dealing with it.

Salt Lake City's Granite School District is expected to approve a new policy this month barring students and teachers from connecting on sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The policy - the first of its kind in Utah - provides an exemption for teachers' sites that are educational, not personal. Officials said there was no specific incident that spurred the new guidelines. But with the popularity of social networking sites in schools, Granite wants to eliminate any gray areas when it comes to teacher-student interaction, district spokesman Ben Horsley said. "The reality is if someone is going to interact inappropriately with a student, there's certainly lots of technology out there that can help them get around those rules and guidelines in a very nonpublic way," Horsley said. "This gives us some tools to move forward on a disciplinary track."

What happens if someone posts an unflattering, or worse, a scandalous or compromising picture of you on Facebook? What are your rights? That's a sensitivity that we need to start nurturing by training our kids -- and our employees -- to use online tools responsibly', says Anna O'Brian, a PHD student in digital technology. What happens when only some of us know how to use these connective technologies to improve our lives (as opposed to overwhelming ourselves even more). In other words, what happens when only a small portion of online users is actually digitally literate?