Teenager Talks About What His Friends Do Online; Media Flips Out

from the someone-please-explain dept

The media seems to be falling all over itself to report on the "insights" coming out of a "report" put out by Morgan Stanley about how teens are using technology today. The report, it appears, isn't an actual research analysis or anything. It's just a 15-year-old intern writing about what his friends use technology-wise. That's not to say it's not interesting. It certainly gives a decent view of what's happening in one kid's social circle. Nothing in it seems all that surprising. Kids communicate a lot on the internet. They don't buy music (oh yeah, he contradicts that "other" questionable study of the day that claimed streaming was replacing downloads by noting that his friends prefer to actually have the files, but don't pay for them). It's difficult to see why this is a big deal, but because Morgan Stanley put its logo on it, suddenly it's getting a ton of coverage from Bloomberg, The Telegraph, The Guardian, The Financial Times and others. It's as if none of them have ever thought to actually ask a teenager what kind of media and technology he or she uses. But the key point here is that while there are some useful insights raised by the kid (though, nothing too surprising) it's still just the anecdotal musings of one kid.

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Texting Is Wrecking Your Teenager's Mind, Destroying Their Thumbs, Killing Puppies, Etc.

from the doom-and-gloom dept

The New York Times says the growing use of texting among teenagers "is beginning to worry physicians and psychologists". Apparently all the texting kids do creates anxiety, keeps them from getting enough sleep, and causes repetitive stress injuries. Sure, texting could have some some negative impact on some kids, but like with so many things, for every citation of some horror texting causes, you can find studies touting texting's benefits, too. And finding one girl who texted so much it made her thumbs hurt really isn't a sign of an epidemic, either. It certainly makes for some good headlines, but is the rise of texting among teens really any different than the growth of any other technology, none of which seem to have killed us off yet?

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Missouri: Text Messaging While Driving Is Fine, As Long As You're Over 21

from the disparate-impact dept

Laws that ban individual activities -- like cell phone use -- while driving are often little more than political hype. Singling out specific activities for bans doesn't do much to address the root problem of unsafe driving, which remains the issue regardless of its cause, while also generating the implication that if a specific action while driving hasn't been banned, it's okay and safe. Nevertheless, plenty of states have moved forward with laws banning talking on cell phones while driving, and more recently, texting. Next, they'll have to ban using the mobile web, or IM, or playing Tetris on your phone while driving, since they've left these (and plenty of other activities) out, but we digress... In any case, Missouri's legislature has taken the silliness one step further by banning texting while driving, but only for drivers under the age of 21. If you accept the supposed need for these sorts of laws, how could you argue they should only apply to those under 21? What happens on a person's 21st birthday that suddenly makes texting while driving acceptable and safe? Answers in the comments, please...

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Would You Believe Teens Have No Interest In Paying For News?

from the who-woulda-thunk-it? dept

In a study that should surprise just about none of you (unless you're one of those newspaper execs who still thinks people will pay for the news), it turns out that teens have absolutely no interest in paying for news (thanks Felix Pleşoianu!), and they really like aggregation sites that provide them with a lot of info quickly and efficiently. Could newspapers (or the AP) provide them with this type of service? Sure... but they chose not to, and now complain about the companies that recognized this and provided what they refused to.

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Teens Want To Interact With Their Friends, Not Strangers, Online

from the who-are-you? dept

It's become quite clear that the threat to children from sexual predators on the internet has been massively overhyped by the media looking for a juicy story and for politicians looking to take advantage of it. Studies have shown that the number of sexual offenses against kids has dropped while internet use has grown, and fewer kids are actually being targeted by predators. What's always been interesting throughout this long-running moral panic is that kids have been shown to actually be pretty savvy in dealing with strangers online, and that perhaps politicians give them far less credit than they deserve in these areas. As we've noted, teaching kids how to deal with dangers they might face online -- just as with dangers they might face in real life -- is a much better way to keep them safe than by searching for some legal or technological magic bullet to eradicate sex offenders and protect the children. Now, another study has emerged saying that kids talk to their friends, and not strangers, online. Kids' primary use of social networking sites isn't to try and meet new people, let alone strangers, but rather to keep up with their real-life friends. The stories of kids being lured in by online predators grab lots of attention, and such incidents are undoubtedly despicable, but it's important to also remember that they are relatively rare.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Ohio Legislator Wants To Criminalize Kids Taking Nude Pics Of Themselves

from the too-much-free-time dept

The uproar over "sexting" -- kids taking nude pictures of themselves and sending them with their cameraphones -- is in full swing, with lots of politicians looking to wring some publicity out of it. In our earlier post about the Pennsylvania prosecutor who threatened to bring child-porn charges against some kids for taking their own pictures, Steve L left a comment noting that a politician in Ohio plans to introduce legislation that would make sexting a misdemeanor offense. He says he wants to criminalize the activity to protect kids from the "extra burden" of being charged with felony sex offenses. It's bizarre, though, as he says that teen sexters "did something stupid, but I don't think anyone wants for them to be called sex offenders," and "I think what these teens need is education about how this type of behavior could affect their lives." So the way to educate them is to make them criminals?

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Teens Face Child Porn Charges... For Taking Nude Photos Of Themselves

from the victimizing-themselves dept

There was just that report noting that 20% of teens admitted to sending around sexually explicit photos of themselves -- and now, six high school students in Pennsylvania are facing child porn charges because the three girls took naked photos of themselves and sent them to some boys (thanks to everyone who sent this in). The girls are charged with manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography, while the boys who received the photos are charged with possession. Now, it's pretty clear that the girls did something dumb here -- but teens do an awful lot of dumb things. It's part of growing up. Getting charged with child porn for taking photos of yourself and then being labeled a sex offender for the rest of your life seems... a bit extreme. This is why we've pointed out that laws, like the one in Georgia, that require sex offenders to hand over not just their emails, but passwords to all their accounts, are so ridiculous. If someone is actually found to be dealing in child porn, that's one thing -- but casting such a wide net is clearly overkill.

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20% Of Teens Send Sexually Explicit Photos Of Themselves?

from the really? dept

Sure, we've seen all sorts of moral panic-type reports about kids not thinking so much about the consequences of what content they reveal about themselves online, but it still strikes me as a bit unlikely that one in five teens reports sending sexually explicit photos of themselves to others using either mobile phones or online tools. Perhaps it depends on the definition of "sexually explicit."

This brings up another issue that was raised recently at the privacy discussion I attended recently. After someone pointed out that the younger generation is just used to being more open, a question was raised: is this a generational issue or a maturational issue? In other words, is the younger generation really just used to being more open about things, or is it that they haven't matured enough to recognize the potential impact of what they're doing -- and, as they age, will be more reasonable. I'm not sure anyone really knows the answer to that just yet.

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Are Teens Listening To More Radio?

from the might-ask-them-to-define-radio-first dept

Here's a surprising study. A survey from a company called Paragon Media Strategies claims that people between the ages of 14 and 24 are listening to more radio than they were a year or two ago. This greatly contradicts the findings of Arbitron, which famously tracks radio listeners. Paragon suggests that radio stations may be doing a better job connecting with people and that "the music may simply be more interesting." Of course, all of this might depend on how you define "radio." I wouldn't be surprised if many folks in that age range are listening to streaming radio online or downloadable podcasts -- that they might consider to be radio. But that's quite different than actually listening to terrestrial radio.

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No, Grand Theft Auto Isn't To Blame For Dumb Teens Getting Violent

from the please dept

It's been shown over and over again that violent video games don't lead to violence -- but that hasn't stopped anti-video game crusaders from looking for any example that suggests otherwise. It appears they're having a field day with a bunch of stupid teenagers on Long Island who went on a rampage saying they were acting out scenes from Grand Theft Auto. The mistake here is to blame GTA for the acts. These kids were bored and decided to go on a rampage. If it wasn't copying GTA, it would have been for some other reason. Furthermore, just because the kids blame GTA, doesn't mean that GTA was responsible. Of course kids will blame GTA if they think that will get them out of jail: "It wasn't my fault, you see. I was under the influence of some video game..." It's an easy way to deflect blame, but doesn't mean that the blame shouldn't rest squarely on the shoulders of those kids, rather than the video game. Millions of people play GTA every day and have no intention of acting it out in real life.

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Is Annoying Young People With A High-Pitched Buzz A Violation Of Their Rights?

from the the-right-not-to-be-buzzed dept

Back in 2005, we wrote about the Mosquito device that some shopkeepers were using to ward off loitering teens. The device supposedly emitted a high-pitched buzz that was inaudible to older folks whose hearing range had decreased. Generally, the noise could be heard by teens and some folks into their early twenties. Amusingly, some teens figured out a way to turn this noise to their own advantage, recording it and turning it into a ringtone that adults couldn't hear. Yet, The Raw Feed now lets us know that UK politicians are looking to ban the Mosquito device for violating the rights of teenagers, noting that it indiscriminately targeted all children and young people, even if they hadn't been doing anything wrong. That's certainly true, and it does seem rather silly to use this device in the first place, but does that mean it's actually violating anyone's rights? Is it illegal to play a noise that annoys people? Does it matter that it only annoys a certain age group? What if a store simply played music that annoyed a certain age group? Would that also be illegal?

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