My research paper has been coming along pretty well. I have went through all of my sources and have summarized them all. From here I will take these summaries and make my paper from it. Also, I have made an introduction for my paper. So here is what I have so far:

Intro:

In the world today, social networking sites are a huge deal. These sites have been around since 1997. The number one social networking site, as of 2009, has over 200 million users throughout the whole world (Dorsch, 2009). It has been said that children use social networking sites to figure out who they are or who they want to become (Rapacki, 2007). They spend a lot of their time browsing social networking sites, updating their statuses, and talking to their friends (Bridge, 2011). The browsing time on these sites has more than tripled in growth than the growth of the Internet itself (Dorsch, 2009). These sites can make children feel threatened or not comfortable (Consumer, 2009). Children may also be bullied to the point of depression (Bridge, 2011).

This report is written for Brian Cunningham, chair of mission on the BoysTown board of directors. BoysTown main goal is to help children and families through life threatening situation. Their organization has many services, one of which is the Kids Helpline. This service allows 24 hour access to counseling help to help kids going through hard times or life problems; such as sexual harassment, cyber bullying, and suicidal thoughts.

My information came from using the online databases that Kansas State University has to offer their students. The two databases I used were Lexis Nexis and ProQuest. To conduct my searches I used key phrases like “social networking and children”, “social networking problems”, and “children and cyber bullying”. I chose my information due to what the Kids Helpline would need to know to help children with the social networking problem.

This report describes the up rise in social networking. It includes statistics and facts on how much children are being affected to this new social networking trend. There are some things that need to be known to keep children and their families safe.

Source 1:

Dorsch, M. & Greenberg, P. (2009, July/August). WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT social networking. State Legislatures 35(7), 62-64 Retrieved 29 August 2012, from ProQuest.

Social networking sites have been around since 1997. The browsing time on these sites has more than tripled in growth than the growth of the Internet itself. The number one social networking site, as of 2009, has over 200 million users throughout the whole world. This site would be Facebook. It is always important to know your purpose of using a social networking site before using and then sticking to your purpose once using the site. Also, it’s important to distinguish between personal and professional when using these sites. Security can be an issue in these sites due to the fact they are on the internet and therefore will give hackers a chance to gain possession of a person’s site. The last important tip this article gave was to know the sites policies and agreements.

Source 2:

Microsoft: Online bullying a major concern among youth. (2012). Professional Services Close – Up. Retrieved 29 August 2012 from ProQuest.

The Microsoft Corporation conducted a survey of how many children, throughout the world, are afraid of being bullied while online. The survey had shown that approximately 54% of children are afraid of bullying. The survey was given to over 7,600 children, all of which are between the ages of 8 and 17. Children who feel that they had already experienced online bullying showed to be approximately 40% of the surveyed group. Children who felt that they bullied someone online showed to be approximately 24% of the surveyed group. The survey also shown that children feel like they want to inform their parents what is going on and talk to them about it, however only 29% of the surveyed group said they have already had their parents talk to them about the issue.

Source 3:

Rapacki, S. (2007). Social networking sites: Why teens need places like MySpace. Young Adult Library Services 5(2), 28-30. Retrieved 29 August 2012 from ProQuest.

It has been said that children use social networking sites to figure out who they are or who they want to become. The people around them and media also help influence children. However, the main goal is to get through adolescence which can be a very hard time to deal with. One main site that helps children explore to figure out who they are is MySpace. The user profile on MySpace allows the user to add music and background to their page along with the usual personal information. Tools such as blogs and bulletins can allow the user to write about their life as if it was their own personal journal and get feedback on their posts.

Source 4:

Sellers, S. C. (2011). The influence of social networking websites on youth’s behavior. Lamar University – Beaumont). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Retrieved 29 August 2012 from ProQuest.

Behavior changes can vary from depression to rule breaking. The study that was done by Lamar University was of over 200 students from middle school to high school and focuses on if rule breaking/delinquent acts are due to having a social networking site. It showed substance abuse is related to male students, honor class students, and students with trouble making friends; however social networking sites was not related. Crime is related directly to age but not social networking sites. Bullying others was related to the number of social networking sites a student had.

Source 5:

Wolak, J., Finkelhor, D., Mitchell, K. J., & Ybarra, M. L. (2010). Online “predators” and their victims: Myths, realities, and implications for prevention and treatment. Psychology of Violence, 1, 13-35. Retrieved 29 August 2012 from ProQuest.

Online predators are known to trick children and use violence but the truth is they earn a relationship with the child to meet up with them leading to statutory rape. In most cases the child actually knew all along that they were talking to an adult. Offenders usually have their victims feeling as though they are in love and promising things they don’t mean. This feeling of love can accrue faster than that of a face-to-face relationship do to the secrecy factor and the fact it happens in isolation or away from everything and everyone else. Almost every offender is just looking for a sexual encounter. In 2000, there were more than 6,500 arrests throughout the nation on charges of statutory rape. The more a child understands the internet and starts to explore all it has to offer, the greater chance of the child to be affected by an offender.

Source 6:

(2009, October). CONSUMER AFFAIRS: Protecting children in a social networking environment. McClatchy – Tribune Business News. Retrieved 29 August 2012 from ProQuest.

It is the parents’ duty to inform children that not everything needs to be shared on social networking sites, especially personal items and information. Children also need to realize that everything they post is visible to everyone and anyone. This will cause the person viewing the child’s social networking site to get a first impression of the child. Not understanding about privacy also can lead a child to feel threatened or not comfortable. There are policies that help with some privacy, like age requirements, that can hope if a child is a certain age they might better understand privacy.

Source 7:

(2011, May 26). Facebook not targeting kids.  Investor’s Business Daily, pp.02. Retrieved 29 August 2012 from ProQuest.

All social networking sites have policies that must be followed by it’s users. These policies are things such as nudity, language, age requirement, etc; all of which are useful in keeping everyone safe. Facebook has their policy stating those who are 12 and under are prohibited from creating a profile; however statistics show 7.5 million profiles are used by those who are 12 and under. To create a profile the users’ date of birth is asked for. These sites trust that the user will put in a correct date of birth but it is easy to add up the years to figure out what year you would need to be born to be considered old enough for a profile.

Source 8:

(2011, September). Social Networking – A Bridge Or A Gap?. Retrieved 29 August 2012, from Newstex Web Blogs on Lexis Nexis Academic.

Now days children are more likely to have phones, computers, iPods, etc., all of which have internet access, at a younger age than before. These electronic gadgets allow children easy access to social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter. They spend a lot of their time browsing these sites, updating their statuses, and talking to their friends. Anything can be posted to their social networking site and they can add anyone/be added by anyone. These two things can lead to children getting bullied or even become depressed.