By Jazzmine, Denver Broncos Boys & Girls Club, Col.

Social networking is used by most people everyday. MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter are all social networking sites. Most of us would agree that it is the most useful tool today to connect with friends anywhere in the world, talk to numerous people at once, or just for pure entertainment. Another plus about social networking is that the discussion or blogging topics are vast in subject matter and can be anything from purple carrots to developing robot servants in the white house.

However, there are drawbacks to social networking such as getting viruses or pop ups. Safety and security are also a huge issue within social networking. When you sign up for a program, you give personal information out and could possibly be a victim of identity theft.

"Cyberstalking" is also an issue for all ages. Teens and younger people do not realize that what they are putting out onto the web could easily be accessed by stalkers, rapists, and murders without hacking anything. Adults can be tracked down by their jobs or certain organizations they support.

Also, social networking connects people with their friends, but also their enemies, so harassment is also a problem. Along with that comes the fake retailers that you pay money to and never hear from again.

Social networking is a necessity for our community today but there are two sides to everything. Just like you find friends and share fun and information with them, there are strangers and predators online as well seeking to steal information and even do harm to others. Please be aware of these dangers and use social networking safely! 

By Sierra, Boys & Girls Clubs of Tampa Bay, Fla.

Technology is becoming more and more advanced everyday. Some people take advantage of it, and others use it in the correct manner. Online communication isn’t always a good thing.

MySpace and other websites like FaceBook and Twitter are used by a lot of teenagers these days. They use it for communication purposes. Many adults use these websites too. They may use them for business purposes.

For teenagers, it’s just another way for trouble. Drama is a big thing with the girls. When stupid stuff at school happens, like for instance, let’s say Amanda and Chelsea don’t get along and Amanda accidentally bumps into Chelsea as they are walking to class and she doesn’t apologize, Chelsea could go on MySpace and threaten her by calling her inappropriate words and telling her if that happens again then she will beat her up after school. That is known as cyberbullying.

Sites to Help Combat Trouble Online 

Another way of cyberbullying is stealing someone’s password and pretending to send messages from their account. That is also lying. Some people even have contests rating their peers as the ugliest person in class. That is disrespectful and could crush someone’s feelings. It can also lead to emotional disturbance and that is very sad because some kids do stuff like cut themselves. You can stop things like this from happening by going to websites like www.stopcyberbullying.org or check out the NSTeens site.

If someone bullies you online or you know someone that is being treated that way, don’t hesitate to tell your parents, another authority figure or a trusted teacher or adviser. Don’t try to handle the situation yourself. The proper adult figure can help you get the problem stopped.

These website aren’t always used inappropriately. Let’s say for instance you’re on the web and you’re doing math homework and you’re stuck on a problem. You notice a friend from class is online. You don’t have a cell phone so you decide to ask them for help. Eventually, you figure out the problem. In this kind of situation, online websites don’t seem bad at all.

So my message is - these websites weren’t created for problems. Use them the correct way and be safe and alert an adult when any situation appears unsafe.