Social Networks and the Wicked Gravity of Children

Spinning around the web I was surprised to hear from an old friend from my high school years today. It was on Myspace while I checking on what my kids were doing there. It turns out I’m not the only one that sets up a Myspace account to see what their kids are doing and who they are coming into contact with on the social network.

It’s kind of funny how following the orbit of your children can bring you back in contact with people from your teenage years. When we were teenagers our gathering spots for mischief were at the drive ins (Newport had two drive in theaters when I was growing up), pizza places and parking lots. Today kids gather on Myspace and Facebook to plot their mischief and sometimes run into the unfavorables of the Internet. I don’t think our parents checked on us, but Newport had a reputation of taking care of the bad seeds that try to bring be intentions to kids. Maybe the Internet can learn something from the old way of Cocke County, run the unwanted behavior out of town.

I have been of the mind that social networks that allow underage members should make parent involvement mandatory for the child to access it. Most would said that the process would be too expensive. I’d have to say that they aren’t looking at the picture, think of the new market they would bring in to their user base and of the ways they could leverage the adverting opportunities. The good faith gesture of an open network that want’s the parents to participate can only establish a trust between the parents and the network. Over time the trust bond would form by parents trusting the advertisers also. The network now has tapped into a broader market and would be more appealing to more advertisers only to bring in more ad dollars.

What do you think – Do you think social media should make parents become involved with their children’s online world? If so what hurdles will they be jumping?