Given all of the pressures and issues today’s tweens face, the internet is both a blessing and, potentially, a curse. Many local companies and entrepreneurs are taking up the cause to make the internet, and specifically social networking, a safer environment for tweens.
Many tweens are just being awakened to the allure of the internet world. Their initial exposure may be limited to just sending email or looking up items on Google. However, Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter usage will likely come into play for tweens as well.
To assist in the issue of protecting tweens online, a new social networking site, called BFF less than three, is being created. The creators, Roy and Ed Suda, are recent Illinois Institute of Technology grads. For those new to social networking and internet lingo, “BFF” is short for “Best Friends Forever” and the less than three (the number three) looks like a heart laying on its side.
This new network will focus on the security and safety of tweens by employing a couple of methods. First, the network will use the idea of “necklaces” to not only verify the user, but to also make it possible, once the user is verified, to connect only to others that the user knows. Secondly, the network will provide parents a report, via email, so that they can regularly see the communication trail of their tween. Such safeguards will help parents to mitigate the risk and exposure of online predators.
While the BFF network sounds like a potentially great social network for tweens, there will still be the need for parents to actively monitor their tween’s online usage. Starting with mentally accepting that the online world is a major component of how this generation communicates is key. Parents who may not already be internet or computer savvy will need to educate themselves more thoroughly in order to effectively help in the safeguarding tweens as they mature in their own personal internet and social network usage.
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About the Author:
Traci S Campbell is the top advocate for tweens and teens from single parent homes. She is the host of Heroes at Home Radio dedicated to providing single parents with inspiration and motivation by featuring other single parents and the author of The C.H.A.M.P. Within program designed to enrich the lives of children and teens from single-parent homes.
