(Originally written for TIME Magazine) We’re afraid of and afraid for teenagers. And nothing brings out this dualism more than discussions of how and when teens should be allowed to participate in public life. Last week, Facebook made changes to teens’ content-sharing options. They introduced the opportunity for those ages 13 to 17 to share their updates and …
Continue reading Keeping Teens ‘Private’ on Facebook Won’t Protect Them
Two years ago, when I started working on issues related to human trafficking and technology, I was frustrated by how few people recognized the potential of technology to help address the commercial sexual exploitation of children. With the help of a few colleagues at Microsoft Research, I crafted a framework document to think through the …
Continue reading Addressing Human Trafficking: Guidelines for Technological Interventions
[John Palfrey and I originally wrote this as an op-ed for the Huffington Post. See HuffPo for more comments.] On 22 September 2010, the wallet of Tyler Clementi - a gay freshman at Rutgers University - was found on the George Washington Bridge; his body was found in the Hudson River the following week. His …
In 2005, I started asking teenagers about their password habits. My original set of questions focused on teens' attitudes about giving their password to their parents, but I quickly became enamored with teens' stories of sharing passwords with friends and significant others. So I was ecstatic when Pew Internet & American Life Project decided to …
Continue reading How Parents Normalized Teen Password Sharing
Over the last couple of years, I've laid awake at night asking myself uncomfortable questions about bullying and teen suicide. I don't have answers to most of the questions that I have, but I'm choosing to voice my questions, fears, and doubts because I'm not confident that our war on bullying is taking us down …
Continue reading Four Difficult Questions Regarding Bullying and Youth Suicide
Announcing new journal article: "Why Parents Help Their Children Lie to Facebook About Age: Unintended Consequences of the 'Children's Online Privacy Protection Act'" by danah boyd, Eszter Hargittai, Jason Schultz, and John Palfrey, First Monday. "At what age should I let my child join Facebook?" This is a question that countless parents have asked my …
Continue reading Why Parents Help Children Violate Facebook’s 13+ Rule
We all know that teen bullying - both online and offline - has devastating consequences. Jamey Rodemeyer's suicide is a tragedy. He was tormented for being gay. He knew he was being bullied and he regularly talked about the fact that he was being bullied. Online, he even wrote: "I always say how bullied I …
Continue reading The Unintended Consequences of Cyberbullying Rhetoric
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