Should you be wary of Social Networks for adolescents

A gathering place

Teenagers have always looked for a place to gather. They need their own spaces, far from the adult world, to experience, discover, and define themselves as an individual. Nowadays, this place is often found on social networks.

In these virtual gathering places, they come into contact with their friends, try to find others, hope to find love, and test the limits imposed by adults. Adolescence also corresponds to puberty and sexual arousal. Dating sites allow young people to find answers to their questions, woo and be wooed.

A legitimate and universal quest

Technology is a game changer, and brings its own benefits, but also dangers.

Since the virtual world facilitates meetings and exchanges, and removes inhibitions in many cases, it is better to warn children, without trying to constantly monitor them.

Extortion, cyberbullying and youthful self-exploitation are unfortunately part of the realities of the virtual world.

Are the sites secure?

Technologies change every day, new sites appear and disappear, and applications facilitate exchanges. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter are all safe sites, at first glance, as are dating sites like meeting-ados.net, espace-live.net and kiss-ados.com. The danger is rarely linked to the site visited, but rather to the use made of it.

Young people should be aware that, if they can lie about their age to create a profile on any site, any individual who invites them to chat with them can in turn lie. It is therefore preferable to interact with people they know or who they have already met in the flesh.

Since teens live in the present moment, we must help them realize the impact that a photo or video can have when it travels on the Internet. Speeches made anonymously on a site can also have unexpected, and even serious, repercussions.