June 2012

OMG, tweens are such a headache. That’s not news to parents who regularly grapple with their own prepubescents, but Mark Zuckerberg may be about to find out too.

Right now, Facebook is limited to users 13 and older, but as The Wall Street Journal first reported, tweens are very much on the social network’s radar. But experts on the demographic wonder whether the potential headaches, outside criticism, not to mention the limited revenue potential, make tweens worth it for Facebook and other social nets. “There are a multitude of concerns if not done right,” said Jim Steyer, CEO/founder of the nonprofit Common Sense Media. Not only could social networking negatively affect cognitive development, Steyer argued, but also a kid’s safety cannot be guaranteed no matter what the company’s technical prowess or monitoring assurances, he contends.

California has inched forward in its efforts to protect your passwords for Facebook and other social networking sites from prying colleges and companies.

One of a pair of bills making their way through committees in the state Legislature was unanimously approved Tuesday by the Assembly Judiciary Committee. Senate Bill 1349 seeks to prohibit the practice at public and private California colleges and universities. It reads: "A public or private postsecondary educational institution shall not require, or formally request in writing, a student or prospective student to disclose the user name or account password for a personal social media account or to otherwise provide the institution with access to any content of that account." The bill, which has already been approved by the full Senate, moves on to the Assembly Higher Education Committee next week for consideration.

The Chicago Tribune will at last begin charging for its online content through an innovative scheme that will also give readers access to a premium package of third party content, the newspaper has told paidContent.

Under the plan, readers will see selections from the Economist and Forbes magazines included in a new paid section, which will also include Tribune content that has been newly designated as premium. According to Digital VP Bill Adee, the Tribune will not block readers from content at first but will instead ask them to register. This registration period — which will be introduced in the next few days — is intended to let readers know that a payment plan is on the way, and will also serve to familiarize them with a site redesign the Tribune is introducing at the same time. The paper says it plans to begin introducing article limits for non-subscribers later this year.

Two sharply different studies released this week offered glimpses into teenagers’ attitudes about their lives online.

McAfee, the security company, said the teenagers that it spoke to were leery of too much parental vigilance. Two out of three teens said their parents did not need to know everything about their online travels, and half said they would amend their behavior online if they knew their parents were watching.

In the other study, Common Sense Media, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that helps parents navigate new technologies aimed at children, concluded that texting, tweeting and checking a social network had become part of an American teenager’s daily rhythm, and on balance, represented a good influence in their lives. Half of the teenagers in the study said social networking had mainly helped their friendships, while only 4 percent said it had mainly hurt their friendships, and more than one in four said that social networking made them feel more outgoing. At the same time, their frustrations with digital distractions are a lot like those of some adults. Nearly half of those in the study said they wished they could “unplug” sometimes. More telling, one in five wished their parents could too.