![]() ![]() ![]() That does not stop parents from worrying about what sorts of sites their children may happen upon. As for meeting new people, she believes the Internet is a great equalizer: "Everyone's on the same level and no one can be cooler than the next person." Three-quarters of Emma's icq list covers people she knows. While many teens enjoy chatting with strangers, a surprising number simply want to talk to their friends. Instant messaging programs differ from chat-room Web sites in that users exercise more control over who they communicate with by creating personalized chat lists. It's craziness." While the novelty wore off, Emma still spends about 20 hours a week online, most of it on icq. "I was in the chat rooms, like, three hours a day. "Of course, the first month you're hooked," says the Toronto student. Emma McDermott, an outgoing 14-year-old with a penchant for acting, got wired as a Christmas gift last year. Instant messaging services like icq (for "I seek you," found at allow users to get around the limitations of both telephone and e-mail with a chat room-like format in which numerous people congregate. ![]() On average, says the poll - entitled "Youth Culture's report on the Net generation" - boys go online for more than 10 hours a week, girls for eight hours.īut far from isolating kids in a cyber-netherworld, the Net has become a tool for expanding and enhancing most young people's social connections. That's a hefty figure - about double the proportion of Canadian households that use the Internet. According to the survey, designed by Northstar Research Partners for Youth Culture Inc., a Toronto-based media and research firm, a full 85 per cent of Canada's teenagers are wired, three-quarters of them at home. Parents should breathe a sigh of relief at that profile - since chances are their teen spends a lot of spare time surfing the Web. As well, they say they use the Net for relatively harmless purposes like chatting with other kids, getting the scoop on their favourite celebrities and doing their homework. In fact, the study found that kids aged 12 to 17 who regularly go online are pretty normal - they hold a broad range of interests, play sports, listen to the radio, read magazines and value friendships. But is he representative of Canada's teen Internet users? The answer, according to a new survey on young people and the Internet, is emphatically, no. Jon, who was sentenced to 240 hours of community work, fuels a popular image: the teenage loner who takes refuge in cyberspace, unable to resist the allure of the Net's nefarious subcultures. The 17-year-old former boy scout revealed in court that since quitting school two years ago, he had spent up to 15 hours a day on the Internet on his home computer. Just one month after police in Montreal arrested accused cyber-vandal Mafiaboy, another Montreal computer whiz-kid known as Jon pleaded guilty last week to playing havoc with data systems at NASA, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The boy at the centre of Canada's latest teen hacker drama was almost too perfect a stereotype. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |