October 3, 2003
Study: IM, EMail and SMS broaden Children's Social Networks
Internet messenger services, email, text and mobile phones are broadening children's social networks and making them virtually inseparable from one another, according to a new survey of internet attitudes by global research company RedSheriff, reports smh.com.
With parents restricting Internet usage driven by fears of pornography and bad influences online, children are asked to log off, but what is interesting is that they never leave. "Their circle of internet friends gets bigger with the inevitable transition to mobile phones in the early teens".
It is a trend that is being calmly observed by Virginia Nightingale of the School of Communication, Design and Media at the University of Western Sydney.
"Internet and messaging exchanges between children and teenagers are inevitable and mostly positive, Associate Professor Nightingale said.
Writing a message means disclosing more feelings and creating deeper relationships. Mobiles and SMS were more "here and now" than the internet, she said.
"Keeping in touch with people from school, keeping in touch with friends, meeting somebody at a party and immediately putting their number into your mobile, they potentially become part of a close circle of friends who are connected and supportive of you when things are going wrong in other parts of your life".
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