"Kids have left their parents way in the dust in terms of computer savvy and knowledge," says psychologist Richard A. Lieberman, who coordinates the L.A. Unified School District's Suicide Prevention Unit, the only one of its kind in the nation. "I see parents further behind than ever before . . . they're overwhelmed" by the effort to monitor their kids' electronic and real-life socializing and keep up with their own obligations.
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In a 2007 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation's Media and Health project, parents expressed growing confidence that they are cracking into their children's electronic world. Nearly three in four surveyed said they know "a lot" about what their kids are doing online. And among parents of kids who socialized electronically, 82% said they review their child's social networking profile, 87% said they check their child's instant-messaging "buddy list," and 76% say they go online to check what websites their kids have visited.
Lieberman thinks that these parents are probably kidding themselves -- or that many may be so busy reading over their kids' shoulders that they fail to get a good reading of the kids themselves.
"I've had a parent say, 'What do you mean my daughter's depressed and isolated? She has 900 friends on MySpace!,' " Lieberman says.
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melissa.healy@latimes.com
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latimes.com /health
Sociable security
As an add to government efforts, MySpace and Facebook adopt child safety rules.
