Connie Schultz’s column in today’s Plain Dealer hits upon a growing phenomenon among young people – instant access to peers.

In a world of text messages and Facebook status updates, we’re all able to check in on our friends at every waking hour. Workplaces are beginning to ban Facebook access on work computers because of the amount of time wasted on it, but it’s not only the time that gives us pause. Researchers have recently started looking at increased anxiety in teen girls who excessively use Facebook-based chat rooms.

Schultz observed a more immediate and personal problem. She learned of a teen girl who was being harassed by a boy through text messages. The psychological addiction to sending and receiving information combined with the hormones of a teenage boy (or grown man) can easily lead to abuse. Since the boy literally has a direct electronic link to a girl’s hip, he’s likely to assume that he has the right to her attention at his demand.

Phones, of course, are not simply phones. They are cameras, too, and teens are developing their own ability to create instant pornography. With every high school student carrying access to in the internet in their pocket (hey, moms and dads: any camera phone can be used to send pics online) any poor decision that a boy or girl makes with a camera phone can be viewed around the world as many times as this month’s Playboy centerfold.


-Gabriel