Frontline Shines Light on Teens' Online Lives

As Frontline often does, it digs beneath the overplayed yet incomplete media coverage to take a longer, more informative view of teens' online lives.

Growing Up Online is worth every parent's time. If you missed the show Tuesday night, you can catch it online on PBS.org, along with extended interviews and follow-ups with some of the kids interviewed for the piece.

It's powerful because it veers from the hyped and all-too-expected focus on the threat of pedophiles and predators stalking our kids; in fact, kids interviewed for the news program universally say they ignore and delete any weird or scary overtures made by people they don't know on their social network pages.

The bigger concern is how and where kids spend their time online can affect their relationships and actions in school and at home. And how they feel about themselves at the heightened time of adolescent development. Some of the most compelling stories that every parent should hear:

• A teen named Jess creates on online persona as goth model Autumn Edows, and is humiliated in school when students and administrators find out. That's when her parents find out, too, and stand behind her as she deletes all of the risque photos. Stick around to find out that her parents support her as she rebuilds her online persona with more thoughtful photos because they understand she needs the creative outlet.

• A Vermont dad and mom tell the achingly sad story of the suicide death of their 13-year-old son, Ryan, who was the recipient of a barrage of nasty and mean instant messages from kids at school, including a girl who said she liked him then told him it was a joke. Ryan's last IMs were with a boy he chatted with about suicide, and his dad found an online trail to web sites that provide how-to's on hanging and other suicide methods.

One big point made is that bullying at school used to end when school ended, and kids could go home, chill and reflect, and maybe even talk to parents and siblings about it. Now, they come home, go online, and the drama and abuse can continue.

Says Ryan's dad, John Halligan, at the end of Frontline: "I can't blame the computer. The computer and the Internet were not the cause of my son's suicide, but I believe they helped amplify and accelerate the hurt and the pain that he was trying to deal with that started at school and in person in the real world."

• Chatham mom Evan Skinner and her son, Cam, are barely talking by the end his high school days. The piece reveals the chilling effect that being a hovering parent who impinges on her kids' privacy online can have on the parent/teen relationship.

• Sara reveals to Frontline before telling her parents that she is anorexic and spends much of her time online chatting with other anorexic girls in online communities that support each other in their drive to not eat and be dangerously thin.

The biggest takeaway from the program is that what scares parents most about the Internet may be the least threatening. Watch the program, and check out the additional info and interviews that delve into keeping kids safe online.