According to the Search Institute, tweens need support, and empowerment to achieve healthy development. They need to understand expectations and consequences, and they need to know how to use their time constructively. They need positive values and a positive sense of identity. They must demonstrate a personal commitment to doing well in school and getting along with others. If they can achieve these developmental assets, then tweens have a good chance of faring well in life. The Internet can be a very useful tool in helping kids attain these milestones.
The Internet has empowered tweens to express their ideas in ways never experienced before. deviantART.com, for example, is an "expansive, worldwide community of artists of every age, and every nationality who create works spanning every medium, every subject and every level of talent and skill" (deviantART, 2011, Etiquette Policy). More than a social network, this site is a venue through which artists of every age, including tweens, can share their original work in a safe environment that is conducive to collaboration and growth. Flickr, YouTube, and many other popular Websites also provide tweens with an opportunity to showcase their artistic creations and to receive immediate feedback.
Sites like deviantART support tweens' interests and abilities and empower them to take risks and accept constructive criticism. In this way, the Internet has enhanced a child's support network from the home and community to the home, community, and virtual community.
In addition to support and empowerment, tweens also need to understand expectations and consequences. In the physical world, expectations and consequences are taught in homes and schools. These valuable skills are also taught online. Closed networks designed to teach digital citizenship, like Everloop.com, help tweens identify and internalize the principles they will need to succeed in a virtual environment. When behavior pushes the boundaries of acceptability, adult moderators gently intercede, reminding tweens of expectations, and maintaining the safety and integrity of the Online social network by issuing consequences when necessary. This type of training is immensely important especially since cyberbullying has come to the forefront of public interest.
Cyberbullying occurs when a bully harasses another person online. Many reports find that cyberbullying is more damaging than regular bullying because it permeates the traditional boundaries of public versus private spaces. The Internet reaches into our private domains, and cyberbullying has the potential to occur all day long as it can intrude into private homes. Without the kind of training condoned by netiquette policies and networks, like Everloop, tweens might be more susceptible to cyberbullying or other kinds of Internet dangers. By informing tweens in the area of netiquette and making expectations explicit in this way, the Internet has also increased tweens understanding of social rules and expectations.
Perhaps the area where the Internet has enhanced the development of tweens the most, is in the areas of personal identity and positive values. The Internet provides tweens with access to the world. Whereas just a decade ago adolescents were limited by the social norms endemic to their neighborhoods, schools, churches, and homes, now, tweens have the capacity to transcend their physical locations through virtual groups, and friendships.
Many people fear that the Internet will corrupt tweens through unfettered access to information about sex, alternative lifestyles, or a myriad other topics that cause contention for adults. However, this information may save tweens' lives. Before, sex, alternative lifestyles, homosexuality, abuse, and many other situations may have isolated tweens from sources of comfort and support. Now tweens can seek that support through the Internet. They are able to find identification and community. The Internet may provide lifesaving information that tweens might have been too embarrassed to seek in person. Or, it may create a more inclusive reality so that tweens can develop a positive sense of self, values, and a positive understanding of community.
The Search Institute claims that if tweens develop certain assets, they will more likely grow into well-adjusted individuals. Many people fear the Internet will detract from tweens' ability to do so. Proponents of digital literacy, on the other hand, view the Web as an important tool for growth and point to the many tween Websites that can be used to promote healthy development.
deviantART. (2011). Etiquette policy. Retrieved from http://about.deviantart.com/policy/etiquette/
Search Institute. (2007). 40 developmental assets for middle childhood. Retrieved from http://www.search-institute.org/40-developmental-asset-middle-childhood-8-12
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