Internet Safety News
"Generation IM"
by Anne Collier
For a large and rapidly growing number of teenagers, giving out one's telephone number is very "old-school." Now a boy will ask a girl for her "SN" (screen name) so he can IM (chat via instant-messaging) with her after school, according to Yahoo Internet Life. The report cites estimates of 150 million IM users worldwide, "about one-third of all people who use the Net in any capacity," and the two biggest user groups are teens and business users.1 IM is reportedly changing the way people interact in both social and business arenas, in the same way e-mail did before it. For example an 18-year-old, first-generation Asian-American girl did not own a computer and was not allowed to receive telephone calls after 7:00 P.M. She, however, persuaded her "traditionally minded" parents to buy her a computer "for schoolwork." Soon she was IM-ing from arrival home from school until 2:30 A.M.
1Matt Goldberg. "Generation IM." Yahoo Internet Life. April 2002, http://www.yil.com/features/feature.asp?Frame=false&Volume=08&Issue=04&Keyword=genim&Page=01.
Anne Collier is editor of the SafeKids/NetFamilyNewsletter and president of NetFamilyNews.org, a nonprofit news service for parents and teachers of online kids.
