Posterous is the right answer when your kid wants a web site.
I've been a father for 13 years; I figure I'll get it right in another 30. My oldest daughter is just as interested as her peers in the benefits of technology, but by default they never seem interested in how it works. Prior to starting the 8th grade, she has:
- Her 4th cell phone
- Her 2nd digital camera
- Her 2nd MP3 player
- A strong dislike for content filtering
- One email address (you can't have it, pervert)
- 40+ Twitter followers
- More friends and activity in facebook than me (private account)
- A solid grasp on why you have to get permission from friends before posting their photos
- An understanding of why we don't want her to have a MySpace account
- And now a blog - if you want to call Posterous a blog
I'm every bit the 'clean a shotgun in front of the boyfriend' type, so I wanted to ensure that as each new piece of tech came up, she and I both understood what they meant in the life of a pre-teen/teen girl. I made a point of finding a way to get her to apply critical thinking skills to what technology she used and how she used it.
Posterous in particular is well suited to teen use because:
- You can give a unique URL while minimizing the personal details in your profile
- It's easy to create and manage multiple accounts (private + public)
- I can subscribe to her account to follow what she's posting and watch for too-personal details
- Since there's no personal info or domain registrar details it's safer for her to post pictures
- It would be a lousy platform to arrange hook-ups
Technology is far too pervasive today to prevent kids from using it. I think we're much better off putting our effort into working side-by-side with them to make good choices about how to use what is available to them.
