The teenage brain is, “like a car with a good accelerator but a weak brake. With powerful impulses under poor control, the likely result is a crash.” – Laurence Steinberg

Teens are always going to make mistakes: it’s part of what being a teenager is about after all, but the internet represents a whole new set of issues for teenagers.

For older teens, innocent pictures of a night out posted on their Facebook profile or MySpace page can result in difficulties when they eventually start looking for work. Younger teens and tweens can run into trouble by posting to much seemingly harmless information about themselves, positing anything from their favourite place to hang out after school, to what they’ll be wearing when they go out.

Naturally, risk taking is a key part of anyone’s development, but do social networks foster too great a sense of security? How can we give teenagers the space to explore and share whist doing everything possible to keep them safe?

Without some sort of guardian present, online spaces can become a virtual version of the unsupervised school playground, often made worse due to the anonymity afforded by the internet. Someone who may think twice about harassing a class mate face-to-face may have no such inhibitions when sitting behind a computer screen in the comfort of their own room.

So how can we guide teens, without stifling them?

Inhabit their world

Understand the language used by teens / tweens. This includes keeping up to date with changing language trends, including code words that children use to get round automated filters.

Children are developing and need some freedom to do this. At this stage in their lives, they are forming individual opinions and testing ideas. Our role as adults is to keep children safe, not censor them. But be clear what the line is, and intervene once it is crossed.

Listen to concerns or questions, and respond quickly. Traffic should be two-way – not only to protect your users and your brand, but also to learn from them and develop your offering.

Avoid being intrusive, or engaging with the user over the wrong platform. Listen (see above) to what platform children want to engage with you over, and use it.
    
Earn trust and respect. This is so important to young people finding their own boundaries and voices. Show trust and respect (and consistency), and don’t patronise teens and tweens. That way you’ll get trust and respect back.

Keep them engaged and happy online. Diffuse difficult situations, be aware of the day-to-day dramas and heartache and help them through the highs and lows. But don’t jump in too soon. Assuming a child is not in any danger, he or she will only learn how to deal with the emotional journey of teenage years by experiencing it.

Keep them safe
    
Watch out for and deter cyberbullying, peer-to-peer abuse and the kind of peer pressure that leads to this abuse. Researchers cited by CNET in an article on online abuse  say that anywhere from 40 percent to 85 percent of kids have been exposed to some kind of digital bullying, whether it’s a stolen password or being called “fat” via instant message.

Spot and prevent grooming behaviour. Technology has become so advanced that it is possible to use software as well as human moderators to spot early grooming behaviour by analysing patterns of behaviour, and to link that behaviour to previous activity on a website.

Keep children safe from themselves. Most children will give away personally identifying information (particularly from live feeds) without even thinking about the consequences, which can lead to abuse.

Don’t let them be exposed to potentially damaging, offensive or otherwise inappropriate material, uploaded by other users.
    
Educate them on the consequences of inappropriate behaviour. The role of a moderator in educating children is to work with parents and other adult role models to act as a guide for children – akin to a teacher in the playground, rather than a more censorial role – to help diffuse potentially damaging situations, or help children work their responses out for themselves.

Create mechanisms to report abusive behaviour, give feedback, or voice concerns. It is so important that children can easily voice their concerns or ask questions in confidence.

The moderator’s role as guardian

Adults who have a presence in online worlds inhabited by children – no matter how good their intentions – will be seen alternately as role model, common enemy, powers-that-be, guide, teacher and intruder. That is the role of an adult mentor, or guide, to a teenager starting to flex their muscles – it’s the way of the world.

Above all, moderators must be a guide to steer children through difficulties, and someone to keep them from self-harm or abuse by others.

Currently, there is no legal obligation to moderate online behaviour or content – although the Digital Britain report indicates that a content labelling system of some sort is not far away – but of course there is a moral one. The reputational risk of being associated with offensive material could have wide-reaching implications for brands.
 
For a more in-depth look at marketing to teens/tweens and their online behaviour, see eModeration’s white papers on the subject.