Nowhere else will you find parents' and teachers' views on a tool that's changing the way teens communicate and relate. The newsletter will be on Spring Break next week. The next issue will arrive in your In-Box March 23. By most definitions, it's the fastest-growing communications service ever.
Kids are still doing homework while chatting - only now it's online.
A hazard is that friends can give friends their other friends' IM codes, so they might not know who's got their profile. We have clear rules in our family about not chatting online with someone you don't know personally. IM at our house is usually with close friends whom my daughter may not see in school every day. A social advantage is that the boys, who seem to be intimidated calling on the phone and having to talk to Mom or the little sister first, are more comfortable having long conversations with girl classmates in IM first before making scary 'in person' phone calls. She stays up late doing it and gets up early to do it, too.