source F The following is excerpted from an article about the effects of the internet of children and teens.

For over 25 million youth, Facebook is replacing email as "the" way to communicate, and parentsare often left in the dust and wondering is it safe? These kids are "A" students, and far from brats; but most are not cognitively developed enough to recognize their behavior is hurtful to others. According to Lisa Ott, the Youth Empowerment Coordinator at the Womenand Family Life Cente,this is on target with research in adolescent brain development. Kids get into trouble with sites like Facebook and MySpace because they are too self centered intheir overall development to understand the impact of what they are doing, she said. Middle schoolage children are the most susceptible to cyber bullying, and high school students most likely to use poor judgment in giving out information. Dr. Jay Giedd is the chief of brain imaging in the child psychiatry branch at the National Institute of MentalHealth, and an expert in adolescent brain development. His research shows the brain is not fully developedat age 12 as was believed, but reaches full maturity in our mid-twenties. Adolescence is a time of profound brain development, surpassing that of toddlers. The area of the pre frontal cortex develops last, which is in charge of higher reasoning and understanding consequences. The emotional centers of the brain that control happiness, fear, anger and sadness often over-compensate, and can be 50% stronger during adolescence. A child's brain reaches its full size at age six and the gray matter is actually the thickest around age 12.Remember how the world was full of possibilities at that age? Because it truly is. After this stage, the brain begins to prune back gray matter and the phrase use it or lose it becomes key as certain brain cells dieforever. The skills your child learns during adolescence; like sports, dancing, music or academics becomehard wired. Other skills that are not being used will fall away. Most kids today don't have a local bowling alley or soda shop to hang out, like the baby boomer generationshad. They also aren't allowed to play outside until the street lights come on as recent generations enjoyed.Hours of skipping rope, climbing trees and building forts is replaced with the tap tapping of tiny keyboards.The cyber playground has replaced the physical one, for better or worse.... Peggy Orenstein, author of Growing Up Daisy recently wrote about "Growing Up on Facebook" in the NewYork Times. She notes most kids now going to college have been 'facebooking' since middle school, and wonders how our youth will be able to take the important steps of "reinventing themselves" with "450 friendswatching, all tweeting to affirm ad nauseam your present self?"