Amanda Lenhart Quotations

The filtering companies have stepped into the breech. Technology is an appealing fix.

Whether you meet someone offline or online, email and other forms of online communication now play host to some of the most crucial interactions in the early stages of a relationship.

Whether you meet someone offline or online, e-mail and other forms of online communication now play host to some of the most crucial interactions in the early stages of a relationship.

What's going on with these technologies that are relatively complex is that teens have a bit more spare time than adults do, and they have more opportunities to play with technology. That's what they're doing: They're playing with it. It's a toy. When you play with something, you take it apart, you look inside it, you turn it around. ... I think adults are less likely to do that. They just want it to work.

Our sense from talking with these teens is that the Internet expands their network of friends. They keep in touch with people they normally would not because instant messaging can be a more casual way of talking with someone you met at summer camp or someone you have not seen in awhile.

We're seeing things that have always happened before, with teens saying and doing inappropriate things. They just didn't happen in such a public way.

One in six Internet-using adults in the U.S., or 25 million people, have sold something online. The figure is higher for Web users who have access to broadband Internet connections.

The technology is certainly not making it any easier for parents.

It's replaced the mass e-mail or even the phone chat. They use them to reinforce the connections they have.

I would emphasize in the end that parents and kids think the Internet is a good thing. They realize it has its flaws, but in the final tally they believe it is a positive thing in their kids' lives.