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Teenage girls are "encapsulated in a cocoon of texting and Facebook" and parents need to set limits even if that makes them unpopular, an American psychologist says.
Referring to girls living in a "cyber-bubble", Leonard Sax said they were updating Facebook pages late into the night.
Sax told TVNZ's Breakfast that while girls may be connecting to one another 24/7 through technology, they were not connecting to themselves and there was a loss of identity in the process.
"You need to be aware of what your daughter's doing on Facebook," he said.
Sax disagreed with parents who didn't believe in censorship, or monitoring what their children were doing online. He said parents who didn't get involved were leaving their children open to cyber-bullying.
"You've got to be willing to be the evil witch," he said in reference to the monitoring of habits.
There were ways to control your child's time spent on social media, Sax said, adding that there was a lot of nuance and subtlety in human communication which was not available online or through text.
"As texting and social networking contact has exploded, voice contact has dropped."
Facebook was less of an issue for boys who were more excited and passionate about playing video games, Sax said.
And he believed it was vital for parents to remain engaged with their children, urging parents to switch off the phone when they're with their children.
"No technology at the dinner table," he said.
20/20's Pete Cronshaw has investigated the dangers people can face online. Watch his report here.
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Post new commentjifar said on 2010-08-06 @ 10:56 NZDT: Report abusive post
Just another conservative commentator peddling fear to the parents of daughters. I would recommend looking at his credentials and research before believing anything - maybe there are better studies available from researchers who don't give 'expert' advice while on a book tour.