Many parents have been caught completely unaware by the explosion of use of social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook, and find themselves curiously uneasy about their young person of early teens sharing social networking space with people in their 40s and 50s, so today I am going to provide an explanation of what they are, what they do and how young people are using them - and shaping them by their individual use - and how we as responsible adults should police their use...

During a recent email exchange with a noted US Internet Guru, I was surprised when he stated that the Internet being used for social networking as it is on Facebook etc., is not really how it was intended. Way back when the Internet moved into the public domain, it was considered that its future would generally be the 'e-high street' with electronic shop windows for each and every store and company that does business, and indeed it IS used for that. However, in the early part of this decade, its use as a social networking utility began to emerge, and with the growth of flickr, for photo sharing, Youtube for video sharing, and Myspace and Facebook for individuals to present their own 'shop window', the landscape of Internet use has changed forever.

So what is social networking in the context of internet use? Well it is basically a page or several pages on a website that represent you as an individual, and allow you to share your thoughts, feelings, photos, scores on quizzes from intelligence to film trivia, book reviews, blogs, amorous intentions towards other Facebook users and to stay in touch with friends no matter how far apart you are from them.

You can see instantly what your friend in Australia is up to by looking at his profile page (According to Facebook, my Australian friend, Shannon, for instance, today 'enjoyed watching Queensland get smashed, Go the blues!', which is presumably some sport related reference that his more local friends will understand).

These sites remain free for users, because their advertising revenue pull is humungous - with advertisers on Facebook for example, able to reach more than 15 million people globally. As parents what should we be looking out for?

Well, clearly social networking sites are just as easily penetrated by disturbed adults seeking to solicit young people online, and, just as with chatrooms, it's up to us to police it ourselves if we want to be really sure.

First thing I would suggest if your child is on one of these sites is to join up yourself and become "friends" with your child. You will then be able to see who their friends are as this is not restricted. As a friend of your young person, you will also be able to see what they are putting out there as their electronic shop-front for themselves. Mostly, people will generally put items and applications on their profile-page that reflects how they want to be perceived by other users and who they are. You too will be able to see this.

And here is the crunch...What if you see that your 15-year-old daughter is 'flirting' with people in one of the applications? Apart from being panicked, you have to, as I have suggested before, be calm about it, because taking issue with young people over it, will simply have them revoke your friendship and drive the activities underground. Think very carefully about how you want such a discussion to play out before raising the issue, as you want to remain vigilant from a distance, without being too far away that you cannot see what is going on...

Next time, I want to draw our fascinating look at young people's use of technology to a close, after more than six months of scrutiny, and get back to our bread and butter: Computers and how to make sense of them for us earthlings....

Bob Mellor is a senior business technologist with more than 20 years experience in the IT industry. He is accredited by the British Computer Society as a Chartered IT Professional, and currently Technology Consulting Manager at Bermuda Microsystems Group. His views do not reflect those of The Royal Gazette or Bermuda Microsystems Group, and are based on his personal experiences and knowledge. He can be contacted on bob@bmg.bm