Michael Baisden’s voice boomed .  ”Callers, how much privacy do you think teenagers should have? Let me hear from you.”  The popular radio talk show host was in the midst of generating listener discussion on the hot topic and offering  his opinions on the matter, too.

One caller reported that she searches her daughter’s room and reads text messages. Baisden agreed, wondering aloud why parents allow their children to use computers alone in their rooms or even to lock their bedroom doors. “I don’t think teenagers should have much privacy,” he said. “Parents need to know what’s going on.”

My 15-year-old daughter grumbled. “Mom,” she said, “we shouldn’t be listening to this. What he’s saying isn’t right. He’s giving parents the wrong ideas.”

I chuckled, and asked my daughter how much privacy teenagers ought to get. Of course,  she favored having no parents looking over teenage shoulders and said, “They should trust us.”

I told my daughter that I trust her and appreciate it when she shares with me what is going on in her life with friends.  But there is no such thing as absolute privacy, I told her. “I expect you to make wise choices.”

Every few months, I do Face book inspections. My daughter and I together look over her postings and those of her friends and so far I’ve noticed no irresponsible behavior or mysterious friends. I do wish, though, that the kids would write real sentences.

My daughter didn’t ask if I’ve searched her room or read some of her text messages.

How much privacy do you give your teenagers?

Related posts:

1. Privacy on Facebook
2. Should teenagers see the movie “Precious?”
3. Plenty of news about teenagers

Parents, we have to. No matter how much they protest or complain about an invasion of privacy. Without this type of parental guidance, our children are roaming dangerously in cyberspace. I began to better understand the risks of this new playground while attending a social media conference here in Charlotte. I got the point about our kids but I realized that many of us Baby Boomers are just as naive about our online privacy.

Why, the social media experts asked, do we put our birthdays (with the actual year), religious views and other personal information on Facebook pages? Just because it was requested on a form? Why do our children think nothing of wanting to plaster their images all over MySpace? Because that’s what their friends do? Many of us parents do the same thing on Facebook.

Here’s the advice from the experts: Read and understand the Facebook and MySpace privacy settings and make sure you reserve some information, such as family photos, only for your identifiable friends. If not, it’s all free territory for anybody with an internet connection. Talk to your children, over and over, about using good judgment about what they say and do online because it never goes away. Monitor them during the turbulent high school years. A study this week showed that 70 percent of employers now do online searches on applicants, young and old.

My daughter grunted when I told her we would be having a family meeting to talk about sensible use of the internet. I’ll be looking more into privacy matters to help both of us. What about you?

As a start, check out www.mashable.com, an online guide to social media.

Related posts:

1. Monitoring Facebook and MySpace
2. How much privacy should teenagers have?
3. Say it loud: there is no privacy on the internet