"I do online journals so I can communicate with my friends. Not so my mother can catch up on the latest gossip of my life. "
By Bly Lauritano-Werner
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 By now, many of us know about the popularity of internet sites like MySpace and LiveJournal, where youth can build social networks and publish their writing. For many teens, sites like these have replaced locked journals and hidden keys, as youth post their most intimate thoughts and activities on their MySpace and LiveJournal pages. Youth Radio's Bly Lauritano-Werner debates with her mom over whether or not mothers have the right to read their children's online blogs.
My mom and I don’t agree at all about whether she should get to read my online journals. I think she has no right to read them. She thinks she does...
MOM (on tape)
Because I have a connection with you. I’m your mom, but also I just feel like it would be more interesting to me than it would be to someone who didn’t know you.
BLY:
That doesn’t mean she should get to read it! One night, I got into an argument with my mom and her boyfriend, Scott. Mom knew I was mad, but she didn’t know why.
MOM (on tape)
And actually reading your LiveJournal, you were very eloquent expressing what you were angry about and why you were angry. It was much more informative than a conversation would have been with you at that time. You said things about me that you might not have said to my face, but it was still helpful feedback to get.
BLY: Did it hurt your feelings at all?
MOM: A little bit. But I’m almost over it. The years of therapy I think are paying off...
BLY: I locked my LiveJournal entries so only my friends can read them. But my nosy mom found my online rant because she saw the journal on the computer screen while I was on the phone in another part of the house.
She even said she'd do it again!
MOM (on tape)
Maybe I would. Maybe I wouldn’t. I don’t know. But you publish it and it’s for general viewing therefore I feel I’m part of the general public, so I can view it.
BLY
My mom always uses the excuse about the internet being “public” when she defends herself. It’s not like I do anything to be ashamed of, but a girl needs her privacy. I do online journals so I can communicate with my friends. Not so my mother could catch up on the latest gossip of my life.
The truth is many of these sites are becoming lame because everyone is on them. It’s not so cool anymore as teachers and parents like my mom are doing their own pages.
MOM (on tape)
Yes I did have a site on MySpace. I had a few pictures of myself...they were very candid shots that I might not normally hang up in my house or show to my friends. And I am an adult, so I put my true first name and my true age, but I didn’t give too much personal information.
BLY: Did you make friends on MySpace?
MOM: Yes I did. And I didn't even do it to make friends, I did it to stay in touch with some friends. And I was a little weirded out the first time someone I didn’t know contacted me.
BLY
She might have been creeped out at first, but Mom ended up going to a hockey game with one guy. What a hypocrite! Especially since Mom is always warning me about strangers online. My mom having a Myspace? So embarrassing!
Needless to say, I made her take down the page.
- Bly Lauritano-Werner is a reporter at Blunt Radio in Maine. Her story was produced by Youth Radio.
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