Dear Colleagues:

Dr. Larry Rosen, professor of psychology at California State University, Dominguez Hills, has long studied "the Net Generation," the first to have grown up with the Internet, not to mention cellphones.

In his latest book,Me, MySpace and I: Parenting the Net Generation, he helps parents understand social networks.

His advice: Talk to your kids, learn the technology and don't panic.

Me, MySpace and I: Parenting the Net Generation tackles issues that scare parents including sexual predators, cyberbullying, Internet addiction, pornography and more.

Each topic is presented so parents can appreciate, understand, and integrate the recommendations into their own parenting style using Dr. Rosen's 30-plus years of research, teaching, and interviews with thousands of children and parents.

Dr. Rosen brings insights, humor, and a balanced approach to how parents can understand and deal with this particularly challenging phenomenon. An enjoyable, authoritative, and practical book for today's parents!

Dr. Rosen also serves with me as a member of the Advisory Board of NEPI, the National Effective Parenting Initiative.

To purchase Me, MySpace and I: Parenting the Net Generation click here.

With warmest regards,


Kerby T. Alvy, Ph.D.
CICC Founder and Executive Director
NEPI Board of Advisors

They're doing everything from talking with friends to downloading music, researching homework and even reading the news. A virtual community of over 86 million members and growing, MySpace is the 4th most popular English language website.

In Me, MySpace, and I: Parenting the Net Generation Dr. Larry D. Rosen provides parents and educators with a road map to their children's virtual world and advice for making it safe.

Using sound psychological theories, extensive research data- including interviews with over 1500 MySpacers and their parents-and his thirty years of experience, Dr. Rosen explores what children, tweens, and teens have to say about the online world, the impact it has on their lives and what it can tell us about the Net Generation.

With their busy schedules and many of the previously public gathering places no longer safe or available, adolescents turn to forums like MySpace.

The Internet, MySpace specifically, provides a unique environment for adolescents to explore their identity, friendships, and sexuality, and simply practice life.

Dr. Rosen offers a complete overview of the online communities inhabited by today's multitasking and tech savvy youth. He deals frankly with issues of the online world-including cyberbullying, internet addiction, sexuality, virtual friendships--while at the same time challenging the commonly held belief that these communities are damaging.

In a positive and supportive way, and without scare tactics, the book shows parents how to be proactive and anticipate potential problems.

Parents will learn...

• Seven suggestions for proactive parenting
• Eight things parents can do to help their child thrive in the virtual world
• The signs of Internet addiction
• Ground rules and realistic limits for computer use
• What to do if your child is being cyberbullied
• Tips for making family time more productive
• Advice for discussing sex with your adolescent
• What to do if you suspect your adolescent is a potential victim of a sexual predator

"Rosen brings his expertise as both a research psychologist and father together in this new book, Me, MySpace and I: Parenting the Net Generation. He provides great insight and excellent guidance." --

Nancy E. Willard, author of Cyber-Safe Kids, Cyber-Savvy Teens: Helping Young People learn to Make Safe and Responsible Choices Online

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"Dr. Larry Rosen goes beyond the sensational headlines by providing original research on how young people are actually using MySpace."

" Me, MySpace and I: Parenting the Net Generation provides parents with a much needed voice in the debate over the role of social networking in the lives of today's totally wired teens." --

Anastasia Goodstein, author of Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online

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"Dr. Rosen's book is a very timely and comprehensive look at the virtual world. Me, MySpace, and I is groundbreaking and presents important issues for children and their parents coping in today's technological world."

" It is a practical handbook for parents and provides concrete answers to their most pressing questions about social networking and how children live online. " "Written by one of the top authorities on the impact of technology and combining theory, research, and common sense advice in easy-to-read language, Me, MySpace and I: Parenting the Net Generation is a must read for all parents." --

Dr. Kimberly Young, author of Caught in the Net and Tangled in the Weband director of the Center for Internet Addiction Recovery

Q: Why did you write this book?

A: For kids - what I'm calling the Net generation, anybody born after 1980 - technology is not a tool. It just is. It's part of their life. They think of it differently.

Q: How has technology influenced this generation?

A: They do things in a more abbreviated fashion. They IM (instant-message) with multiple people at the same time. They can't uni-task. They do everything on their own. They're very self-motivated.

Q: How does it specifically affect their relationships?

A: They make commitments to people online they don't even know. But their strongest commitment is to their family. They see more of the world as a social world. So social problems are very important to them.

Q: Do you think the Internet is fundamentally changing kids?

A: This world encourages us to multitask. I think it encourages kids to be much less patient. More terse.

Q: Why are social networks so popular?

A: When I grew up (a baby boomer), our social life was outside. We hung out. The next generation spent time at the mall. This generation spends time at home - connected. Kids have to be social. It's all part of the preteen and teen years and young adult years. MySpace happened to come around at the right time when you had a whole generation of kids who needed a place to be social.

Q: Weigh the positives and the negatives of social networking.

A: Because they have a combination of people they know face-to-face in the real world and people they don't, (those of the Net generation) get a lot of chances to bounce ideas and to test out things on a social network that they probably wouldn't do face-to- face.

I hear that a lot from kids - that they feel much more comfortable saying things online than they ever would off-line. That's a real positive because they get to test out their world. They get to figure out who they are.

Q: So how should parents think about social networks?

A: You can certainly use your parenting skills to help them get the most out of MySpace - to not be addicted, to not be bullied and to know what to do when you're bullied. But taking (MySpace) away from them is really like restricting going to the mall with their friends or going to school and talking to their friends. It's tantamount to making them a pariah.

Q: Can you give some solid parenting tips?

A: Talk to your kids. If the computer is in their rooms - which is not a good idea - walk in and ask them what they are doing. Ask them what's new, what they like about it - don't be judgmental. Tell them you want to learn. Kids love rules, believe it or not. Kids need limits.

They're defining a new generational attitude. But they're not new teenagers. We know what adolescents do.

You have to learn what potential problems there might be, and then, like a good, authoritative parent, you discuss those with your kids. You know there might be sexual predators out there. And you have to know: 'Well, does anyone say anything nasty to you? How do you handle that?'

Q: Compare the Internet and social networking to television.

A: Every waking minute of every day, they are interacting with some sort of technological medium, except perhaps when they're in school, and even then, kids are texting from their pockets. They're wearing iPods all day. It's just a different world for them. The impact of television on society took years and years and years. And we had a chance to adapt to it.

The kinds of tools these kids are using are vast. Nobody heard of MySpace five years ago. Nobody heard of an iPod five years ago. Nobody heard of instant messaging.

This is a rapidly changing technological world and the kids are the first ones to adapt technology.

Q: Are parents keeping up?

A: Parents have a total misconception about what their kids are doing online.

They don't know how much time they're spending. They don't have the breadth of what's happening to the kids online. They think the kids are being attacked by predators all the time. They are way over-concerned about the technology that the kids are using.

Everything is so different from year to year. No wonder the parents are afraid.

They don't have to know everything, but they've got to see what MySpace is about. They've got to understand this whole thing of kids text-messaging all day long. They have to understand what it means to have kids plugged into their iPod all day long.

To purchase Me, MySpace and I: Parenting the Net Generation, click here.

The Center for the Improvement of Child Caring (CICC) was founded in 1974 by Dr. Kerby T. Alvy and has grown to be one of the nation's largest and most productive nonprofit parenting and parenting education organizations. For more information about CICC's many programs, activities, products and services, go to www.ciccparenting.org, or call toll-free (800) 325-2422.

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