Websites offer show-off stage on a new level

What is your teenage daughter doing on the internet?
Chances are you have no idea. But websites like Bebo are making life hell for some Bay teenagers like 14-year-old Chloe _ and putting others at potential risk.
The Bay of Plenty Times revealed yesterday that teens are using popular websites such as Bebo to brag about their experiences with drugs, alcohol and sex and are also posting ``risque'' photos of themselves.
Bay school principals are disturbed by the growing trend, saying many children are leaving themselves open to sexual predators and bullies.
Chloe, an Otumoetai College student, knows all about the power of the written word and has decided to speak out about it.
The Year 9 student had to close her four-month-old Bebo homepage a fortnight ago after so-called ``friends'' left her messages saying they wanted to beat her up and were bringing knives to school to do it.
Chloe was part of a clique that fell out after rumours were spread between homepages that weren't privatised and that were open to anyone's criticism.
"It turned into a big drama and it's still continuing. I closed it (my old homepage) down because there was too much drama, everyone bullied you and they were able to spread rumours. It's pretty sad."
The teenager now has a new Bebo homepage that she has privatised so only certain named people can enter. She said friction with a particular ex-friend was still continuing. Jane, Chloe's mother, told the Bay of Plenty Times she'd had some sleepless nights worrying over the threats made to her daughter. She said prior to that incident she had believed the sites to be safer than chat rooms, which she forbade her daughter from entering.
She said she and Chloe had an open relationship and she occasionally had a "nosy" over her daughter's shoulder but hadn't realised the hold the site was having or the extent of the messages being passed back and forth.
Jane said Chloe went straight on to Bebo after school and would spend all day on there if she could.
"If they're getting secretive you do need to wonder why. Parents definitely need to be monitoring it. It can get out of hand and I'm very aware of it now ... It's no good."
Another Otumoetai College Bebo user, Amy, 14, said a lot of girls at school were posting ``dodgy'' pictures on their sites of themselves drunk or doing drugs. She said a few girls had had ``random'' people text them wanting to get together. She estimated up to 80 per cent of students had Bebo homepages; some had second or third homepages on YouTube and MySpace.
"It's really silly, it's another way of bullying. Everyone reads (comments posted by others) and knows what's happened (on the weekend or at parties). People are going on and they don't really know you but they know your friends and they try to force things on you like drugs."
She said a lot of students didn't have "that much idea" of the real dangers of the web.
Names have been changed to protect identities.