Online Dating for Teens: Good or Bad?
Being a teenager is incredibly difficult. It’s universally understood as being a particularly turbulent time – your body is changing, your life is changing, your hormones are everywhere and social pressure is never more intense than it is when you’re still in high school. One of the things that happens over this time for most people is that they start dearly wanting to experience love and lust, but that doesn’t mean it’s always easy to find someone who feels that way about you in return. Online dating is an interesting new way for teenagers to learn about the world of romance – and while it comes with its pitfalls, it’s not something that parents necessarily ought to discourage.
If you are the parent of a teenager who is interested in online dating, you’re naturally going to be concerned for their safety – but that doesn’t mean you need to stop them. Teenagers now are very internet-savvy and safety-conscious, and there’s not a lot for you to worry about unduly.
Advantages of Dating Online For Teenagers
- Anyone who goes to a single-gender school or lives in a very small rural area might find that they don’t know a lot of people of their preferred gender, and those who are bisexual or homosexual probably don’t know many people who share their sexual orientation. Online dating allows these teens to meet people who might be compatible with them when they couldn’t otherwise.
- It gives teenagers practice at speaking to people of their preferred gender in a setting where they are at least mostly free of exposure or ridicule – not having your peers around can be a very useful thing indeed.
- Rather than going out to meet people in places that could be risky, teenagers who try online dating will be getting to know new people in the safety of their own home.
Precautions Teenagers Should Take With Online Dating
Much as with all internet activity, you should make sure that there is plenty of anti-virus and anti-spyware software installed to keep everything on your computer safe. If you do decide to meet up with someone you’ve met online, make sure you go to a public place and don’t go anywhere private with them for at least the first couple of dates. It’s also important to ensure that someone knows where you are and who you’re with, as well as when you’ll be back – a parent would be best, but a few friends will do if that isn’t possible. Other than that, you just need to follow your common sense and not do anything you don’t feel right about.