Page 2 of 2 <

In Cyberspace, Everyone Can Hear You Scream

Discussion Policy

Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

"I give my kids my cellphone, my office phone, my home phone, my three e-mails and my Facebook," she says. "This is a 24-7 job, and I've never had a problem with kids abusing it." As for the YouTube posting in the Fairfax case, "Hey, it's called freedom of speech," Good says, reminding me that "at this age, impulse control hasn't kicked in fully."

Teachers these days must come to terms with seeing their performance scored on http://RateMyTeachers.com and having their in-class comments recorded on cellphone videos and posted on the Web.

"There is no privacy," Good says. "I had that lesson seared into me very early. I was teaching elementary school in the '60s and said something in class about the Vietnam War, and I had a parent call me out. Nothing has changed, except that you can disseminate it via YouTube."

If Tistadt "had just said, 'Thank you for your call; I'll share this with my husband,' that would have been the end of it," Good says. "We all have a breaking point, but you can't break anymore without the rest of the world knowing about it."

The tools may be new, but the basics stay the same: Teens will use lousy judgment, and adults will have a choice: Let kids make mistakes even as you set and enforce clear boundaries, or leave them to wander like lost souls and then pay the consequences when a Devraj Kori grows up to become a Candy Tistadt.

Join me at noon today

for "Potomac Confidential" at

http://www.washingtonpost.com/liveonline.

< 2