Teens Find Web’S Dark Underbelly

Most teens steer clear of the World Wide Web’s seedier underbelly, but sites with sexual or X-rated content are a strong draw for youngsters.

Those are among the findings of a new poll by Time/CNN, which also found that only 13 percent of teenagers put a great deal of trust in information they get via the Internet.

Slightly more than 80 percent of teens responding to the poll said they use the Net. Of those, only 12 percent have visited a site that specifies where to buy a gun, while 14 percent have been to a site that instructs on how to build a bomb and 25 percent have called up a site that has information about hate groups.

But 44 percent acknowledge visiting a site that features adult content of a sexual nature.

Among teen Internet users, 45 percent said their parents know a little about the Web sites they visit, while 38 percent say their parents know a lot and 17 percent know nothing.

Overall, 78 percent of respondents think it’s good for teenagers to have access to the Internet.

Here’s another interesting site for teens and others to peruse:

Frame game: If you need help picking your next pair of eyeglasses, play “The Frame Game.”

Enter your face shape, gender, and ethnicity, and you’ll get tips on choosing the most flattering frame size and shape for your face.

You even can “try on” different pairs of glasses using the cartoon “model” faces on the site. The “models” aren’t much more than semi-homely caricatures, though — so while the virtual “try-on” probably won’t help you pick out a specific pair of glasses, it could make you feel good about how stylish you’ll look in your new specs.

http://www.visionsite.org/cgi-bin/glasses.cgi