Study Finds Time Online Important for Teen Development

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CHICAGO (WBBM) - If your child is spending every waking hour online, relax. A new study finds that develops valuable skills.

In a study funded by the Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation, researchers followed the digital media activities of 800 teenagers over 3 years.

Dr. Mimi Ito of the University of California-Irvine says spending time on Facebook, MySpace, or YouTube is productive. "That sort of casual, social and recreational hanging out on line may look like a waste of time to adults, but, in fact, kids are picking up a whole host of technical and media skills," she says.

And far from withdrawing from social interaction or becoming isolated, she says, kids are engaging with their peers through their online activities. Rather than worrying, she believes, parents should embrace their children's tech time.

On the Net: http://digitallearning.macfound.org/site/c.enJLKQNlFiG/b.2029199/