Most teens use Web-based journals responsibly. They use the sites to chat with existing friends and meet new ones. However, they don’t always see danger online as clearly as they might see a stranger lurking down the street, and they don’t always realize that their innermost thoughts and precise addresses are published in the public domain and can often be used to track them down. Some teens are just making it easy for criminals to identify their next victims.

Most parents would be positively shocked at what their teenage children post online.

Look at MySpace.com. It’s an interactive smorgasbord at which some teens serve themselves up as the main dish.

Some young girls misrepresent their ages, upload revealing photos and converse in a way to invite trouble.

We scrolled through MySpace.com looking specifically for posts by local students. It’s easy to search by name, high school and e-mail. What we found is that the language is not nearly as explosive as the photos.

Teen girls in negligees. Girls in suggestive poses. Bare-chested boys. Anger and sexual tension on every page.

It may be intrusive for parents to poke through an underwear drawer to find a personal journal. But parents do need to be aware of what their teens are, in effect, publishing for the world on the Web. At the very least, they should make sure their teen has thought through the implications of what they put online.

The circle of people who view personal blogs is much wider than teens may realize. The circle encompasses the world and all the good and bad it contains.