The prospect of your teen starting to date is naturally unnerving. It's easy to fear your child getting hurt, getting in over their head, being manipulated or heartbroken , and especially, growing up and leaving the nest. But as uncomfortable or scary as it may feel to consider your child with a romantic life, remember that this is a normal, healthy, and necessary part of any young adult's emotional development. But what exactly does teen dating even look like these days? The general idea may be the same as it's always been, but the way teens date has changed quite a bit from just a decade or so ago.

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12 Awesome Websites For Teens - HubPages
Social media has given teens the ability to instantly connect with others and share their lives through photos, videos and status updates. Teens themselves describe these platforms as a key tool for connecting and maintaining relationships, being creative, and learning more about the world. But they also must contend with more negative aspects of social media use, such as drama and bullying or feeling pressure to present themselves in a certain way. Relatively few teens — around one-in-ten — say they share things related to their personal problems or their religious or political beliefs on social media. There are some age and gender differences in the topics teens share on social media. And older girls are especially likely to post about a variety of subjects — including their dating lives, their family, their emotions and their religious or political beliefs, compared with older boys or younger teens.


12 Awesome Websites For Teens
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By Maggie Freleng, Women's eNews. Danielle Sheypuk, a clinical psychologist who is also Ms. Wheelchair New York , said she wishes the sites--which many teens are accessing through special applications on their mobile phones-- had been around when she was a teen. The difficulties with walking and navigating, Sheypuk said, mean disabled teens are less likely to go on dates. Sheypuk said she is also using the Internet in her own private therapy practice by meeting clients over Skype to make it easier for teens and adults with disabilities to attend her therapy sessions.