Technology and online social media have enabled young people to explore the world, virtually, without having to step beyond their front doors. But these rapid changes are also raising new questions and concerns for parents who worry about the potential harm new communication technologies could do to their children.

As soon as fourteen year old Jeannie and her 17 year old twin sisters Amy and Anna Hwang arrive from school to their home in Oakton Virginia, they seek out laptops, games consoles and smart phones. Anna says it's a help and a distraction when they're doing homework.

Anna Hwang, tech smart teen, said, "Before laptops, people would go around libraries and research stuff. But now for us all we have to do is go on the Internet and its there for us. So if we didn't have it, it would be pretty inconvenient. But at the same time it's kind of bad because it's a large time-waster, because when we need to be doing homework we could procrastinate and play games or something."

The sisters chat online, post on social networks and interact in a virtual world of gaming. Jeannie says it's easy to avoid nasty people online.

Jeannie Hwang, tech smart teen, said, "Most all they would be able to do is harass us verbally, and then we can just cut off from them, completely."

Experts say the proliferation of personal information is raising concerns about privacy for a generation who are open to public view and the judgment of future employers.

Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist, said, "Certainly I think that’s going to be a big challenge for this generation. I mean we will have the first Facebook president. We have somebody who has a whole literal life that's been catalogued digitally by themselves frankly online. And I think figuring out how we are going to manage that and how we're going to understand collectively as people, well will that be a problem?"

The Hwang sisters admit that their fulsome online lives constrict their ability to enjoy real-life social contact.

Amy Hwang, tech smart teen, said, "There are definite drawbacks using technology nowadays. If we use the Internet to communicate with people there's less face to face meeting time with other people and so we don't go out and meet out as much as we generally would otherwise."

Children's advocacy organization Common Sense Media which provides advice to parents is also concerned about the emotional and developmental impacts.

James Steyer, CEO and founder of Common Sense Media, said, "With the proliferation of new digital devices and technology, many kids spend far too much time in front of a screen and that can affect their brain development That can also affect their ability to pay attention to each other, to their parents and even their ability to focus and have better memories."

Parents are often confused about how to respond. In this extreme case a father made a video in which he shoots his daughter's own laptop and then posts the video up on her Facebook site.

There are many benefits for the new tech-savvy generation. But like always, the older generation is struggling to keep up, and work out ways to balance freedoms and protections in this fast moving virtual world.

(CNTV June 7, 2012)