When I commented about Lady Greenfield’s moral panic speech in which she accused the Internet of infantilising minds I said I felt that her ladyship would benefit from “being sat down and given a good talking to by danah boyd.” I’m pleased to say that danah has not disappointed me. Here she is:

There is NO EVIDENCE to prove her claims. Listening to her talk, it is very clear to me that she has no idea how social network sites work. She bemoans users’ practice of collecting friends on social media, saying that no one _really_ has that many friends. She claims that today’s youth are spending more time with social network sites than any previous generation spent with TV or rock-n-roll (with no evidence to back that claim). She clearly doesn’t understand how people are using these, how they are being integrated into people’s lives.

There’s more here, including danah’s take on the “grooming” idea.