Any lingering doubts I may have had about the Internet savvy of the younger generation were obliterated quickly at this week's Teen Summit on Internet Safety, sponsored by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and Cox Communications' Take Charge program in Washington, D.C. Ten teen leaders from communities on both coasts and points in between taught us adult observers a lot about the positive and negative aspects of Internet use, and then took their teaching tour to Capitol Hill, where they enlightened several members of Congress. On this day, the adults were definitely the students, and the teens the wise instructors. The day started with the teens chatting up children’s advocate and crime fighting icon John Walsh and Staca Urie of NCMEC. Ranging in age from a rising ninth grader to recent high school grads, every one of the teens said they’re aware of friends and peers who practice potentially risky behavior on the Internet, including meeting strangers in person. While they all felt that parents need to talk openly with their kids about the potential dangers, the students also advised that teens themselves can sometimes be the more credible sources of advice and direction in mentoring their friends on safer Internet use. Most of the teens use MySpace.com, the increasingly under-fire social networking site with more than 70 million users. With news sources reporting a $30 million lawsuit filed against MySpace on behalf of a 14-year-old girl who was allegedly raped by someone she met on MySpace, Walsh asked the teens how they’d operate the site if they controlled it. Most of them said they would set the minimum age for members at 16, even if it reduced revenue from advertisers targeting younger teens. But while it’s easy to focus on the negatives, the teens also said they and their friends have made many positive connections via MySpace and other social networking sites. One of the teens in is a band that he says reaches an audience they’d never get if it weren’t for their MySpace page, while another is a budding filmmaker who uses the Internet to post video journals. In meetings with members of Congress later in the day, the teens continued their instruction, including an online tour of how they use the Internet. We’ll post some scenes from the summit and the Hill visits below, and will be sharing some of the teens’ observations over the next few days.

Shown in the photos below: 1) Delegate Chris Williston gives Rep. Nathan Deal (R-GA) and Cox’s Arianne Bellizaire an Internet tour. 2) Delegates Howard Bennett and Samantha Reinbold with John Walsh during the Teen Summit on Internet Safety. (All of the photographs by Michael Temchine of US Newswire Photography.)