People can be cruel on the Internet, be it in social networks or chat rooms or anywhere else online, but parents and children are finding ways to navigate the digital world. According to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, 88 percent of teens (ages 12 to 17) admit they’ve seen people be mean or cruel online, and a fifth own up to having been nasty online themselves. Two-thirds say people are mostly kind in online environs. The study also found they, along with their parents, are increasingly finding ways to better navigate it. According to the survey, 86 percent of teens say parents have told them “how to use the Internet responsibly and safely,” and most have tinkered with privacy settings.  For their part, parents are increasingly involved in their teens’ online lives. Eighty percent are on their kids’ list of social networking friends, and about 75 percent have checked their childrens’ browser history. However, the Internet is still hardly safe: About half of teens admitted that at one time or another they lied about their age to get into a site that was off-limits to them. (The New York Times)

Paul Asay has covered religion for The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Beliefnet.com and The (Colorado Springs) Gazette. He writes about culture for Plugged In and wrote the Batman book God on the Streets of Gotham (Tyndale). He lives in Colorado Springs with wife, Wendy, and two children. Follow him on Twitter.