ReadWriteWeb

Two recent groups of cheesed-off kids have used online tools to circumvent both those who put them down and the creaky old activists who they believe no less authoritarian. Gaza Youth Breaks Out, from Palestine, and the fenqing, or "angry youth" movement in China have rejected the whole lot of old farts who they believe are responsible for stranding them in the present. And they're not being nice about it.

Gaza Youth are a group from the Strip who have taken Facebook by storm, printing a manifesto that is so uncompromising and so full of rejection not just for Israeli occupiers but the bullies and schnorrers in their own communities that reading it is like coming up for air.

In October, Google engineer Brian Kennish debuted Facebook Disconnect, a Chrome extension that wipes out virtually all evidence of Facebook from your Web experience. Since then, Kennish has quit his job with Google to focus entirely on Disconnect, another extension for Chrome and RockMelt that aims to help users to block the larger scope of tracking devices on the increasingly social Web.

New for some, not seen by all - yet - Google has added "Shared By" and "Recent Update" elements to search result pages. Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan points out that some people's results are now coming up with socially-engaging teasers such as "shared by 5+" next to news stories. Even more intriguing, a blue "recent updates" box is appearing to offer results from Twitter, MySpace, Facebook and more.

TweetPhoto is the kind of service you probably interact with every week, without even realizing it, if you don't actually use it yourself. The social photo-sharing platform is integrated into 250 third-party applications, including Seesmic, TweetDeck, Echofon and others. While media darling Foursquare makes headlines for reaching 3 million active users, TweetPhoto sees over 25 million uniques monthly, all who generally arrive after clicking links shared on Twitter or Facebook. But TweetPhoto had a problem - its name no longer explained what it actually was. It does more than "tweet photos" - a lot more, in fact, as of today.

Google has made another step in the direction of social networking and gaming with today's acquisition of SocialDeck. A note left on the mobile game developer's website announced that "SocialDeck has been acquired and we've joined the Google team".

The acquisition is the third this month and leaves little doubt over Google's intentions to make a push in the social gaming arena.

AddThis, one of the most popular bookmarking and sharing buttons on the Web, has today released a new version of its sharing menu for the Apple iPad, the iPhone and Google Android. Now, when you visit a site from one of these mobile devices, tapping the button will present a sharing menu that's been built to specifically work with the touch interface of your mobile device and better integrate with its functions, like the built-in email client.

WebWatcher, a company whose business is enabling parents to spy on their child's online activity, including email, instant messaging and website visits, has today launched a new tool for spying on SMS text messages too. WebWatcher Mobile currently only works on BlackBerry smartphones, but Android, Windows Mobile and iPhone versions are in the works now.

"Cell phones," warns the company, "can be a great way for children to keep in touch with family members," but they can also "serve as facilitators for cyberbullying, sexting and other dangerous behaviors."

That claim may be true to a point, but is reading each and every text message the best way to counteract these behaviors? For that matter, should parents be spying on their kids to this extent at all?

Twitter, the microblogging platform thought by many to be a megaphone for egomaniacs and narcissists worldwide, launched a Twitter Tales blog today in what looks like an attempt to convince the non-adopters that the service is for much more than just relating lunch menus and daily minutiae.

The blog follows in the footsteps of other big players, like Facebook Stories and Google Stories, and will serve as "a growing set of articles that highlights creative individuals and businesses from all corners of the world that help make Twitter awesome."

Like it or not, your children are going to find their way onto a social network sooner or later. The real question is would you like to have your 8-year-old pretending to be 13 and signing into Facebook or would you rather they sign into a social network that keeps parents in the decision making process and is specially made for kids?

ScuttlePad, a social networking site especially for children, is launching today and it intends to teach young people how to approach social networking in an increasingly connected world.

Chances are, you're here by way of a status update on Facebook, a tweet on Twitter or some other method of sharing on a social network. A study released today by Nielsen - the company you're used to getting all of your television show ratings from - says that Americans now spend a quarter of all time online on social networking sites and blogs, up from just under 16% a year ago.

The study gives a breakdown of the top 10 online sectors according to how much time Americans spend using them, with social media and gaming leading the pack.