Tom Zeller's NYT piece on teens blogging is a really nice exposition of the positive side of the phenomena without resort to a crime caveat.
I absolutely believe that the next generation, who through blogging identifies as content creators and not just couch potatoes, will have a profound impact on democracy. Their current participation in a global conversation, be it about boys, or school, or rock stars, will empower them to continue to view themselves as participants in the conversation, not by-standers or outsiders, when they mature into discourse about politics and rights and governance. Or to put it differently, the chattering class is going to get a whole lot larger once generation Y is ready to join.
I think Zeller did a great job capturing some of this through the stories he tells. Nice work!