This article reveals education opportunities at Children’s Day Care Centers on purpose to strengthen responsible participation of teenage girls in online social networks (OSN). On purpose to reveal the opportunities of educating responsibility in online social networks among teenage girls, qualitative research access has been applied. 16 specialists from different Children’s Day Centers of Lithuania have participated in the interview. Analysis data revealed that Child day care center specialists in order to ensure teenagers’ safety in social networking sites apply various educational methods: individual talks, rules for the use of social networking sites, organize group activities, discussions, film reviews, have conversations with parents. Active online participation of teenage girls, their inability to assess threats posed by social networks increase their vulnerability involving the risk of privacy, communication and information content. Girls’ safety in social networking sites becomes an incentive to help them become responsible users of social networking sites. Data analysis revealed that girls’ responsibility in social networks could be increased by systematic and consistent educational work, combining all the three components of responsibility (knowledge, abilities and values), based on the dialogue principle and quality institutional cooperation.

The article analyses the problem of threats experienced on online social networks by girls attending a Child Day Care Centre. In order to reveal what actions carried out by girls on online social networks pose a threat to them, a qualitative study of 20 girls from four Lithuanian Child Day Care Centres was conducted using the focus group method. The results revealed that majority of the girls from the risk group face the following threats to their security: publicizing personal information and sharing it with strangers; communication with strangers online and meeting with them outside the Internet; negative actions of Internet users. The study found that the girls from the risk group fail to recognize the threats of online social networks and do not realize their consequences, and their need to protect themselves in cyberspace is quite weak.

The article presents the results of research on the changes in the activities of specialists from the Children’s Day Centre (CDC) in order to achieve the responsibility of teenage girls in online social networks. The qualitative research is based on the methodology of the grounded theory, A. Strauss & J. Corbin (1990) version. The research highlighted the following changes in the activities of professionals: support and involvement of girls’ parents in CDC activities, its activity reflection, creativity in activating girls’ responsible participation in OSN, and lifelong learning.

The article presents the results of the qualitative research which provide a deeper understanding of the factors determining vulnerability on online social networks among teenage girls attending a Child Day Care Centre. The research has involved the specialists from Child Day Care Centres of different towns and districts of Lithuania. A version of a systematic grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1990) has been applied to conduct the research; it has helped to construct the phenomenon – Insight into threats on online social networks: “One step and everything can end up badly”. By applying the paradigmatic model of “cause and effect” of the systematic grounded theory, reasons for the development of this phenomenon, contextual and intervening factors, strategies of actions/interactions applied by the specialists as well as the manifested consequences have been distinguished.