The secret life of my sixth grader By Wendy Sachs, Special to CNN

(CNN) -- My sixth grader has a secret life online. It wasn't so secret about a week ago when I discovered his public profile on Instagram, where he was posting dramatic photos and soulful "Versagrams" (graphical text messages), for all the world to see. One moment he was in love, the next full of despair. I was stunned. My 11-year-old son has never let on that he is remotely interested in girls. Not a word. And he's not exactly the middle school kid with swagger. He's a relatively shy guy. Yet, his Instagram avatar was boldly flirting with a girl, prolifically posting inside jokes about his crush and inviting commentary not only from his school friends, but also from a far-flung social network of kids from Connecticut to New Jersey who I am certain he's never met in person. His phone was beeping nonstop for three days, with a stream of frenzied text messages and Instagram posts. Something big was going on. My son wanted to ask a girl out. Did she like him, too? He wasn't sure, but from what I saw online, this was hardly confidential information. His plan for asking her out was getting circulated in cyberspace and he had several kids weighing in on both the strategy and his likelihood for success. He was fully exposed on multiple virtual platforms, and that was terrifying to me. He clearly didn't understand the full impact of online activity. What should I do? When my son was sleeping, I was checking the text messages and followed the Instagram updates -- after all, this wasn't really sneaking if my son maintained a public profile. But what could I say? Should I tell him that I am monitoring his moves? Was my looking at text messages the same as reading a diary? Was I violating my son's privacy and simply making too much of this? My husband told me to back off, that our son was merely a kid with a crush who needed to experience this rite of passage on his own, without a hovering mother. But I wasn't so sure. For more go to: http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/27/living/child-social-media/index.html?hpt=li_t3