Teens and Social Networks
Boys and younger teens are more likely than girls or older teens to post false information on their online profiles; 64% of profile-owning boys post fake information compared with 50% of girls who do the same. Younger and older teens exhibit another split, with 69% of younger teens posting fake information versus 48% of older teens, all according to a new report from Pew Internet & American Life Project reports.
How Teens Use Social Networking Sites
* 55% of online teens have profiles
* 82% of profile creators have included their first name in their profiles
* 79% have included photos of themselves
* 66% have included photos of their friends
* 61% have included the name of their city or town
* 49% have included the name of their school
* 40% have included their instant message screen name
* 40% have streamed audio to their profile
* 39% have linked to their blog
* 29% have included their email address
* 29% have included their last names
* 29% have included videos
* 2% have included their cell phone numbers
* 6% of online teens
* 11% of profile-owning teens post their first and last names on publicly-accessible profiles
* 3% of online teens
* 5% of profile-owning teens disclose their full names, photos of themselves and the town where they live in publicly-viewable profiles
Most teens are using the social networks to stay in touch with people they already know, either friends that they see a lot (91% of social networking teens have done this) or friends that they rarely see in person (82%). 49% of social network users say they use the networks to make new friends. 32% of online teens have been contacted by strangers online – this could be any kind of online contact, not necessarily contact through social network sites. 21% of teens who have been contacted by strangers have engaged an online stranger to find out more information about that person (that translates to 7% of all online teens). 23% of teens who have been contacted by a stranger online say they felt scared or uncomfortable because of the online encounter (that translates to 7% of all online teens).
The most popular way of communicating via social networking sites is to post a message or comment to a friend’s profile, page or “wall”. More than 4 in 5 social network users (84%) have posted messages to a friend’s profile or page.
23% of teen profile creators say it would be pretty easy for someone to find out who they are from the information posted to their profile, and 40% of teens with profiles online think that it would be hard for someone to find out who they are from their profile, but that they could eventually be found online. Another 36% say they think it would be very difficult for someone to identify them from their online profile. Asked where they thought teens were most likely to be approached by a stranger, the majority of online teens believed that people their age were most likely to be approached by strangers online rather than offline. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of online teens believe that someone their age is most likely to be approached by a someone unknown to them online, while 23% of online teens believe it is more likely to take place offline. One in three (32%) online teens have been contacted online by a stranger. Among those contacted by strangers, two-thirds (65%) said they ignored the contact or deleted it the last time it happened to them. Some 21% have followed up on the encounter by asking for more information from the person contacting them.
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