Access to the internet is a huge issue for adolescents, who use it for schoolwork and for access to social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook. MySpace is the most popular social networking site, with more than 200 million members, 25 percent of which are minors.
It is possible that a simple warning from a physician may make teens think twice about posting risky information on their social networking sites, according to a study published in Pediatrics & Adoscencent Medicine, in January, 2009.
Internet Widely Used by Teens
90 percent of adolescents have access to the Internet and about half of those use social networking sites, according to background information used in a report in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, a JAMA/Archives journal. A second article reports that a brief e-mail from a doctor helps to reduce mentions of sex on social networking web sites.
The authors of the report noted that members of social networks play an important role in the social lives of adolescents. Members of sits, such as MySpace, create a personal web profile that may include pictures, text and audio.
While social networking sites offer the chance for positive peer interaction and socialization, there are potential risk inherent to using a public space to display personal information. Personal information can, and does, attract attention from sexual predators. Risky behaviors, such as sexually suggestive language, can come back to haunt the youthful internet users when potential employers find their postings.
Research on Profile Pages
Researchers studied 500 publicly available profiles of people who were 18 years of age and older, between July and September 2007. Leading the research was Megan A. Moreno, M.D., M.S.Ed., M.P.H., then of the University of Washington and Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute, Seattle, and now of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Moreno worked along with colleagues
Following are some of their findings.
- A total of 270 (54 percent) of the profiles talked about risky behaviors. Of these 120 (24 percent) mentioned sexual behaviors,
- 205 (41 percent) talked about substance use. Of this group 37 percent mentioned alcohol use.
- 72 (14.4 percent) made references to violence. Women were less likely than men to refer to violence on their pages.
- People who reported that their sexual orientation other than "straight" were more likely to talk about sex.
- Teens whose profiles mentioned positive activities, such as church, religious involvement, active participation in a sport or involved in a hobby, were less likely to display any type of risky information.
Researchers suggest that social networking sites may be a way to detect teens at risk for unhealthy behaviors.
E-Mail From Dr. Meg
Dr. Moreno and colleagues assessed the potential of online intervention by creating a fictional profile on MySpace for a user named Dr. Meg.
The researchers then identified 190 MySpace profiles of members that were 18 to 20 years old that contained three or more mentions of risky behaviors, such as sex or substance use.
About half of the randomly selected members were sent a warning that their profile contained risky information, along with clinical resources and a link to a web site with information about sexually transmitted diseases. After three months, researcher found that the members who had received the email warning had significantly reduced the risky information in their profiles.
The study illustrated that online interventions may be effective in reducing risky behavior online. In addition, some teenagers may be open to feedback regarding their web profiles and may alter online behaviors, making the internet a safer place for them to use.
Resources
EurekAlert: Jama and Archives Journals, Teens frequently mention risky behaviors on social networking sites but a single warning e-mail from a physician may decrease references to sex.
