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Home > Plugged In > Archives > 2007 > October > 15 > Entry
Teens and the social-networking contacts they make
A Pew Internet Project’s study released today of online teens found nearly a third have been contacted by a stranger via the Web, and a quarter of those felt scared or uncomfortable.
Girls (27 percent) are more likely than boys (15 percent) to report feeling scared or uncomfortable.
But surprising to me was that the percentage of online teens with social-networking profiles who felt scared is actually lower, 21 percent, than those without pages on such sites, at 28 percent.
You would think that if they open their Web pages to people they don’t already know, those teens on social-networking sites would actually report more contacts with weirdos.
Pew says the reason they don’t might be that half of social-networking teens say they use the sites to meet new friends, and may view an unwanted contact as a relatively minor “cost of doing business” in the online world.
It’s also worth reporting that 85 percent of those in the study who have social-networking profiles are on MySpace, so it’s tough to say what this study really means for kids on Facebook, Friendster and other teen-friendly sites.
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By JustSayNo!
October 15, 2007 10:07 AM | Link to this
I hate all of those sites, wish they would go away!!!!