According to a new study, 54% of teens talk about behaviours such as sex, alcohol use, and violence on social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook. The situation presents potential risks even if all they are doing is talking about their problems. Researchers say that teens often don’t realize that such information may attract sexual predators or online predators. Young people also could be rejected by business recruiters who see coarse language or photos on their profiles, says the study’s lead author, Dr. Megan A. Moreno.
Teens may talk about sex, substance use, or violence because they are contemplating doing those things, or because they want to brag about them online without actually doing what they say, explained Dr. Megan A. Moreno, the lead author of two studies about networking sites published in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
According to the study, more than 90% of adolescents have Internet access, and about half of these use social networking sites, such as MySpace or Facebook. The study involved 500 18-year-olds. 24 percent of the teens had references to sex on their pages and 37 percent discussed about alcohol abuse, the study found.
“MySpace is a place where teens are feeling comfortable talking about these kinds of behaviours and displaying them,” said Moreno.
Another interesting idea mentioned in the study was that some teenagers whose profiles mentioned church, sports or hobbies were less likely to talk about risky behaviours.
In a second study, the team identified 190 profiles of 18- to 20-year-olds that contained three or more references to sexual behaviors or substance abuse. The experiment continued with a letter, which was sent to these teens. The letter included a message from a doctor about the risk of posting information about sex and drugs online and it also gave information about sexually transmitted diseases.
There moths later after receiving the letter, 14 % of those who received it had eliminated sexual references from their profiles, compared with 5% of young people who didn’t received it. Teens in the first category were also more likely to make their pages private.
“It’s really not that MySpace is bad or good. I think the lesson is that it’s a tool, and how you use it determines the kinds of outcome you’re going to get,” Moreno said.
A report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that risky behaviour among teens declined. Fewer adolescents drink, smoke or have sex than their fellows did in 1991. Overall, from 2002 to 2007, the report found a decrease in the rates of adolescent substance abuse for almost every type of illegal drug, including marijuana, cocaine, LSD, Ecstasy as well as prescription drugs. Risky behaviour among US teenagers continues to decline and teens are starting to act more responsibly, the CDC report showed.
