More than half of teenagers display information about sexual behaviour or substance abuse on their MySpace accounts, according to new research. Dr. Dimitri Christakis of Seattle Children's Research Institute looked at 500 randomly chosen MySpace profiles of 18-year-olds in 2007. Here are the results:
*54 percent contained information about high-risk behaviors
*41 percent mentioned substance abuse
*24 percent contained information about sexual behavior
*14 percent contained information about violence
The researchers want to raise awareness about the use of social networking sites, saying that many young people don't realize how public and permanent any info posted online is. Teens are at risk of being targeted by online predators, and many universities, colleges and employers check social networking profiles to screen applicants.
In a second social networking study, the researchers chose 190 individuals aged 18 to 20 whose MySpace accounts displayed multiple risky behaviors. Dr. Christakis and Dr. Megan Moreno from the University of Wisconsin sent half the teens a message from "Dr. Meg,” warning them about the risks of disclosing personal information online.
They say that three months after sending the message, many of the teens had taken down information related to sex or substance abuse. The researchers believe using social networking sites to reach at-risk teens could help modify dangerous behaviours, or at least reduce the number of youths disclosing personal info.
The study appears in the health journal Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine.
