Web Safety and Youth
I received some information today about young people and how they use the web, and thought it would be good to pass along to you, especially the ones of you who maintain your county websites.
From today's Washington Post, we have the following information about what teens post on their web profiles (MySpace, FaceBook, whatever):
82% include their first name.
79% post photos of themselves.
66% include photos of their friends.
61% include the name of their city.
49% include the name of their school.
40% have included an instant-message screen name.
40% stream audio to the profile.
39% link to a blog.
29% include an e-mail address.
29% included their last name.
29% post videos.
2% include a cellphone number.
66% of teens who have profiles say their profile is not visible to all Internet users.
46% of teens whose profiles can be accessed by anyone say they give false information on their profiles, sometimes to protect themselves.
49% of social network users say they use the sites to make friends.
23% of teens who have been contacted by a stranger online say they felt scared or uncomfortable because of the encounter. (That translates to 7 percent of all online teens.)
SOURCE: Pew Internet & American Life Project
Here's a good site for you to check out as you think about youth information on the web (like your county website!!). The author is a consultant on web safety, and her link to guidelines for safer school websites is particularly pertinent to us as well. Check it out, then comment back with your thoughts as this applies to us!
Comments
I suspect the adults who write for youth such as on 4-H Web sites are more vigilant than the teens themselves. What can 4-H do to warn teens about danger online? Perhaps include a section or link about safety on the Internet from 4-H pages, encourage teens to present on this topic, include it in some curriculum? It really worries me how vulnerable they are online.
Posted by: Lynette Spicer | August 2, 2007 09:39 PM
Thanks for the info.
I'd like to think adults are more vigilant than the teens themsselves, but I think we need to be careful on county pages where we post kids' full names with county recognition (ex. fair winners). Something not all think about enough yet and need to be kept reminded of be it in the newspaper or internet.
Interesting to see how many give false information as a means for safety. Makes a good point, but on the other hand what's that teaching them about lying your way through life versus withholding information or avoiding those types of circumstances in the first place? Just a bit of ethics to get some converstation going.
Posted by: Kendra | August 6, 2007 11:25 AM