Sunday, June 01, 2008
How dangerous is posting personal information on Social Networking Sites?
The most recent findings by Ybarra and Mitchell (2008) address the assumption the posting of personal information on social network websites (SNSs) is dangerous. Their results show that when other factors are accounted for, a young person’s posting of personal information online does not significantly increase the likelihood that he or she will be harassed or solicited.
While much more research needs to be done on the topic, it is apparent that other communication mediums are far riskier. Namely, chat rooms and instant messaging (IM) are particularly problematic for adolescents. In the last year, 43% of youth stated they had been solicited over IM, 32% by chat rooms, and 4% by SNS. In the last year, 55% of youth stated they had been harassed over IM, compared with 4% by SNS.
Also, the posting of personal information may be a lesser risk factor when compared with behaviors such as talking with strangers online. Factors in family life also have a strong correlation with likelihood of harassment, such as whether the young individual in question has been abused. This refocusing of concepts is in-line with the ongoing efforts of the CCRC, which in recent years has illuminated why certain young individuals are more vulnerable than others.
For a broad overview on the state of research on cyber-predation, see Wolak, Finkelhor, Mitchell, and Ybarra (2008). Also see: Hinduja and Patchin (2008) regarding their analysis of the rate of disclosure of information on one particular SNS, MySpace.
While much more research needs to be done on the topic, it is apparent that other communication mediums are far riskier. Namely, chat rooms and instant messaging (IM) are particularly problematic for adolescents. In the last year, 43% of youth stated they had been solicited over IM, 32% by chat rooms, and 4% by SNS. In the last year, 55% of youth stated they had been harassed over IM, compared with 4% by SNS.
Also, the posting of personal information may be a lesser risk factor when compared with behaviors such as talking with strangers online. Factors in family life also have a strong correlation with likelihood of harassment, such as whether the young individual in question has been abused. This refocusing of concepts is in-line with the ongoing efforts of the CCRC, which in recent years has illuminated why certain young individuals are more vulnerable than others.
For a broad overview on the state of research on cyber-predation, see Wolak, Finkelhor, Mitchell, and Ybarra (2008). Also see: Hinduja and Patchin (2008) regarding their analysis of the rate of disclosure of information on one particular SNS, MySpace.
Labels: disclosure, facebook, harassment, MySpace, online, predation, safety, SNS, social networking
