Many teens seemed to indicate that cyberbullying was a common part of every day life.

The last several days have seen some interesting news on teen privacy and social issues online.   Foremost is the news that YouTube has opened a new Safety Center to help educate children and their parents.  Internet-based abuse (‘cyberbullying’) and privacy / relationship issues are still massively misunderstood (or under-understood).  The complexities of online sociality are probably the biggest ‘generational divide’ between modern teens and adults.  To help put it in perspective a bit, here are some numbers:

43% of teens surveyed in 2006 were the victim of ‘cyberbullying.’ (2006 NCPC Survey)

75% have visited a web site bashing another teen. (2005-06 iSafe survey)

85% of parents don’t know what cyberbullying is. (2005-06 iSafe survey)

81% of teens believe their peers engage in cyberbullying because “they think it’s funny.” (2006 NCPC Survey)

20% of teens have posted nude photos or video of themselves on the Internet. (2008 Sex and Tech Survey)

40% of teens surveyed had their password(s) stolen and changed by a peer. (2005-06 iSafe survey)

Some more details below the jump…

From Ars Technica:

A survey of 1,280 teenagers (users age 13-19) and young adults (age 20-26) conducted by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and CosmoGirl.com has revealed that one out of five (20 percent) teens overall have posted nude photos or video of themselves on the Internet—that number goes up to a third when young adults are included.

From a National Crime Prevention Council survey[doc] on cyberbullying:

About four in ten teens (43%) report that they have experienced some form of cyberbullying in the last year.  It is more common among females (51%) than males (37%).   It appears that cyberbullying is most common among high school students.  While 46 percent of high school teens have experienced cyberbullying, only 35 percent of middle school teens have had that experience. [...]

Teens were also asked why people cyberbully, and they provided a wide-range of responses.  Many teens seemed to indicate that cyberbullying was a common part of every day life.  Most commonly, teens reported that people who cyberbully think it is funny (81%).  Teens also thought that people who cyberbully don’t think it is a big deal (59%), are encouraged by their friends (47%), or think that everyone does it (31%).  [My emphasis -M]

More information available on the ‘Making a Difference for Kids’ website.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 15th, 2008 at 3:05 pm and is filed under Electronic Culture, Youth Culture. It has been viewed 2127 times. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

From ‘A Softer World’

There is an argument made against privacy that says someone who isn’t engaged in criminal behavior has nothing to hide. This method of thinking allowed the US government to slowly sap away our civil liberties in the wake of the 9/11 attacks–many have just accepted that trading privacy for security is acceptable and used the “nothing to hide” argument to rationalize what was, essentially, a decision based on fear. However, limiting the government’s ability to intrude in our private lives is easy compared with attempting to control how personal information spreads on the internet via gossip. Rather than spies or wiretaps, gossip is often gathered by those we trust and spread online by people who don’t understand or appreciate the potential for the damage it can do. In reality, privacy is about much more than concealing wrongdoing.

Internet-based abuse (‘cyberbullying’) and privacy / relationship issues are still massively misunderstood. The complexities of online sociality are probably the biggest ‘generational divide’ between modern teens and adults. To help put it in perspective a bit, here are some numbers…

I HAVE A MYSPACE ACCOUNT!!1!