McAfeee put out a new report [pdf download] today titled, The Secret Online Lives of Teens. Commissioned by McAfee and conducted online by Harris Interactive from May 4th to May 17th, 2010, the study surveyed almost 1,400 youths between the ages of 10 and 17 years old in the U.S. on “how they use the internet, what kind of content and media they view and download, and their level of engagement in risky online behavior.” One of the promising finds of this study appears to be a decrease in the instances of cyberbullying. According to the study, 8% surveyed said they’d been the victim of cyberbullying while 87% answered “no,” leaving 5% of those surveyed in the “weren’t sure” if I’ve been cyberbullied category. These numbers are down from 2008 when they were 15% were victimized, 76% weren’t and 9% “weren’t sure” if they had been. The report had some very interesting information beyond just cyberbullying though.
How They Handle Personal Information
The rest of the study produced some positive data as well as some which parents might find disturbing. The good news is that though these children are giving out personal information, most of it is nothing more than they’re already giving out on sites like Facebook. “When they do reveal personal information online, youth are most likely to share their first name (36%), age (28%), and/or email address (19%). Only around one in ten have given out slightly more personal information, like a photo of themselves, their school name, last name, cell phone number, or a description of what they look like.”(pg.11) As a parent, it is still disturbing since this information also shows that since 2008, the number of teens who’ve given their phone number out has increased from 8% to 12%. Again, this is due in large part to an increase in the number of youths using social media like Facebook and the fact that much of this same information is posted to many of these same teens’ Facebook accounts.
Parent Watch
Apparently, many of you are still spending more money than you have to on computer repairs as a result of teens infecting your computer, if I read the study right. 27% of the teens surveyed said they have accidentally infected their home computer with a virus or other malware and 14% say that they’ve shared their passwords with friends. Adding to the infection of your computers is this, “Almost a third (29%) of teens have downloaded a program without their parents’ knowledge and 16- to 17-year-old boys (45%) are most likely to download programs without parental knowledge, or those of x-rated content.” Surfing and downloading porn and porn related content is a surefire way to infect ones computer, so this particular stat is very telling on a couple levels.
The study also finds that maybe because girls tend to communicate more, “they are more likely to engage in risky behaviors such as chatting with people they don’t know in the offline world (25% girls overall and 43% among 16- to 17-year-olds).” This is definitely something to be aware of and remain vigilant about as the number of teens who have cell phones is as high as ever according to Pew research from a separate study.
More than half the youths surveyed said they know someone who has been cyberbullied but only 29% admit to having been the victims themselves. So, if half the students know someone who has been cyberbullied, but only 29% admit to it themselves, one might surmise that teens are reporting being victims a lot less than they’ll report having knowledge of others who’ve been victimized.
iSPY-What They Hide From You
One unsurprising insight that this report brings up is the number of teens who hide their online activities from their parents. About a third of those surveyed admitted that they “often” or “always” hide their online activities. The numbers show that the most common methods teens use to hide what they do are by “minimizing the browser when their parents are nearby (29%), hiding and deleting text messages (20%), and clearing the browser history (21%).” The study found that girls are more likely to do the first two behaviors than boys, which makes sense to me. If boys are more likely to download programs and x-rated content then they’d be trying to hide their online trail, where the first two activities are more likely about hiding communications which can be hidden once deleted or logged out of a site which allows them. It wasn’t all bad though as the numbers of teens who “don’t tell their parents/guardians what they do online” is down 31% from 2008. This is promising and hopefully means that youths are having more open and honest discussions about what they’re doing online, at home with mom and dad.
Very interesting information which, I believe, is fairly in step with what most parents might expect from youths who are in a place where they’re attempting to separate from parents and establish their own identity. I’d be more worried if this was the behavior of younger children, but as it stand, I expect children to do what children do…push boundaries and explore what they perceive as their limits. This is why being an active parent in your child’s online life is very important because they need your guidance as they find their own space online and offline.
[via CNET News]
