INTERNET SAFETY
Escaping or Connecting? Characteristics of youth who form close online relationships |
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NetSmartz |
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Fourteen percent of youth reported close online friendships and 2 percent reported online romances. Girls were slightly more likely than boys to have close online relationships with 16 and 12 percent, respectively.
The two problem characteristics associated with close online relationships were high parent-child conflict and being highly troubled. The girls with high levels of parent-child conflict reported yelling, nagging, and taking away privileges by parents at a higher level than the other girls. The highly troubled girls had levels of depression, victimization, and troubling life events at a higher level than the other girls in the sample. Girls in either of these categories were more than twice as likely as the other girls in the sample to have formed close online relationships.
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- Teens have established significant presence on social networking web pages: 61% of 13- to 17-year-olds have a personal profile on a site such as MySpace, Friendster, or Xanga. Half have also posted pictures of themselves online.
- Older teens (16-17s) and girls especially use the Internet for social interaction, meeting friends, and networking.
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However, many have also been exposed to the Internet’s accompanying potential risks.
- 71% reported receiving messages online from someone they don’t know.
- 45% have been asked for personal information by someone they don’t know.
- 30% have considered meeting someone that they’ve only talked to online
- 14% have actually met a person face-to-face they they’ve only spoken to over the Internet (9% of 13-15s; 22% of 16 -17s).
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- Boys who had low communication with their parents, and who also reported that their parents were less likely to know where they were and who they were with than the other boys in the sample were the most strongly associated with close online relationships.
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