Study Shows Teens on MySpace Often Talk Sex, Violence
Growing up as a teenager can be hard. At a time when youths are still discovering themselves and seeking acceptance from their peers (or strangers), what does one do? Let it all out on MySpace, of course. According to a study published in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 54-percent of the 500 MySpace profiles studied mentioned sex, alcohol, and violence on their respective user pages. The users were a mix of male and females, and were all 18 years of age.
In a similar and somewhat hopeful study, the doctors chose 190 different profiles of users between 18 and 20 years old that mentioned sex, substance abuse, or violence three or more times. The doctors then created their own profile page under the name "Dr. Meg," and sent the users an e-mail regarding the risks of publishing certain information, and also different clinical resources they could research. After three months, the researchers found that 42.1-percent of users that received the email -- and 29.5-percent of users that did not -- removed the risky language from their profile pages, or made their pages private. Seems a lot of the teens may have simply been venting, or didn't realize the risks of what they were doing at the time.
It's tough to say if youths are actually more obsessed with risky behavior than times before social networking was popular, but clearly publishing such information online for the world to see increases any potential danger. There are countless people out there who can and will take advantage of others, and giving them an easy in for communication through a site like MySpace -- especially after showing interest in sex, drugs, and/or violence -- means we all need to be a bit more careful on what we and our children post online. [From: CNN]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Level 5 said 8:31AM on 1-07-2009
This is shocking/newsworthy why? Go into any high school cafeteria or classroom and you'll hear teens talking about the same thing. Just because it's Myspace, it's somehow a bigger risk?
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Carney said 12:14PM on 1-07-2009
I would have thought they would have solely been discussing their studies, and plans for Sunday school.
Anyway, looking at the last sentence, the word "children" here is misleading. Teenagers are not little kids, but stories concerning them constantly use words like "child".
Since "child" is a bad idea, we need something else, but there's no good word for teens in this context; "offspring" is too distant and dehumanizing; "youth" seems male-oriented and is often a euphemism for minoritie (especially those in legal trouble); "minor" ignores 18 and 19 year olds, etc.
By the way, since this only involved 18 year olds and up, who are supposedly "adults" in our system, what was the problem, at least the non-violent talk?
Sloppy language leads to sloppy thinking, and this problem has contributed to our social mores and legal system revolving around the patently false premise of binary categories, child and adult, with the dividing line at 18 at which point the sexual capability, interest, attractiveness, and emotional maturity all suddenly arrive, having been entirely absent beforehand.
A much better approach, one that takes into account the realities of physical, cognitive, and emotional development, is proposed here:
http://www.slate.com/id/2174841/
And when it comes to violence, the same nonsense happens. We hear alarming statistics about "children killed by guns" and think of a 5 year old who dug up Daddy's pistol from the back of the closet. But in fact they lump in ice cold 17 year old gangsters shooting each other. These aren't "children".
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