Social Networking And Youth Presented by- Dhrolia Alefya

Youth activities online Building own profiles (present self to peers) Visiting other profiles (to see how others present themselves) Commenting on profiles, photos etc.(often positive, reciprocated)

Authentic vs. fake profiles Many of the profiles are authentic, even if presenting themselves in a good light Sometimes there is great criticism of fake profiles BUT: Some youth themselves create fake profiles (as identity play) Example You can pretend to be anyone, you can trick someone. A friend of mine told someone she was from Hawaii!We could do anything and we changed our name…..- Girl 15, UK

Communications Various national studies stress how much communication is positive (e.g. Denmark, France, UK, Netherlands, Italy, Estonia) Only a minority of actions on SNS were ‘negative’ e.g. following arguments offline between peers, ex-boy/girlfriends, teasing by posting ‘embarrassing’ pictures

Online continues offline From the countries most social networking sites are used by youth to communicate with known people, usually peers (e.g. Norway, Denmark, UK, Estonia, Ireland) E.g. (UK) 92% mainly use sites to stay in touch with friends, family they see a lot

Adding friends One practice, is competing to add friends to the friends list - as a sign of popularity BUT, this does sometimes mean adding ‘friends’ who young people have not met offline. Even if privacy settings are set to private, it means these strangers have access to profile names,pictures etc.

Privacy issues Children may be aware of adults online, but they put up details anyway That said, US research shows that many do take some precautions e.g. putting some fake details on profiles, not giving details that would allow a stranger to locate them What adults think should be private is not necessarily what young people think should be private Various studies indicate information that young people give out: (e.g. Ireland) 8% home address, 12% mobile phone, 49% date of birth

Privacy settings There could be problems understanding settings. But part of the decision to leave the settings public can be the desire to be visible to other teenagers

Parental rules In general, most studies suggest that parents do not know much about SNS 65% parents say the set rules about their children’s use of SNS, 53% of children said the parents set rules Two main types of rule – meeting new people (30%), giving out personal details (27%) (parents’ figures)

Young children 27% of 8-11 year olds claim to have a profile on a site Some sites cater for younger children, but most have minimum age that is higher The qualitative study confirmed ‘underage’ use

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