1. Teens, Kindness and Cruelty on Social Network Sites
Amanda Lenhart | Pew Research Center
Youth Working Group
June 5, 2012
Image used under creative commons – photo titled “Hoooii by Sanne” by lightsmash aka Mahdi Abdulrazak, available on flickr at
All source information for charts appear in the notes section for each slide.
Data in this report is mostly from the November 2011 report Teens, Kindness and Cruelty on Social Network Sites, but some of the mobile phone data is from the 2010 Teens and Mobile Phones report.

2. Pew + Internet =
Part of the Pew Research Center, a non-partisan “fact tank” in DC
Studies how people use digital technologies
Does not promote specific technologies or make policy recommendations
Research is primarily based on nationally representative telephone surveys

3. Road Map Background on teen tech use
Teens’ experiences and behaviors online and on social network sites
Positives
Bullying
Sexting
Who (or what) influences teens’ attitudes, expectations and behaviors online?
Context around teen internet and social media use
Teen privacy choices
Parent moderation and mediation
School technology climate
Images used via Creative Commons. Image titled “map of Richmond, Virgina” posted by john.murden to flickr. Accessed on 6/1/12 from
12/9/2017

4. How teens are using technology
12/9/2017

5. Source: The Pew Research Center Internet & American Life Project Teen & Parent surveys. Methodological information for each survey is available from
12/9/2017

6. Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, April 19 – July 14, 2011 Teen Survey. n=799 teens and a parent or guardian. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish, by landline and cell phone, and included an oversample of minority families.
12/9/2017

7. Digging down to differences
Internet use
Latino youth slightly less likely than whites to use the internet (88% vs.. 97%)
Youth from low income/low SES environments slightly more likely to go online less frequently
more likely to say that they use the internet 1-2 days a week or less often.
Computer ownership
No racial or ethnic differences
Low education households – where parents have a HS diploma or less, are substantially less likely to have youth who say they “own” a computer. (65% vs.. 80%)
Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Teen-Parent survey, April 19-July 14, n=799 for teens and parents, including oversample of minority families. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.
12/9/2017

8. Note:. indicates statistically significant difference between rows
Note: * indicates statistically significant difference between rows. **indicates a data point that is significant with regards to all other data points in the row section.
Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project Teen/Parent Survey, April 19 – July 14, n=799 teens ages and a parent or guardian. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish, on landlines and cell phones.
12/9/2017

9. Smartphone ownership
23% of all teens have a smartphone; as do one third of mobile phone owners
Age is most important in determining cell or smartphone ownership
Once cell ownership hurdle is crossed, no differences in smartphone ownership by race, income.
Is it a smartphone? Latino youth less certain that their phone is a smartphone (24% not sure, vs.. 10% of whites).
Image used under creative commons: photo titled “Press send.” by Sadie Hernandez. Available on flickr at
Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Teen-Parent survey, April 19-July 14, n=799 for teens and parents, including oversample of minority families. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.
12/9/2017

10. Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project, April 19 – July 14, 2011 Teen Survey. n=799 teens and a parent or guardian. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish, by landline and cell phone.
*indicate a data point that is significant with regards to all the other data points in the same row. ** indicates a data point that is significantly different from only the data point marked with † in the same row.
12/9/2017

11. Parents of smart phone users no more likely to use parental controls
Overall 34% of parents of teen cell owners use parental controls on child’s mobile phone
28% of parents of smartphone owners
37% of parents of regular phone owners
54% of parents use parental controls on the computer
41% of parents use one type of parental control
17% say they use parental controls on mobile and computer
41% of parents say they do not use parental controls at all
12/9/2017

12. Location-based services
Standalone applications like Foursquare or location features on platforms like Facebook and Twitter
6% of all American teens have used a location-based service to check in or note their location on their cell phones.
8% of cell owners
18% of smartphone owners
Older teens (14-17) use them more than younger (9% vs. 1%)
No differences in use by gender, race or SES
12/9/2017

13. Video 27% of teens record and upload video
Boys and girls equally likely to do so (in 2006 boys were more likely)
Social media users more likely to shoot and share video
No differences by race, ethnicity or SES
13% of teens stream video live to the internet
Broadband users and social media users more likely
37% of teens use video chat
Girls chat more
White youth chat more than Latino Youth
Higher SES youth more likely to chat
Social media users chat more
Image titled “Ready.Set.Action” taken by -Jeffrey- used under creative commons. Downloaded from Flickr on 5.18/12

14. Source: The Pew Research Center Internet & American Life Project Teen & Parent surveys. Methodological information for each survey is available from
12/9/2017

15. Differences in Social Media Use
Twitter shows big differences
34% of online African-American teens use Twitter
11% of online white teens use Twitter
13% of online Latino teens use Twitter
Lower income teens (under 30K hhd inc) more likely to use than higher income teens.
Girls more than boys – youngest boys are laggards
Social network site use more broadly adopted
Lowest income teens use SNS more than highest income teens
Girls more than boys
Older teens more than younger teens
12/9/2017

16. 95% of teens use the internet 80% of online teens use SNS
* indicates a statistically significant difference between bars.
Source: Teen data is from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Teen-Parent survey, April 19-July 14, N=799 for teens and parents, including oversample of minority families. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. Data for adults is from Pew Internet’s August Tracking survey, July 25-August 26, Nationally representative, n=2260 adults 18+, includes cellphone & Spanish language interviews.
12/9/2017

17. Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Teen-Parent survey, April 19-July 14, N=799 for teens and parents, including oversample of minority families. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.
12/9/2017

18. How younger and older teens use social media
95% of teens use the internet
80% of online teens use SNS
* indicates a statistically significant difference between bars.
Source: Teen data is from the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Teen-Parent survey, April 19-July 14, N=799 for teens and parents, including oversample of minority families. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. Data for adults is from Pew Internet’s August Tracking survey, July 25-August 26, Nationally representative, n=2260 adults 18+, includes cellphone & Spanish language interviews.
12/9/2017

19. Social and emotional experiences on social media
12/9/2017

20. Note: The question wording for adults was “Overall, in your experience, are people mostly kind or mostly unkind to one another on social networking sites?” * indicates a statistically significant difference between bars.
Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project Teen-Parent survey, April 19-July 14, N=799 for teens and parents, including oversample of minority families. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. Data for adults is from Pew Internet’s August Tracking survey, July 25-August 26, Nationally representative, n=2260 adults 18+, includes cell phone & Spanish language interviews.
12/9/2017

21. Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Teen-Parent survey, April 19-July 14, N=799 for teens and parents, including oversample of minority families. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.
12/9/2017

22. * indicates a statistically significant difference between bars.
Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Teen-Parent survey, April 19-July 14, n=799 for teens and parents, including oversample of minority families. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. Adult data from Pew Internet’s August 2011 Tracking survey with adults 18+, July 25-August 26, n=2260
12/9/2017

23. Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Teen-Parent survey, April 19-July 14, n=799 for teens and parents, including oversample of minority families. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. Adult data from Pew Internet’s August 2011 Tracking survey with adults 18+, July 25-August 26, n=2260. There are no statistically significant differences reflected in this chart.
12/9/2017

24. Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Teen-Parent survey, April 19-July 14, N=799 for teens and parents, including oversample of minority families. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.
12/9/2017

25. Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Teen-Parent survey, April 19-July 14, N=799 for teens and parents, including oversample of minority families. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.
12/9/2017

26. Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Teen-Parent survey, April 26-July 14, n=799 for teens and parents, including oversample of minority families. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.
12/9/2017

27. Who is most likely to be bullied?
In-person
Online, texting or phone call
Younger teens (12-13) are more likely than older teens to say they have experienced in-person bullying over the last year:
17% vs.. 10%
Girls are more likely than boys to experience bullying in every mediated context:
Online - 12% vs.. 4%
Text - 13% vs.. 5%
Phone call - 11% vs.. 4%
Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Teen-Parent survey, April 26-July 14, n=799 for teens and parents, including oversample of minority families. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.
12/9/2017

28. Sexting 2009 2011 4% of teens 12 to 17 have sent
15% of year olds with cell phones have received
No gender or age differences in sending
Older teens more likely to receive
2% of teens have sent
18% of yos with cell phones have received
No gender or age differences in sending
Older teens more likely to receive (21% of 16-17yos vs.. 6% of yos)
12/9/2017

29. Influence and Advice
12/9/2017

30. 12/9/2017

31. Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Teen-Parent survey, April 19-July 14, N=799 for teens and parents, including oversample of minority families. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.
12/9/2017

32. Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Teen-Parent survey, April 19-July 14, N=799 for teens and parents, including oversample of minority families. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.
12/9/2017

33. Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Teen-Parent survey, April 19-July 14, N=799 for teens and parents, including oversample of minority families. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.
12/9/2017

34. Context of teen social media use
12/9/2017

35. Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Teen-Parent survey, April 19-July 14, n=799 for teens and parents, including oversample of minority families. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish. Adult data from Pew Internet’s August 2011 Tracking survey with adults 18+, July 25-August 26, n=2260.
12/9/2017

36. Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Teen-Parent survey, April 19-July 14, N=799 for teens and parents, including oversample of minority families. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.
12/9/2017

37. Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Teen-Parent survey, April 19-July 14, N=799 for teens and parents, including oversample of minority families. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.
Note: * indicates statistically significant difference between bars. Also note -- the phrasing in the chart reflects the wording asked of teens. The questions asked of parents did not include references to cell phones, but were otherwise identical.
12/9/2017

38. 80% of parents who use social media and who also have a
80% of parents who use social media and who also have a child who uses SM have friended their child.
77% of parents of online teens have checked to see what websites their child visited, up from 65% of parents who did this in 2006.
66% of parents have checked to see what information was available online about their child.
54% of parents of online teens report using parental controls or other means of blocking, filtering, or monitoring their child’s online activities.
34% of parents say they have used parental controls to restrict their child’s use of a cell phone.
Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Teen-Parent survey, April 19-July 14, N=799 for teens and parents, including oversample of minority families. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.
12/9/2017

39. Parental Concern 47% 34% 81% 9% 19% 45% 35% 80% 10% 31% 33% 63% 20%
Very concerned
Somewhat concerned
Total citing concerns about negative impact
Not too concerned
Not at all concerned
Total saying they have little/no concern
Your child’s exposure to inappropriate content through the internet or cell phones
47%
34%
81% 9%
19%
How teens in general treat each other online or on their cell phones
45%
35%
80%
10%
Your child’s internet or cell phone use taking time away from face-to-face interactions with friends or family
31%
33%
63%
20%
16%
36%
Source: The Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Teen-Parent survey, April 19-July 14, N=799 for teens and parents, including oversample of minority families. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish.
12/9/2017

40. School-based use of mobile phones
12/9/2017

41. From Teens and Mobile Phones report (2010) http://pewinternet
12/9/2017

42. Source: Teens and Mobile Phones Report: http://pewinternet
12/9/2017

43. Source: Teens and Mobile Phones Report: http://pewinternet
12/9/2017

44. Themes Importance of mobile Social network sites are
generally a good place…
…though for a small subset of kids, it is remarkably negative
Importance of parents
But it also takes a “village” -
Positive bystander behavior is happening – but so is joining in
Digital citizenship
Photo illustration by MrSkyce “Nyintendo and Yang” used under creative commons – accessed from on
Digital citizenship – move away from piecemeal safety interventions into holistic education of how to be a good person online. Skills to navigate …
12/9/2017

45. Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project
Amanda Lenhart
Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project
@amanda_lenhart
Photo by arcticpenguin – downloaded from flickr
Used under creative commons
Report that contain the data presented in this talk:
Teens, Kindness and Cruelty on Social Media Sites
Teens, Smartphones and Texting
Teens and Online Video
Methodology for research presented in this talk:
800 teens ages 12 to 17 and a parent or guardian were contacted by landline or cellular telephone in a nationally representative rdd survey conducted from June to September 2009.
9 focus groups in four cities with middle and high school aged teens (ages 12-18) conducted in June and October 2009
Joint project of the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and the University of Michigan.
Data from adult surveys from Sept 2009 & January 2010
More detail on methods at
photo by arcticpenguin
12/9/2017