TEENS, PRIVACY AND ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS
How teens manage their online identities and personal information in the age of MySpace
The majority of teens actively manage their online profiles to keep the information they believe is most sensitive away from the unwanted gaze of strangers, parents and other adults. While many teens post their first name and photos on their profiles, they rarely post information on public profiles they believe would help strangers actually locate them such as their full name, home phone number or cell phone number.

At the same time, nearly two-thirds of teens with profiles (63 percent) believe that a motivated person could eventually identify them from the information they publicly provide on their profiles.

A new report, based on a survey and a series of focus groups conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project examine how teens, particularly those with profiles online, make decisions about disclosing or shielding personal information.

Some 55 percent of online teens have profiles and most of them restrict access to their profile in some way. Of those with profiles, 66 percent say their profile is not visible to all internet users. Of those whose profile can be accessed by anyone online, nearly half (46 percent) say they give at least some false information. Teens post fake information to protect themselves and also to be playful or silly.

- Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project.

www.pewinternet.org

Teens, Privacy & Online Social Networks: Summary of Findings at a Glance

Many teenagers avidly use social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, and employ a variety of
tools and techniques to manage their online identities.
Teens post a variety of things on their profiles, but a first name and photo are standard.
Boys and girls have different views and different behaviors when it comes to privacy.
Older teens share more personal information than younger teens.
To teens, all personal information is not created equal. They say it is very important to understand the
context of an information-sharing encounter.
Most teen profile creators suspect that a motivated person could eventually identify them. They also
think strangers are more likely to contact teens online than offline.
Parents are using technical and non-technical measures to protect their children online.
More households have rules about internet use than have rules about other media.
Source: Lenhart, Amanda and Madden, Mary. Teens, Privacy & Online Social Networks. Washington, DC: Pew
Internet & American Life Project, April 18, 2007.

Demographics: Teens Who Create Profiles Online

The percentage of online teens in each group who create profiles online:

Sex
Boys	51%
Girls	58%
Age
12-14	45%
15-17	64%*
Age by Sex
Boys aged 12-14	46%
Girls aged 12-14	44%
Boys aged 15-17	57%
Girls aged 15-17	70%*
Household income
Less than $50,000	55%
$50,000 or more	56%
Race/ethnicity
White, non-Hispanic	53%
Non-white	58%

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Teens and Parents Survey, Oct.- Nov. 2006. Margin of error is ±5% for profile creators. * indicates statistically significant differences.

What Teens Do Online

The percentage of U.S. internet users, aged 12-17, who do the following online:

	Online Teens
Send or read email	89%
Go to websites about movies, TV shows, music groups, or sports stars
	84
you are interested in
Play online games	81
Go online to get news or information about current events	76
Send or receive instant messages	75
Go online to get information about a college, university, or other school
	57
you are thinking about attending
Look for news or information about politics and the presidential
	55
campaign
Buy things online, such as books, clothing, or music	43
Send or receive text messages using a cell phone	38
Look for health, dieting, or physical fitness information online	31
Look for information about a job online	30
Look for religious or spiritual information online	26
Look for information online about a health topic that's hard to talk about,
	22
like drug use, sexual health, or depression

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project: Teens and Parents Survey, October-November 2004 survey. Margin of error for teens online is 4 percentage points.

Teens and Media Devices

For device ownership, age matters more than gender

				Teens Aged	Teens Aged
	All Teens	Boys	Girls
				12-14	15-17
Percentage of each group who have the following media devices:
Desktop computer	76%	78%	73%	70%	79%
Laptop computer	19	18	19	19	19
Cell phone	48	43	52	35	59
Personal Digital Device like a
	7	7	7	7	7
Sidekick or Blackberry
Number of media devices:
None	16%	17%	16%	21%	12%
One or more types of media device	88	85	87	81	89
Two or more types of media devices	46	45	48	37	55
Three or more types of media devices	14	14	14	9	17
All four types of media devices	2	2	2	2	2

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project October-November 2006 survey. N=1,100 12-17 year-olds. Margin of error is 3 percentage points at 95% confidence level.

Note: Numbers in bold indicate a statistically significant difference at the 95% level.

CELL PHONE USAGE

Roughly 60 percent of American teenagers own a cell phone, according to U.S. Cellular statistics, and spend an average of an hour a day talking on them- about the same amount of time the average teenager spends doing homework. And cell phone companies are now marketing to younger children with colorful kid-friendly phones and easy-to-use features. According to market research firm the Yankee Group, 54 percent of 8 to12 year olds will have cell phones within the next three years.