Teens Managing Online Identities and Personal Information, Says Study

Yesterday, The Pew Internet and American Life Project released Teens, Privacy & Online Social Networks,  which states that "most teenagers are taking steps to protect themselves online from the most obvious areas of risk. The new survey shows that many youth actively manage their personal information as they perform a balancing act between keeping some important pieces of information confined to their network of trusted friends and, at the same time, participating in a new, exciting process of creating content for their profiles and making new friends. Most teens believe some information seems acceptable -- even desirable -- to share, while other information needs to be protected."

The study summary says, however, that today's teens face potential risks associated with online life. Some 32 percent of online teenagers (and 43 percent of social-networking teens) have been contacted online by complete strangers and 17 percent of online teens (31 percent of social networking teens) have "friends" on their social network profile who they have never personally met.

Here is a general statistical snapshot of how teens use social network sites and the way they handle their privacy on them:

• 55 percent of online teens have profiles online; 45 percent of online teens do not have profiles online.

• Among the teens who have profiles, 66 percent of them say that their profile is not visible to all Internet users. They limit access to their profiles in some way.

• Among those whose profiles can be accessed by anyone online, 46 percent say they give at least a little and sometimes a good deal of false information on their profiles. Teens post fake information to protect themselves, but also to be playful or silly.

• Most teens are using the networks to stay in touch with people they already know, either friends that they see a lot (91 percent of social networking teens have done this) or friends that they rarely see in person (82 percent).

• 49 percent of social network users say they use the networks to make new friends.

• 32 percent of online teens have been contacted by strangers online -- this could be any kind of online contact, not necessarily contact through social network sites.

• 21 percent of teens who have been contacted by strangers have engaged an online stranger to find out more information about that person (that translates to 7 percent of all online teens).

• 23 percent of teens who have been contacted by a stranger online say they felt scared or uncomfortable because of the online encounter (that translates to 7 percent of all online teens).