Almost half of teenagers refer to sex, substance abuse or other risky behaviours on their publicly available profiles, which may attract unwanted attention from sexual predators or jeopardise their future employment prospects, research published this morning has found, writes Dr. Muiris Houston,Medical Correspondent
Dr Megan Moreno and her colleagues from the University of Washington and Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute analysed the content of 500 online social network profiles between July and September 2007.
All of the profile owners were 18 years old and living in the United States.
Some 54 per cent of the profiles contained references to risky behaviours. One-quarter of the profiles examined mentioned sexual behaviours while 44 per cent referred to substance abuse. Almost one in three spoke about alcohol use while 14 per cent referred to violence.
The study, published in the current issue of Archives of Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, found that teenagers, whose profiles indicated religious involvement or had references to active participation in a sport or hobby, were less likely to contain any kind of risky information.
"Given the popularity of social networking sites among teens and the high prevalence of risk behaviours displayed there, social networking sites can be explored as an innovative way to identify, screen and ultimately intervene with adolescents who display risk behaviour information," the authors say.
In a separate study, the same researchers created a MySpace profile with the user name "Dr Meg", in which they outlined their medical credentials and research interests.
They then identified 190 MySpace profiles of teenagers that contained three or more references to sexual behaviours or substance abuse. They randomly sent a single e-mail from the "Dr Meg" site to half of the profile owners, advising them their profile contained risky information.
Before the warning e-mail, 54 per cent of the online profiles referred to sex and 85 per cent mentioned substance abuse. Three months after receiving the advisory e-mail, some 42 per cent of the profile owners had made protective changes to their profile. References to sex disappeared completely in 15 per cent of the teenage profiles.
"Our study illustrates that developing online interventions to reduce online risk behaviours is feasible, low-intensity and low- cost," the authors conclude.
An accompanying editorial points out that new media technology offers potential benefits and drawbacks for young people. Among the benefits are the development of critical thinking skills, the enhancement of autonomy and the provision of social support to teenagers who may feel lonely or ostracised.
But the editorial states: "Content on social networking profiles may increase one's likelihood of being harassed or targeted with unwanted sexual solicitation and it may negatively affect one's future professional opportunities."
Bebo is the leading social network site in Ireland. It claims to have one million active users here.