Mining Pew – Teens, Social Media, and Privacy

This article deals with teens’ practices in the sharing of information on social media sites, the steps they take to restrict their profiles, and other privacy management issues.  Their privacy practices sometimes vary according to their gender, race, age, and network size.

Teens share more information about themselves than they did in the past.  This survey compares findings from the years 2006 and 2012.  Facebook profiles have become an important feature of teenage life.  The types of information shared by teens which have increased greatly from 2006 include: photos, school names, city where they live, email address, and cell phone number.  Many teens also publish their real name, their interests, date of birth, and relationship status.  I know that I was surprised to find that my son was “in a relationship” without my knowledge last year.  Older teens are more likely than younger teens to share photos of themselves and their cell phone number.  I’m surprised that parents (who are usually “friended” by their children) don’t have them take off their cell phone number and email address.  Boys are significantly more likely to share their number than girls.  African-Americans are less likely than white teens to use their real names on a social media profile.  I never even considered using a name other than my own, though I am friended by someone named “Pot Stirrer,” and I’m not totally sure who that is!

Twitter use by teens has grown considerably, especially among African-American teens.  Twitter users are much more likely to have a public account than are Facebook users.  However, teens have far fewer followers on Twitter than Facebook friends.  The typical teen Facebook user has 300 friends, while the typical teen Twitter user has 79 followers.  Interestingly, discussion forums show that keenness for Facebook is dwindling among teen users.  They don’t like that adults are using it increasingly and that people tend to share too much information.

Many teens take steps to restrict their profiles and manage their settings.  60% of teen Facebook users keep their profiles private, allowing only friends to view the content they post.  Girls are more likely than boys to restrict access to their profiles.  Most teens are confident about managing their Facebook privacy settings.  They do not have much concern about third-party access to their data.  Focus group insights imply that some teens may not have a good sense of whether the information they share is being used by third parties, such as advertisers.  However, those who are concerned are more likely to engage in online reputation management.

Online reputation management consists of revising profile content, deleting or editing posts, deleting comments from others, removing their names from tagged photos, and deleting or deactivating profiles.  Many teen social media users have deleted people from their friends’ list or have blocked people on social media sites.  Not surprisingly, girls are more likely than boys to delete friends and block people.  Girls are also more likely to be Facebook friends with coaches or teachers.  I get many requests from students to be their Facebook friend, but I always tell them that I am not allowed to friend them on Facebook.  One notable finding is that African-American youth are nearly twice as likely as whites to be Facebook friends with celebrities, athletes, or musicians.  I wonder why that is.

Network size also affects information sharing and personal information management by teens.  Teens with larger Facebook networks are more frequent users of other social networking sites and tend to have a greater variety of people in their friend networks.  They share a wider range of information and visit the sites more frequently.  But they also are more active in profile pruning and reputation management activities.

http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/05/21/teens-social-media-and-privacy/

(12 pages)