American teens share alarming amounts of personal information online with strangers, survey shows

SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA (BNO NEWS) – A survey conducted by McAfee, Inc. reveals that American teens continue to share large amounts of personal information with strangers, putting them at risk of falling victim to online child predators.

“The Secret Life of Teens,” a survey conducted online by Harris Interactive from May 4 to May 17, surveyed 955 American 13 to 17 year-olds, revealing that 69 percent of the teenagers have updated their status on social networking sites to include their physical location, and that 51 percent of them say they have given out personal information online to someone they don’t know in the real world.

News headlines regularly emphasize the dangers of sharing personal information online. On Wednesday, an 18-year-old man from Queens was sentenced to 40 years in state prison for orchestrating and participating in the brutal gang rape of a 16-year-old girl.

18-year-old Harpreet Singh met the victim on the social networking website MySpace in early 2008 where he befriended her and induced her to send him head and shoulder photographs. He then progressively asked for nude photographs, to which she complied.

Later, Singh told the girl that he would post her pictures on the internet unless she agreed to have sex with him. The next day, at the home of two co-defendants, Singh sexually abused and raped her. After that the other co-defendants, Noman Gondal, 18, Anjam Shahzad, 24, Vikram Singh, 18, and a juvenile offender, each took turns and raped and sexually abused her despite her cries to stop. Arsalan Gondal, 22, is also charged with participating in the crime but he is currently at large.

The minor victim returned home and attempted suicide by ingesting medications and tying a cord around her neck. Fortunately, her mother found her locked in the bathroom and called 911.

“Keeping kids safe no longer only means teaching them about the dangers of alcohol or how to deal with a school bully,” said Tracy Mooney, mother of three and McAfee Chief Cyber Security Mom. “This report is a wake-up call to the real dangers our teens face when they make themselves vulnerable online. As a mom, it worries me that kids aren’t practicing safe ‘street smarts’ when they’re online.”

Specifically, the survey showed that 43 percent have shared their first name, 24 percent have shared their email address, 18 percent have shared a personal photo of themselves, and 12 percent have shared their cell phone number. Approximately 28 percent of teens chat with people they don’t know in the real world.

According to the study, girls, more likely than boys, chat with strangers online. Further, about 16 percent of the surveyed 13 to 15 year old girls are more likely than boys the same age (7%) to have given a description of what they look like.

“Kids know not to talk to strangers – it’s one of the first lessons you teach them. But online, there’s a sense of trust and anonymity, so kids let their guard down,” said Mooney. “Kids would never hand out their name and address to a stranger in the real world, so it’s alarming to see how many kids do that very thing online.”

The study also surveyed teenagers regarding cyber bullying, which has made media headlines on numerous occasions this year. A story that stirred the nation was the cyber bullying case that led 15-year-old Phoebe Prince, an Irish “new girl,” to commit suicide. In that case, nine teens from Massachusetts were indicted, as they constantly used social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, and even Craigslist, an online classifieds site, to harass Prince, calling her “Irish slut” and “whore.”

One in three teens knows someone who has been humiliated and had mean or hurtful information posted about them online – such as sending anonymous emails, spreading rumors online, forwarding private information without someone’s permission or purposely posting mean or hurtful information about someone online, which essentially defines cyber bullying.

The survey said 14 percent of 13 to 17 year olds admit to having engaged in some form of cyber bullying behavior, and 22 percent say they would not know what to do if they were cyber bullied.

“It’s almost impossible to keep up with how my kids get online,” continued Mooney. “It’s not like keeping the home computer in the living room is the answer anymore – you have to educate your kids to be safe while they’re accessing the Web from their friends’ houses, or on their phone – away from my supervision.”

Keeping track is indeed a difficult task, as the survey revealed that 87 percent of teens go online somewhere other than at home. Around 54 percent accesses the internet from their friends’ or relatives’ houses, 30 percent access the Web through a phone and 21 percent through a video game system. Another 23 percent of kids go online anywhere with an open Wi-Fi signal.

Approximately two in five teens say they don’t tell their parents what they do while they are online (42 percent) and that they would change their online behavior if they knew their parents were watching (36 percent).

Furthermore, internet activity by most teens (62%) typically view or download some kind of media online, including x-rated content, music, and videos – which can lead to dangerous downloads and other online threats that puts the family computer at risk.

Results were weighted as needed for age, gender, race/ethnicity, and other key variables.

(Copyright 2010 by BNO News B.V. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without explicit prior permission from BNO News B.V. Contact sales@bnonews.com for more information about subscriptions.)

Related posts:

1. Survey finds access to internet, social networking, and personal email to be more important than salary to employees
2. Hackers steal 25 million more personal accounts from Sony Online Entertainment database
3. Illicit drug use in U.S. rises, national survey says
4. President Obama experiences worst overall performance rating since taking office, survey shows
5. American Red Cross unveils online tool that allows people to update status during disasters