Social Networking And YouthPresented by-

Dhrolia Alefya090110116004

Youth activities online

• Building own profiles (present self to peers) • Visiting other profiles (to see how others

present themselves) • Commenting on profiles, photos etc .(often

positive, reciprocated)

Authentic vs. fake profiles • Many of the profiles are authentic, even if

presenting themselves in a good light • Sometimes there is great criticism of fake profiles• BUT: Some youth themselves create fake profiles

(as identity play) • Example • You can pretend to be anyone, you can trick

someone. A friend of mine told someone she was from Hawaii!We could do anything and we changed our name…..- Girl 15, UK

Communications

• Various national studies stress how much communication is positive (e.g. Denmark, France, UK, Netherlands, Italy, Estonia)

• Only a minority of actions on SNS were ‘negative’ e.g. following arguments offline between peers, ex-boy/girlfriends, teasing by posting ‘embarrassing’ pictures

Online continues offline

• From the countries most social networking sites are used by youth to communicate with known people, usually peers (e.g. Norway, Denmark, UK, Estonia, Ireland)

• E.g. (UK) 92% mainly use sites to stay in touch with friends, family they see a lot

Adding friends

• One practice, is competing to add friends to the friends list - as a sign of popularity

• BUT, this does sometimes mean adding ‘friends’ who young people have not met offline.

• Even if privacy settings are set to private, it means these strangers have access to profile names,pictures etc.

Privacy issues

• Children may be aware of adults online, but they put up details anyway

• That said, US research shows that many do take some precautions e.g. putting some fake details on profiles, not giving details that would allow a stranger to locate them

• What adults think should be private is not necessarily what young people think should be private

• Various studies indicate information that young people give out: (e.g. Ireland) 8% home address, 12% mobile phone, 49% date of birth

Privacy settings

• There could be problems understanding settings.

• But part of the decision to leave the settings public can be the desire to be visible to other teenagers

Parental rules

• In general, most studies suggest that parents do not know much about SNS

• 65% parents say the set rules about their children’s use of SNS, 53% of children said the parents set rules

• Two main types of rule – meeting new people (30%) , giving out personal details (27%) (parents’ figures)

Young children

• 27% of 8-11 year olds claim to have a profile on a site

• Some sites cater for younger children, but most have minimum age that is higher

• The qualitative study confirmed ‘underage’ use

Thank You