Risky Behaviors All Over Social Sites

(January 6, 2009) - Over half of teens put things into their online profiles that mention risky behaviors such as sex, alcohol or drug use and violence. (Read about "Alcoholism" "Violence & Abuse") The information can be dangerous but it may also provide an opportunity for intervention. The information was gleaned from publicly available online profiles, according to a report in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

More than 90 percent of adolescents have Internet access and about half use social networking sites, according to background information in the articles. "MySpace, the most popular social networking site, regularly ranks among the world's 10 most popular Web sites and includes more than 200 million Web profile accounts, of which 25 percent belong to minors," the authors write. "Members of a social networking site create a personal Web profile that may contain images, text and audio. The social networking sites play an important role in adolescents' social lives as a place for identity exploration and peer group interaction."

Despite these potential benefits, risks may be associated with the display of information related to sex, substance use, violence and other health risk behaviors in a public venue. For instance, displaying such information may attract unwanted attention from sexual predators or jeopardize future employment prospects.

To determine the prevalence of risky references, researchers analyzed the content of 500 publicly available profiles between July and September 2007. All of the profile owners reported being 18 years old and living in the United States.

A total of 270 (54 percent) of the profiles contained references to risky behaviors, including 120 (24 percent) that mentioned sexual behaviors, 205 (41 percent) referencing substance use, 37 percent mentioning alcohol use and 72 (14.4 percent) referring to violence. Women were less likely than men to display references to violence; reporting a sexual orientation other than "straight" was associated with more references to sexual behavior. Teens whose profiles mentioned church or religious involvement, or indicated active participation in a sport or hobby, were less likely to display any type of risky information.

The findings suggest social networking sites may provide a new way to detect teens at risk for engaging in unhealthy behaviors, the authors note. "Given the popularity of social networking sites among teens and the high prevalence of risk behaviors displayed there, social networking sites can be explored as an innovative venue to identify, screen and ultimately intervene with adolescents who display risk behavior information," they write.