Blog

Several high profile incidents have put cyberbullying at the top of the headlines in recent months.  When Sameer and I first started studying this problem over eight years ago, it was rare to see a cyberbullying story in the media, now they are everywhere.

Larry Magid, a technology journalist who contributes to a number of publications, both online and off, commented on cnet yesterday about the potential development of a “cyberbullying panic.”  We really appreciate his perspective on issues relating to teens and technology and especially the fact that he always supports his viewpoints and arguments with research.

He is right that the public can sometimes view a particular problem as epidemic in nature simply from one or two high profile incidents (for example, the school shootings of the late 1990s, or more recently the panic over online sexual predators).  And many in the media often fan the flames.  I basically agree with his thoughts on this and think he is right on in terms of encouraging teens (and adults) to acknowledge that most kids are not engaging in negative or risky or irresponsible behaviors online.  Research finds that about 20% of kids have been cyberbullied, or admit to cyberbullying others, at some point in their lifetime (this number varies considerably depending on how one measures cyberbullying).  Of course this means that 80% of kids are NOT involved in cyberbullying as an aggressor or target.

Many people ask me if the bullying problem is getting worse with technology.  I simply tell them that technology has allowed us to observe the bullying problem more clearly.  Kids have always been bullying each other.  But technology has brought it to the forefront because we can see exactly what is being done and said.  Historically, maybe, much of these bullying experiences would never come to the attention of adults – technology has made the problem more visible, for better *and* worse.  This visibility likely contributes to the overall harm caused, but also allows parents, school administers, and others to see it more precisely (and most are shocked, even though they too were once adolescents).  I also think that the media attention surrounding these and other high profile incidents over the last year or two (perhaps even the Megan Meier case) has resulted in more students coming forward about their bullying/cyberbullying experiences.  Our research over the last five years or so shows that more teens are now telling adults about their experiences with cyberbullying.  Now we just need to teach adults how to effectively deal with the problem once they are made aware.

We need to remember that most teens are doing great things online and are largely being responsible (our MySpace research shows this clearly).  The high profile examples certainly grab the headlines but represent the exception rather than the rule.  Of course, as Larry points out, that doesn’t mean we should ignore the problem.  It is hard to see a clear path to prevention and response in the midst of a panic.  Good solid research can help us to distill the fact from the fiction, and therefore should be the foundation of any policy and practice.  That said, the rare tragedy is often necessary to remind us of why it is so important to keep moving forward with respect to these issues.

Sameer and I have been exploring online social networking generally, and adolescent behaviors on MySpace in particular, for over five years.  Since 2006 we have randomly selected several thousand MySpace profiles each year to determine: 1) who is on MySpace and 2) what kind of information they are posting.  Our latest article, which is forthcoming in the journal New Media and Society is now available online.  We also posted a fact sheet on our site which summarizes the most important findings.  Here is the abstract:

MySpace has received a significant amount of negative attention from the media and many concerned adults, who point to several isolated incidents where predators have contacted, become involved with and even assaulted adolescents whom they met through the popular social networking web site. Furthermore, concerned parents have expressed discontent with the amount and type of personal and private information youth seem to reveal on their profile pages. In 2006, the authors performed an extensive content analysis of approximately 2423 randomly sampled adolescent MySpace profiles, and found that the vast majority of youth were making responsible choices with the information they shared online. In this follow-up study, the authors revisited the profiles one year later to examine the extent to which the content had changed. Though exceptions occur, youth are increasingly exercising discretion in posting personal information on MySpace and more youth are limiting access to their profile. Moreover, a significant number of youth appear to be abandoning their profiles or MySpace altogether.

Because it takes a very long time for a project to go from data collection and analysis to publication, some of the information in this article is a bit dated.  Nevertheless, we think the study does shed some light on the changing nature of social networking online among adolescents.  We would appreciate any thoughts you have about the article.  If you aren’t able to access it on the New Media and Society web site, drop me an email and I will send it to you.  By the way, we are close to completing our third article in this series–a comparison of MySpace profiles from 2006 to 2009.  Stay tuned…

Ok, now that we have discussed some of the risks and benefits of social networking, I want to return to an issue that we have discussed before on this blog.  And that is whether or not any one particular social networking environment is “safer” than the others.  And if so, how?  When I talk to adults I often hear them say that they would never let their children on MySpace, but they allow them on Facebook.  MySpace certainly received the weight of the negative attention that was directed toward online social networking over the last couple of years, but again, in essence Facebook isn’t any different.  Or is it?

We are definitely seeing a trend of adolescents migrating away from MySpace to Facebook.  In our presentations to students I we always ask how many of the attendees have profiles on MySpace and/or Facebook and the ratio has begun to shift in favor of Facebook.  I even find this to be true among my friends; even though I have been on Facebook for a couple of years, I have received more friend requests in the last several weeks than ever before (whereas hardly anyone contacts me on MySpace anymore).

What are your thoughts?  Have you also seen this trend away from MySpace and toward Facebook?  What do you think explains this?  Do you think there is a perception among the public that Facebook is safer than MySpace?

I was giving presentations at a school in Pennsylvania (last week) and got to the point in my presentation with parents and staff in the district about the risks and benefits associated with online social networking.  When talking about the issues, I try to be reasonably impartial – simply presenting the facts as I see them.  When pressed, however, I generally concede to my audiences that I believe the benefits to outweigh the risks – especially when these sites are used appropriately and responsibly.  One concerned parent in the audience had trouble with this.  His argument was that the risks clearly outweighed any potential benefit from sites like MySpace and Facebook and that they should therefore be avoided altogether by adolescents.  Instead of arguing with him, I decided to open it up to the audience and several folks identified a number of potential benefits of social networking.  So clearly there are benefits.  The question remains, however, do the benefits outweigh any potential risk?

I don’t know.  We are in a unique position as researchers in that we see the best and worst of online social networking.  We talk to adolescents (and adults for that matter) who have been harassed through these sites.  On the other hand, we also see creative writing and other expressions of adolescent identity depicted on the sites.   So what do you think?  Weigh in with your thoughts about whether or not we should encourage youth to participate in online social networking web sites.