Tag Archives: parents

The Changing Nature of Adolescent Use of MySpace

Article posted by in January 29, 2010 at 11:53 am.
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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…

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Cyberbullicide – What We Can Do

Article posted by in January 11, 2010 at 1:04 pm.
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We’ve been discussing cyberbullying and suicide recently, and even though cases are isolated and rare, the link is worth our attention.  First, it reiterates the fact that all forms of adolescent peer aggression must be taken seriously both at school and at home, and that online harassment can have grave real-world implications.  It also follows that we should make sure a suicide prevention and intervention component is essential within comprehensive bullying response programs implemented in schools.  Without question, the topic is sensitive and its presentation should be age-appropriate, as students in all grade levels must understand the serious consequences associated with peer aggression.  While suicide is an extreme response, proper discussion of its stark reality can vividly portray the extent of harm that peer harassment can exact.  To be sure, educators must be careful not to plant ideas in the minds of youth related to suicide being a viable option to their interpersonal problems.

As evidenced by the increasing number of self-inflicted deaths among youth, though, it is essential to boldly (but delicately) broach the topic to dissuade this form of harm and to remind youth that help is available.  Parents should likewise discuss the link between offline and online peer harassment and suicidal thoughts, and ought to consider utilizing stories in the news to underscore the seriousness of the matter.  It may not be a comfortable conversation, but it seems quite necessary given the frequency with which youth are harassed and the manner in which they sometimes suffer.

There is the oft-invoked concern of “copycat” behaviors – that hearing about it will actually promote its growth rather than reduce it – but we are not finding this claim to be valid based on our experience with schools and youth across the nation.  It could just be the way Justin and I specifically talk about the issues – we’re just not sure.  It is likely worth studying through formal research in the future.  Maybe breaking down the specific ways anti-[insert problematic behavior here] messages are delivered can inform an entire population of youth-serving adults as to the best way we can go about it – since they are succeeding in some areas but failing in others.

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Meep

Article posted by in November 23, 2009 at 12:00 pm.
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An interesting controversy has emerged in the last couple of weeks over the word “meep.”  What does meep even mean?  Frankly, it doesn’t really matter.  In fact there are numerous and varied definitions of, and uses for, the word meep.  The most frequent use among adolescents, it seems, is to replace an inappropriate word with meep, as in “What the meep!?!”

So the recent controversy emerged when students at Danvers High School in Massachusetts threatened to disrupt the school environment by muttering, yelling, and collectively spewing the word meep during class time.  Danvers Principal Thomas Murray was tipped off about the planned disruption and preemptively threatened to suspend students who spoke the word or showed up to school with the word printed on clothing.  This, of course, incited folks from around the country to contact Mr. Murray to express their dissatisfaction with this seemingly ludicrous policy.  To be sure, the courts have ruled that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”  That said, school officials do have the right to restrict speech and/or discipline students for speech or behavior that results in (or has a high likelihood of resulting in) a substantial and material disruption of the learning environment.  In this case, I think it is clear that the students involved were in fact planning a substantial disruption.  So, it doesn’t matter that the speech involved wasn’t really even a real word.

When I was in middle school, my classmates and I started humming in English class.  The teacher was getting pretty upset by this and was walking around the classroom trying to identify the offending party.  When he went to one side of the classroom, students in the other side would start humming.  When he moved to the other side, the other students stepped up and continued the humming.  Clearly, the act of humming is not obscene or otherwise generally subject to discipline in any environment outside of the school.  But at school, if it causes or threatens to cause a substantial disruption, it can (and should be) stopped.  In our case, the teacher refused to administer our planned quiz until the humming stopped.  It didn’t, so we all failed the quiz.  To this day I have a hard time identifying prepositions!

This is an important case because as much as I agree with everyone that restricting the use of a nonsensical word is in itself nonsensical, it is necessary that school administrators have the ability to maintain an appropriate, civil, and safe learning environment at school.  Educators need the support of parents and other community members when they take actions to ensure an appropriate school climate.  This is especially true since many forms of relational aggression, including cyberbullying, are often more subtle and therefore may not be automatically identifiable as something warranting intervention.   At the same time, they also need to be held accountable when their policies or practices cross the line of being overly restrictive.  In the case of meep, from what I have seen, I think they were being reasonable in their efforts to prevent a disruption from occurring.  What do you think?  Is Principal Murray going too far with this?

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Cyberbullicide – the relationship between cyberbullying and suicide among youth

Article posted by in November 11, 2009 at 3:04 pm.
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One major outcome that we have seen in recent years has been the increase in suicides related to an experience with bullying. As a point of reference, in 2004, suicide was the third-leading cause of deaths among those between the ages of 10 and 24. Even though suicide rates have decreased 28.5 percent between 1990 and 2004 among this age group, upward trends were identified in the 10- to 19-year-old age group in 2003-2004 (the most recent data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Though research involving traditional bullying and suicide is plentiful, empirical research involving cyberbullying and suicide is sparse.

We just got word that a research paper we submitted to the journal Archives of Suicide Research has just been accepted for publication. Its general focus is the phenomenon of cyberbullicide, which we define as “suicide indirectly or directly influenced by experiences with online aggression” (Hinduja & Patchin, 2009). We’ll be posting a new fact sheet summarizing the research soon, but it details the empirical link we have uncovered between suicidal thoughts/actions and online victimization.

In our quantitative study, we found that youth who experienced traditional bullying or cyberbullying, as either an offender or a victim, scored higher on a well-validated suicidal ideation scale than those who had not experienced those two forms of peer aggression. Moreover, bullying and cyberbullying victimization was a stronger predictor of suicidal thoughts and behaviors than bullying and cyberbullying offending.

We also found that traditional bullying victims were 1.7 times more likely and traditional bullying offenders were 2.1 times more likely to have attempted suicide than those who were not traditional victims or offenders. Similarly, cyberbullying victims were 1.9 times more likely and cyberbullying offenders were 1.5 times more likely to have attempted suicide than those who were not cyberbullying victims or offenders.

My next post will offer some policy and programming suggestions to address this problem. Even though cyberbullicide occurs quite rarely, it still merits purposed and informed prevention and response efforts.

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Are teachers and parents really talking to youth about online safety?

Article posted by in July 27, 2009 at 9:40 am.
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As you know, we are endlessly working to have our finger on the pulse of how adults are educating youth about online technology.  The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and Educational Technology Policy, Research, and Outreach (ETPRO) recently found that less than 25% of educators feel comfortable teaching students about Internet safety issues.  You and I might ask ourselves – what is the reason behind that?   Is it because teachers and administrators feel ignorant and unfamiliar with the latest forms of Web 2.0 communications?  Is it because educators don’t have the resources at hand to use in instructional capacities?  Is it because they perceive it as less important when compared to all of the other scholastic and curricular material they have to cover during the day?  Is it because they are underpaid and overworked and simply cannot do anymore?  I don’t know the answer to that question, but I think it’s probably a combination of all of these factors, to varying degrees.

Looking at the latest data coming out of our Research Center, we’ve found that among the population of approximately 1,000 randomly-selected teens we’ve recently studied from one district, 48.1% revealed that a teacher has talked to them about being safe on the computer over the last 30 days.  A comparatively small 14.9% of youth indicated that an educator has talked to them about online safety many times or practically every day over the last month.  Maybe most school personnel are just expecting parents to discuss these issues with their kids at home.  Well, it just so happens that we have new data on whether parents are stepping up and broaching the subject matter…

We found that 40.8% of the students we surveyed in June 2009 were counseled by their parents about Internet safety issues in the last 30 days.  That said, more than 1 out of every 5 students (22%) reported that online safety matters was discussed by their parents many times or practically every day, over the last month.  Moreover, we found that 43.4% of youth reported that their mom or dad *never* goes on the computer with them.  This is to be compared with 5.5% who state that a parent goes online with them “often” or “very often.”  With all of this said, it is quite apparent that a very small proportion of youth consciences are being piqued about the tremendous importance of participating in cyberspace with wisdom, discretion, and civility.

I want to reiterate that this is brand new data.  I was really hoping that the numbers would show a more encouraging finding in this area.  The only appropriate response, it seems, is to further dig our heels in and redouble our efforts to educate and embolden youth-serving adults.  The new school year is almost upon us, and there is much to be done.

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