With all the noise about social networking sites, a lot of parents might be overreacting about their child's profile on MySpace, Facebook and the like. New research out today from the Pew Internet and American Life Project might just set some minds at ease. Yes, there is a high likelihood a stranger might contact your kid on the internet. In fact the number you usually hear from me is that 1 in 7 kids will get contacted by a stranger for a sexual solicitation (ick!). In today's study we learn that 32% of online teens will get a stranger contact of any form. That is a much higher figure than my "1 in 7" so I was initially quite concerned when I saw that. But in reading further, you learn that this is any kind of contact from someone outside their friend list. This may include contacts from a kid in your neighborhood, from a different school, a band, a political campaign, etc. Not necessarily a creep on the prowl. And perhaps the even better news? Our kids are able to discern these as non-threatening contacts. Only 7% of our kids report being upset or concerned by these stranger contacts.
Where we see increased levels of concern are for those online teens who post sexy photos of themselves on their page or site. This behavior signicantly increases the likelihood they will get a contact from a stranger that will be upsetting or creepy. Stands to reason, right? And girls are more likely to report upsetting contacts than boys are. So the general advice still holds and should be reinforced. Go ahead and create a page or profile, don't include private information, keep the profile private from anyone you don't know and make sure the photos are boring (no bikinis, no underage beer chugging, etc).