Most teens are not as careless as is generally perceived when it comes to managing their personal online information according to a new report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project.
Teens Are Careful With Their Online Information
The report titled “Teens, Privacy and Online Social Networks: How teens manage their online identities and personal information in the age of MySpace” finds that most teens are fairly savvy about keeping information that is sensitive private.
Teens will post their first name and photos on their profiles, but they usually do not post information that would allow a stranger to locate them such as their full name, home phone number or cell phone number.
While teens exercise some degree of caution with their online profiles 63 percent believe that a motivated person could eventually identify them from the public information on their profiles.
Around 55 percent of online teens have profiles and most of them block access to their information in someway. Out of those with profiles, 66 percent say their profile cannot be seen by all Internet users.
Out of teens that have profiles that are not private, 46 percent say they provide some false information to protect them and to be humorous.
Teen boys and girls have different behavior when it comes to privacy online. Girls are more likely than boys to post photos of both themselves and of their friends on their profiles. Boys are more likely to post the town or city where they live along with their last name and cell phone number when compared to girls.
