Journal of Adolescence
Journal of Adolescence 31 (2008) 125–146 www.elsevier.com/locate/jado Personal information of adolescents on the Internet: A quantitative content analysis of MySpace
Sameer Hindujaa,Ã, Justin W. Patchinb a Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Florida Atlantic University, 5353 Parkside Drive, Jupiter, FL 33458-2906, USA b Department of Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 105 Garfield Avenue, Eau Claire, WI 54702-4004, USA
Abstract Many youth have recently embraced online social networking sites such as MySpace (myspace.com) to meet their social and relational needs. While manifold benefits stem from participating in such web-based environments, the popular media has been quick to demonize MySpace even though an exponentially small proportion of its users have been victimized due to irresponsible or naı¨ ve usage of the technology it affords. Major concerns revolve around the possibility of sexual predators and pedophiles finding and then assaulting adolescents who carelessly or unwittingly reveal identifiable information on their personal profile pages. The current study sought to empirically ascertain the type of information youth are publicly posting through an extensive content analysis of randomly sampled MySpace profile pages. Among other findings, 8.8% revealed their full name, 57% included a picture, 27.8% listed their school, and 0.3% provided their telephone number. When considered in its proper context, these results indicate that the problem of personal information disclosure on MySpace may not be as widespread as many assume, and that the overwhelming majority of adolescents are responsibly using the web site. Implications for Internet safety among adolescents and future research regarding adolescent Internet use are discussed. r 2007 The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: MySpace;
References: ABC News. (2006). Kansas school shooting plot foiled. Retrieved May 14, 2006, from /http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/ story?id=1870204&page=1S. Angwin, J. (2007). MySpace moves to give parents more information. Retrieved January 18, 2007, from /http:// online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116900733587978625-52s20_rbQ79Mof75n5ZzVOGhN0U_20070216.html?mod=tff_main_tff_topS. Angwin, J., Steinberg, B. (2006). News Corp. goal: Make MySpace safer for teens. Retrieved February 17, 2006, from /http://online.wsj.com/article/SB114014309410176595.htmlS. Armario, C. (2007). Three arrests in taped assault. From /http://www.newsday.com/news/printedition/longisland/ ny-libeat175055393jan17,0,5080915.story?coll=ny-linews-printS. Asher, S. T., & Parker, J. G. (1989). Significance of peer relationship problems in childhood: Social competence in developmental perspective. In B. H. Schneider, G. Attili, J. Nadel, & R. P. Weissberg (Eds.). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Associated Press. (2006a). MySpace.com subject of connecticut sex-assault probe. From /http://www.foxnews.com/ story/0,2933,183709,00.htmlS. Associated Press. (2006b). Soldier found dead after MySpace suicide note. Retrieved April 27, 2006, from /http:// www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12518853/S. ARTICLE IN PRESS 144 S. Hinduja, J.W. Patchin / Journal of Adolescence 31 (2008) 125–146 Associated Press. (2006c). Teens attracted to Internet social forum despite warnings. Retrieved May 8, 2006, from /http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2006/05/08/teens_attracted_to_internet_social_forum_ despite_warnings/S. Associated Press. (2007). Personal doesn’t mean private online, from /http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/internet/01/01/ self.editingonline.ap/index.htmlS. Bahrampour, T., Aratani, L. (2006). Teens’ bold blogs alarm area schools. Washington Post. Berson, I. R., Berson, M. J., & Ferron, J. M. (2002). Emerging risks of violence in the digital age: Lessons for educators from an online study of adolescent girls in the United States. Journal of School Violence, 1(2), 51–71. Bosma, H. A., & Kunnen, E. S. (2001). Determinants and mechanisms in identity development: A review and synthesis. Developmental Review, 21, 39–66. Boyd, D. (2006). Identity production in a networked culture: Why youth heart mySpace. Paper presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Calvert, S. L. (2002). Identity Construction on the Internet. In S. L. Calvert, A. B. Jordan, & R. R. Cocking (Eds.), Children in the Digital Age: Influences of Electronic Media on Development (pp. 57–70). Westport, CT: Praeger. Calvert, S. L., Mahler, B. A., Zehnder, S. M., Jenkins, A., & Lee, M. S. (2003). Gender differences in preadolescent children’s online interactions: Symbolic modes of self-presentation and self-expression. Applied Developmental Psychology, 24, 627–644. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2006). Morbidity & mortality weekly report. Retrieved January 18, 2007, from /http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/SS/SS5505.pdfS. Collins, W. A., & Kuczaj, S. A. (1991). Developmental psychology: Childhood and adolescence. New York: MacMillan Publishing Company. Cooley, C. H. (1902). Human nature and the social order. New York: Scribner’s. Doring, N. (2002). Personal home pages on the Web: A review of research. Journal of Computer-Mediated ¨ Communication, 7(3). Edds, K., Lawhon, C., Miller, S. (2006). Web threats. Retrieved May 5, 2006, from /http://www.ocregister.com/ ocregister/life/atoz/article_1137010.phpS. Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and society. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Festinger, L., Pepitone, A., & Newcomb, B. (1952). Some consequences of deindividuation in a group. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 47, 382–389. Finder, A. (2006). For some, online persona undermines a resume. New York Times. Finkelhor, D., Turner, H. A., Ormrod, R. K., & Hamby, S. L. (2005). The victimization of children & youth: A comprehensive, national survey. Child Maltreatment, 10(1), 5–25. Freud, S. (1930). Civilization and Its Discontents. In J. Strachey, et al. (Eds.), The Standard Edition of the Complete Works of Sigmund Freud. London: The Hogart Press and the Institute of Psychoanalysis. Freud, S. (2005). Civilization and its discontents. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. Granneman, S. (2006). MySpace, a place without MyParents. Retrieved June 30, 2006, from /http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/408S. Greenspan, R. (2003). Blogging by the numbers. Retrieved May 26, 2006, from /http://cyberatlas.internet.com/ big_picture/applications/article/0,,1301_2238831,00.htmlS. Grotevant, H. D. (1998). Adolescent development in family contexts. In: Damon, W., & Eisenberg, N. (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Social, emotional, and personality Development. (5th ed.), (Vol. 3, pp. 1097–1149). New York: Wiley. Hafner, K. (2001). The well: A story of love, death & real life in the seminal online community. New York: Carrol and Graf. Harter, S. (1998). The development of self-representations. In: Damon, W. & Eisenberg, N. (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology: Social, Emotional, and Personality Development (5th ed.), (Vol. 3, pp. 553–617). New York: Wiley. Health and Human Services. (2006). Child maltreatment 2004. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Children, Youth and Families. Herget, A. (2006). Cyberbullying: bravado from behind a screen. Retrieved May 15, 2006, from /http://www.app.com/ apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060515/NEWS/605150301/1001/ENTS. ARTICLE IN PRESS S. Hinduja, J.W. Patchin / Journal of Adolescence 31 (2008) 125–146 145 Herring, S. C., Kouper, I., Scheidt, L. A., & Wright, E. L. (2004). Women and children last: The discursive construction of weblogs. In L. Gurak, S. Antonijevic, L. Johnson, C. Ratliff, & J. Reyman (Eds.). Into the Blogosphere: Rhetoric, Community, and Culture of Weblogs. Herring, S. C., Scheidt, L. A., Bonus, S., & Wright, E. (2004). Bridging the gap: A genre analysis of weblogs. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the 37th Hawaii international conference on system sciences (HICSS-37), Los Alamitos, CA. Hinduja, S., & Patchin, J. W. (2007). Offline consequences of online victimization: School violence and delinquency. Journal of School Violence, 6(3), forthcoming. Hoover, J. N. (2006). Kids vs. creeps: Concerns mount over online child predators. Retrieved May 1, 2006, from /http:// www.informationweek.com/software/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=187001704S. Hotaling, G., & Finkelhor, D. (1990). Estimating the number of stranger abduction homicides of children: A review of the available evidence. Journal of Criminal Justice, 18, 385–399. Huffaker, D. (2004). Gender similarities and differences in online identity and language use among teenage bloggers. Washington, DC: Georgetown University. Huffaker, D., & Calvert, S. (2005). Gender, identity, and language use in teenage blogs. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 10(2). Jacobson, D. (1999). Impression formation in cyberspace: Online expectations and offline experiences in text-based virtual communities. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 5(1). Jung, C. G. (1976). Portable jung (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). New York: Viking. Kabay, M. E. (1998). Anonymity and pseudonymity in cyberspace: Deindividuation, incivility, and lawlessness versus freedom and privacy. Paper presented at the European institute for Computer Anti-virus Research (EICAR), Munich, Germany. Kahn, R. L., & Antonucci, T. C. (1981). Convoys of social support: A life course approach. In S. B. Kiesler, J. N. ´ Morgan, & V. K. Oppenheimer (Eds.), Agıng: Social change (pp. 383–405). New York: Academic Press. Kharif, O. (2006). Big brother is reading your blog. Retrieved August 20, 2006, from /http://www.businessweek.com/ technology/content/feb2006/tc20060228_241578.htmS. Kumar, R., Novak, J., Raghavan, P., & Tomkins, A. (2004). Structure and evolution of Blogspace. Communications of the ACM, 47, 35–39. Landis, J. R., & Koch, G. G. (1977). An application of hierarchical kappa-type statistics in the assessment of majority agreement among multiple observers. Biometrics, 33, 363–374. Leary, M. R., & Downs, D. L. (1995). Interpersonal functions of the self-esteem motive: The self-esteem system as a sociometer. In M. H. Kernis (Ed.), Efficacy, agency, and self-esteem (pp. 123–144). New York: Plenum. Leary, M. R., Haupt, A. L., Strausser, K. S., & Chokel, J. T. (1998). Calibrating the sociometer: The relationship between interpersonal appraisals and state self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1290–1299. Leary, M. R., Tambor, E. S., Terdal, S. J., & Downs, D. L. (1995). Self-esteem as an interpersonal monitor. The sociometer hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology,, 68, 518–530. Lenhart, A., & Madden, M. (2007). Social networking websites and teens: An Overview. Retrieved January 7, 2007, from /http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_SNS_Data_Memo_Jan_2007.pdfS. Lenhart, A., Madden, M., & Hitlin, P. (2005). Teens and technology. Retrieved August 2, 2005, from /http:// www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Teens_Tech_July2005web.pdfS. Lenhart, A., Rainie, L., & Lewis, O. (2001). Teenage life online: The rise of the instant-message generation and the Internet’s impact on friendships and family relationships. Retrieved February 7, 2004, from /http:// www.pewinternet.org/reports/pdfs/PIP_Teens_Report.pdfS. Lipsman, A. (2006). Microsoft sites rank as top web property worldwide in June, according to comScore World Metrix. Retrieved August 14, 2006, from /http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=976S. Magid, L., & Collier, A. (2007). MySpace unraveled: A parent’s guide to teen social networking. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press. Marshall, S. (2007). Oceanside police hope Internet records lead to ’other suspects.’ Retrieved January 4, 2007, from /http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/01/04/news/top_stories/1_03_071_3_07.txtS. Matsuoka, C. (2006). Bullies going hi-tech. Retrieved May 15, 2006, from /http://www.kauaiworld.com/articles/2006/ 05/20/news/news02.txtS. ARTICLE IN PRESS 146 S. Hinduja, J.W. Patchin / Journal of Adolescence 31 (2008) 125–146 Olsen, S. (2006a). MySpace blurs line between friends and flacks. Retrieved July 31, 2006, from /http://news.com.com/ MySpace+blurs+line+between+friends+and+flacks/2009-1025_3-6100176.htmlS. Olsen, S. (2006b). MySpace reaching out to parents. Retrieved April 15, 2006, from /http://news.com.com/ MySpace+reaching+out+to+parents/2009-1041_3-6059679.htmlS. Patchin, J. W., & Hinduja, S. (2006). Bullies move beyond the schoolyard: A preliminary look at cyberbullying. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 4(2), 148–169. Poulsen, K. (2006). Scenes from the MySpace backlash. Retrieved February 28, 2006, from /http://www.wired.com/ news/politics/1,70254-0.htmlS. Reuters. (2006). MySpace gains top ranking of US Web sites. Retrieved July 11, 2006, from /http://today.reuters.com/ news/newsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-07-11T154250Z_01_N11382172_RTRUKOC_0_ US-MEDIA-MYSPACE.xmlS. Roberts, D. F., Foehr, U. G., Rideout, V. J., & Brodie, M. (1999). Kids and media at the new millennium. Menlo Park, CA: The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Romm, C. T., Pliskin, N., & Clarke, R. J. (1997). Virtual communities and society: Toward an integrative three-phase model. International Journal of Information Management, 17, 261–270. Schneider, T., & Taliercio, A. (2006). Stalking, harassment plague MySpace.com. Retrieved May 27, 2006, from /http:// www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060514/NEWS/605140351S. Sellers, P. (2006). MySpace cowboys. Retrieved August 29, 2006, from http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/ fortune_archive/2006/09/04/8384727/index.htmS. Subramanyam, K., Greenfield, P. M., Kraut, R., & Gross, E. (2002). The impact of computer use on children’s and adolescents’ development. In S. L. Calvert, A. B. Jordan, & R. R. Cocking (Eds.), Children in the digital age: Influences of electronic media on development (pp. 3–33). Westport, CT: Praeger. Surra, C. A., & Milardo, R. M. (1991). The social psychological context of developing relationships: Interactive and psychological networks. In W. H. Jones, & D. Perlman (Eds.), Advances in personal relationships, Vol. 3. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers Ltd. Tidwell, L. C., & Walther, J. B. (2002). Computer-mediated communication effects on disclosure, impressions, and interpersonal evaluations: Getting to know one another a bit at a time. Communication Research, 28(3), 317–348. Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the Internet. New York: Simon and Schuster. USA Today. (2006). Teens arrested after posting alleged firebombing video on MySpace.com. Retrieved April 5, 2006, from /http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-04-05-myspace-arrest_x.htmS. Usher, P. (2006). Felony charges anticipated against Del Oro suspect. Retrieved May 25, 2006, from /http:// www.auburnjournal.com/articles/2006/05/26/news/top_stories/05blanchard_26.txtS. van Tilburg, T. G. (1995). Delineation of the social network and differences in network size. In C. P. M. Knipscheer, J. d. J. Gierveld, T. G. v. Tilburg, & P. A. Dykstra (Eds.), Living arrangements and social networks of older adults (pp. 83–96). Amsterdam: VU University Press. Wang, J., & Chen, C. (2004). An automated tool for managing interactions in virtual communities—using social network analysis approach. Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, 14(1), 1–26. Wellman, B. (1981). Applying network analysis to the study of support. In B. H. Gottlieb (Ed.), Social networks and social support (pp. 171–200). London: Sage.