by: danah boyd
Prof. Larry Rosen, a psych prof over at Cal State, has just released data on MySpace and predators showing that the fear is completely overblown (duh). The press release is here. A longer report is here.
Some of the findings are:
- Only 7% of those teens interviewed were ever approached by anyone with a sexual intent and nearly all of them simply ignored the person and blocked him from their page.
- Two-thirds of the parents were sure that there were many sexual predators on MySpace, while only one-third of the teenagers shared this concern.
- When asked about media coverage, 66% of the parents felt that it was either understated or close to the truth.
- Conversely, 58% of the teens felt it was vastly overblown.
(Tx David)
Original Post: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2006/07/10/study_shows_fea.html
kool
If Rosen's numbers are correct, MySpace is at least seven times safer than the average American family.
Up to 45 percent of girls experience sexual abuse within the family (nuclear and extended), and between 25 and 35 percent of young boys do — figures you can ratify in most journals dealing with child abuse, or by talking directly with abuse counselors and psychologists.
I lived with a psychologist, expert on abuse, who came home more nights than not angry and filled with frustration after discovering how rife the family is with abuse -- and how little is done about it in the name of "family values."
MySpace, however bad it is, is light-years safer than "FamilySpace." The media's fearmongering is completely diversionary. What's the motivation? More post 9/11-like hysteria leading to the triumph of reactionary politics?
That the media is so misleading is more fearful than anything that needs to be said about the rather lame MySpace experience.
This is a particularly sloppy interpretation of the research data.
7% of teens is a huge number, frankly, when talking about potential crimes. Even if only 1 out of 100 of this 7% experienced more persistent stalking (something they could not block or ignore), that would still mean tens of thousands of serious incidents. That's not a small problem.
And the questions about media coverage are totally irrelevant to whether or not crimes are actually committed. They're about perception only, which is often divorced from reality. They are interesting numbers to be sure, but they don't have anything to do with whether or not sexual predation is a problem or not.
You also neglect to mention some of the other numbers in the study, which aren't so rosy:
"Nearly three-fourths of teens give out their school name, half give out
their e-mail address and half give out information about activities they will be doing, including the
location."
"One in three admits their MySpace activity has negatively affected their schoolwork, family life,
or both."
Anyway, I am not suggesting that there are in fact lots of predators on MySpace -- I'll bet it is indeed mostly media hype. I'm just saying that the numbers in this report do not actually support that conclusion at all.