July 23, 2008

Nearly 30 Percent of Tweens Have Been Contacted by Strangers Online

NCMEC Press Release about this report.

It will be interesting to see if the latest study by John Walsh and NMEC reports on the same questions from prior studies, so that, comparisons can be made. There was a study in 2006 and one in 2007 which you can find here.

There is always a common question "xx% have been approached by strangers online" which seems to be the theme John Walsh and NCMEC want folks to hear. What they have failed to tell folks is, that those strangers are mostly peers of the teens. This is answered in other studies such as those from Pew and David Finkelhor, Director Crimes Against Children Research Center:

MAGID: In 2000 you did a study that reported that 1 in 5 youths had received an unwanted sexual solicitation and when you repeated that in 2005 it went down to 1 in 7, which is good. But I’ve read some reports in the media and from politicians that have used the word predator, that is, 1 in 5 or 1 in 7 young people have been approached by an online predator. Could you put that into some perspective?

FINKELHOR: In that survey we did find that 1 out of 7 young people who use the Internet [received] an unwanted sexual solicitation or inquiry from someone online. But those aren’t all predators by any stretch of the imagination. I like to say it’s more like 1 in 25 kids who encounter what we call an aggressive solicitation, somebody who sent them a kind of sexual message and is trying to follow that up in some way by actually trying to meet them or arranging to contact them offline as well.
(From a 2008 Interview here)

The prior studies by John Walsh and NCMEC seem to ask questions in such a way that the real answer cannot be obtained from the study, leaving one up in the air as to what is really going on. I don't know if that is planned, or, those who create the questions simply don't know how to do a valid survey.

7-23-2008 National:

Survey Looks at What Tweens Do Online and How Much They Tell Parents

A new survey about pre-teens' behavior on the Internet, released today, finds that kids are putting more information about themselves on the Web and that they are being contacted by strangers more often.

The survey, conducted by Cox Communications, along with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, focuses on "tweens" -- kids between the ages of 8 and 12, whose Internet use is exploding.

It appears that Internet safety information campaigns are working. The survey shows that more parents are making it a priority to talk to their children about their use of the Internet.

However, the study also says there's a significant drop in the number of kids who talk openly with their parents about their Internet use as they get older.

Some key findings from the survey:

96 percent of tweens tell parents some of what they do online.

79 percent tell parents everything.

Kids tell their parents far less as they get older.

One in five tweens post information about themselves online, including pictures, the city they live in, and how old they are.

37 percent of 11- and 12-year-olds admit to posting a fake age online.

34 percent of 11- and 12-year-olds have a profile on a social networking site.

-Hopefully that social networking site is not MySpace which requires one to be at least 14

Tweens with social networking profiles post more online and face greater exposure to unknown contacts and online bullying.

28 percent have been contacted by strangers online.

The results of the survey are being released today at the Internet Safety Summit in Washington, D.C., hosted by "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh and Miss America 2007 Lauren Nelson. .News Source.. by ABC News

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