"Don't talk to strangers" applies online, too

By Megan Rauscher

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New research supports Internet safety messages that urge teenagers to avoid talking with "strangers" known only online, in order to avoid being victimized.

In a telephone survey of nearly 1,500, 10 to 17-year-old Internet users, meeting people online, talking about sex with people known only online, and having unknown people in one's buddy list were associated with a significantly higher likelihood of becoming a victim of online harassment and sexual solicitation.

Aggressive online behavior such as making derogatory comments or frequently embarrassing others over the Internet also significantly raised the odds of unwanted online advances, the study found.

On the other hand, simply sharing personal information online, either by posting it on sites like MySpace.com or actively sending it to someone online -- a practice that Internet safety programs generally frown on -- did not increase the odds of being victimized in cyberspace.

Having a profile on MySpace or sending personal information "are not the types of behavior to be concerned about," Dr. Michele L. Ybarra, of Internet Solutions for Kids, Inc., Irvine, California, said. "On the other hand, talking about sex with people known only online is."

Ybarra and colleagues examined the association between unwanted sexual solicitation and harassment over the Internet and several different types of potentially "risky" behaviors.

The behaviors included sending and posting personal information; making rude or nasty comments to someone online; harassing or embarrassing someone online; downloading files; talking about sex with people known only online; meeting people online in multiple different ways; having people in your buddy list you know only online; visiting x-rated sites; and downloading images from a file sharing program.

One in five adolescents reported unwanted harassment online in the previous year, according to the report in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

One in four adolescents said they had engaged in four or more of the online risk behaviors in the past year. These teens were 11 times more likely to report online harassment than those reporting none of the online behaviors.

"In many cases, what we see to be most influential in explaining the likelihood of Internet victimization is a pattern of these 'risky' behaviors instead of individual behaviors alone," Ybarra told Reuters Health.

Her message to parents: "Just as you need to know who your kids are with and where they are in the off-line world, know who they are talking with and what they are doing in the online world."

"There is no doubt," writes Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis of the University of Washington, Seattle, in a commentary, "that the accelerating pace of technology has ... dramatically changed the experience of American childhood. We need to develop and test pragmatic strategies for teaching children Internet hygiene."

SOURCE: Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, February 2007.