Older teenage girls are most likely to use social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, according to survey of American teenagers aged 12 to 17 by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Contrary to popular belief, the survey also revealed that many teenagers do not have an online profile, and that many of those who do have it set to private.

MySpace: a place for teenage girls

The survey found that girls use social networking primarily to reinforce existing relationships, while boys use it to make new friends and flirt. The survey also found that 55% of teenages who use the internet have created an online profile.

Thankfully it also seems that teenagers aware of the dangers of social networking, with 66 percent of teens who have created a profile saying that their profile is not visible to all Internet users.

The survey was conducted by researchers Amanda Lenhart and Mary Madden, and involved a telephone survey of 935 youths aged 12 to 17.

“There is a widespread notion that every American teenager is using social networks, and that they’re plastering personal information over their profiles for anyone and everyone to read,” says Amanda Lenhart.

“These findings add nuance to that story – not every teenager is using a social networking website, and of those that do, more than half of them have in some way restricted access to their profile.”

Almost half of the teens surveyed (48%) visit social networking sites every day; 22% several times a day and 26% once a day. 

Older girls aged 15-17 are more likely to have used social networking sites and created online profiles; 70 percent of older girls have used an online social network compared with 54 percent of older boys, and 70 percent of older girls have created an online profile, while only 57 percent of older boys have done so.

“Both boys and girls rely on social networks to keep close tabs on their current friends, but older boys are much more likely to use them to meet new friends and flirt in the comfort of an online environment,” says Mary Madden.

“Older boys are really the ones taking advantage of the true ‘networking’ features afforded by the sites.”

So it seems that the social networking scene is not too different from the real world after all, where it falls on the boys to take the initiative when trying to meet girls.

But with teenage boys doing more flirting than teenager girls (according to this survey), you do have to worry a little whether these teenage boys are flirting with teenage girls, or middle-aged men pretending to be teenage girls. Ah, the joys of social networking…

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Entry was posted on Monday, January 8th, 2007 at 4:40 pm under Internet, Technology, Web2.0.

Read more entries by John Pospisil.
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