Teen bloggers overshare info -- study

Teen bloggers overshare info -- study

By ELLIOT SMILOWITZUPI Technology Correspondent
WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Teenage bloggers often willingly reveal their names, ages and offline locations in their blogs, leaving them vulnerable to cyberstalking, according to a recent study.

In his paper "Teen Lives Exposed: The Private Lives of Teens Made Public," Northwestern University researcher David Hoffaker said that 20 percent of teen bloggers he looked at revealed their full names in their blogs, 67 percent revealed their ages and 60 percent their locations.

Hoffaker said teenagers might be unaware of the risks of putting information on blog sites.

"There is a feeling of some sort of anonymity or safety among numbers" for teenage bloggers, Hoffaker told UPI.

The study looked at 68 blogs by teens between ages 13 and 17, with a mean age of 15.47 years. Most of the blogs he looked at were found on Livejournal, Xanga or Blogger.

John Shehan, CyberTipline program manager at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said that child predators can seize upon any bit of information to begin communication with youths.

"A child may express frustrations with a parent, depression, or lack of self-esteem in a blog," he said. "They really open themselves for a predator to swoop in and become their best friend, to establish that bond ... and then to exploit the situation."

Steven Krause, blog expert and English professor at Eastern Michigan University, says that while most bloggers of all ages share some personal information on their blogs, it becomes dangerous when youths share information that is too personal.

"It's one thing for someone to say I'm a student at such-and-such a school or I live in such-and-such a town and I like going to parties," he said.

"It's another thing to say this is exactly when I have chemistry in room 123 and this is my street address and this is my phone number and my e-mail address, and this is when and where I'm meeting my friends for a party."
Krause said that this happens because teenagers "tend to do some dumb things."

"They did dumb things before blogging came along, and I predict they will do dumb things in the future," he said.

Krause said the solution is to educate teenagers that things posted on the Internet become fully public. He noted the old axiom that one shouldn't put anything on the Internet that they wouldn't want on the front page of a newspaper.

"Maybe we should tell teenagers that they shouldn't put anything on their blog that they wouldn't want the important adults in their lives to find out about," he said.

Shehan said that teens should be taught to take care to not share too much information, which includes "more than just their names and numbers, it includes their life stories and situations, as well as their screen names and e-mail addresses."

Among Hoffaker's other findings, he said that he found teenagers tended to use their blogs to go over events in their life.

"The basic content of the blogs were day-to-day depictions intermixed with personal reflections and feelings," he said.

He also said that teen bloggers were using their blogs to maintain ties with people that they already knew outside of the Internet.

"They are using the (blog) space to enhance offline relationships," he said.
Krause said that blogging can be a method for teenagers to find themselves.

"Obviously, a lot of writing to discover one's self is not something that should be shared, and that's the kind of thing that teenagers need to be educated about," he said.

"On the other hand," he added, "blogging is a great way to find an audience of interested readers, and that's the kind of thing that I can see as being extremely valuable and empowering to teens."

Hoffaker agreed that keeping a blog can help teenagers discover things about themselves.

"Adolescence is an important time (for teens) to figure out who they are and construct a cohesive story," he said. "Blogs are conducive to helping construct these narrations."

Hoffaker said that while many parents and educators have concerns about teens spending too much time online, authority figures often don't realize the positives that come from blogging.

"It's useful for basic psychological development," he said. He added that it could bring benefits in literacy skills and reinforcing social support.
Krause said he feels there has been an overreaction to the dangers of blogging.

"I prefer to emphasize the pedagogical benefits of blogging," he said. "We're talking about a way where young writers can write about almost anything and reach an almost limitless audience. That's an exciting and powerful opportunity."