Teens’ Negative Online Experiences, 2012 [TABLE]

Teens post an enormous amount of content online—on social media sites, in forums, on blogs, and in comments. In a small percentage of cases, the posting of that content has unfortunate consequences. Four percent of teen internet users between the ages of 12 and 17 say they have shared sensitive information online that later caused a problem for themselves or other members of their family. A similar number of teens (4%) have posted information online that got them in trouble at school.

Older teens ages 14-17 are more likely than younger teens (6% vs. 2%) to say that they’ve shared sensitive information that later had consequences for them or a family member. Older girls are the most likely to report this, with 7% of older girls saying they’ve posted material that caused problems for them or their family, compared with 1% of younger girls. African-American youth (10%) are more likely to report that they have posted something that got them in trouble at school than white youth, of whom 3% say they’ve gotten in trouble at school because of an online posting. Teens with parents who use social network sites are also more likely to say that they’ve gotten in trouble at school because of something posted online. Note that we do not know whether the parent was using social media or was friends with the child at the time of the incident the teen describes. Read the rest at Pew Internet and American Life Project.