Social networking sites: what secondary school counselors should know and teach

Social Networking Sites: What a Secondary School Counselor Should Know and Teach

Social Networking Sites

History and the Challenges of Social Networking Sites in Regards to Young People:

"Web technology has been advanced from static information distribution to massive interaction among users" (Liu, 2010, p. 101). The exponential adoption of technological innovation, by young people, shocks not only the general public and governments, but even technology providers. These innovations over the years have included, e-mail, chat rooms, instant messaging, texting, blogging, and most recently social networking sites. With this new popularity, public policy strives to capitalize on the youthful excitement, especially in areas such as: informal education, civic participation, and health and lifestyle advice. In addition to these new opportunities comes increased online risks for children and their well-being (Livingstone & Brake, 2010).

Livingstone and Brake (2010) focus on children of the United Kingdom in their research. They surmise that most social networking sites are intended for teenagers and adults, though some have no lower age limit and some target younger children. In 2007, 42% of UK 8

-- 17-year-olds had a social networking profile, including 27% of 8- to 12-year-olds and 55% of 13- to 17-year-olds. Similar figures hold in other countries and use continues to grow worldwide, thought it may have peaked in the U.S.A. And UK

among young people. Ofcom's (2008) survey found that most users visit social networking sites daily or every other day, with parental restrictions on use

reported by 62% of middle class users (74% of those under 13), but fewer than half of working class users of any age; further, middle class and younger children are also more likely to have set their profile to 'private' (i.e. accessible only to friends or family) -- 61% of social network users overall have restricted to their profile in the UK and similar figures apply in the U.S.A." (p. 75-76).

Although social networking sites have only recently escalated to use of astronomical proportions, the idea is not new, according to Kite, Gabel and Fillipelli (2010). In the 1990s, shortly after the adoption of the Internet by many, web sites such as AmericaOnline and Yahoo offered uses virtual methods for connecting with old friends, posting photos and writing descriptions of their recent activities. In the early days, users rarely posted an e-mail address or instant messenger user name, to these sites, as they believed this to be a bad idea to post such personal information to the world at large. Less than ten years later, students of all ages not only post their personal e-mail addresses and usernames, but also other personal information, blogs, conversation threads, and even inappropriate photos. These personal postings sometimes "include activity such as alcohol and narcotics use. In some areas of the country, gangs use social networking sites to recruit members, post messages in code, and conduct other gang-related activity" (p. 159).

Barrett (2006) concurs that informal social networking has been going on online since the Internet's inception. However, Barrett notes that sites specifically dedicated to social networking really started to expand rapidly beginning in 2003. Today, these social networking sites gather information about members and stores that data as their user profile. The profiles can be shared with other members of the site. Oftentimes membership to these sites are free, but the sites can be profit-based. Most of these sites are open to all, while some are accessed by invitation only. "Most of the social networking sites can be divided into some basic categories, including business, common interest, and dating. Increasingly, it is the common-interest sites that have captured the attention of our teens and preteens" (p. 8).

One of the first social networking sites to gain popularity with the online community, according to Barrett (2006), was Friendster, which opened in March 2003. This website had the unprecedented ability to attract 25- to 25-year-olds. Seeing the marketing value in this demographic, other Internet companies began social networking sites. Oftentimes these sites were short lived as members grew bored with the website and left for the next new social networking site.

Kite, Gabel and Fillipelli (2010) cite Bryant as noting, "There is no doubt that these online teen hangouts have a huge influence on how adolescents today think and behave. The challenge for school administrators is to keep pace with how students are using these tools in positive ways and consider how they might incorporate this technology into the school setting" (p. 159). However, the Internet does not have to be a source of trouble for children. The resources available online are extensive for students. With proper education and appropriate supervision, teachers and school administrators can work with parents and the rest of the community to educate students about the hazards of social networking sites.

The new opportunities presented with social networking sites come with associated new risks. Citing the UK's Home Office Task Force on Child Protection on the Internet, Livingstone and Brake (2010) note that there a series of risks to young people that are associated with social networking sites. These include: cyberbullying, harassment, theft of personal information, exposure to harmful content, violent behavior, sexual grooming, racist attacks, and more encouragement to do self-harm.

The widening circle of friends, via the 'friends of friends' phenomenon of social networking, is a significant consequence for children, according to Livingstone and Brake (2010). When surveying American children between the ages of 13 and 18 years of age, it was found that the average number of social networking contacts was 75. While some sources indicate that this number may be distorted, with a random sampling of MySpace profiles of users aged 16 and older to have a median number of contact at 27, some studies show that social networking contacts commonly can number in the hundreds.

Shariff is cited by Kite, Gabel and Filipelli (2010) discussing the lack of social skills that are taught to children in today's modern world. Shariff notes,

As human beings, we teach our children how to eat, clean themselves, and communicate, and we protect and nurture them, until they are old enough to go to school. Once they are at school, we suddenly place more emphasis on supervision, discipline, authority, subordination, punishment, and consequences, with less attention to the social survival skills they will need in the contemporary world (p. 163).

This lack of education leads to dire consequences for some children, especially with the increased usage of social networking sites.

Types of Users for Social Networking Sites:

Wilson, Fornasier and White (2010) note that young people increasingly use social networking sites. This use has both positive and negative effects; however, they found a lack of studies that identified the type of users frequenting these Internet sites. As such, their study sought to predict the use of social networking sites by young adults, and the addictive tendencies of this use. Personality characteristics and levels of self-esteem were assessed in the research, surveying 201 young adults. Participants were asked to complete an NEO-Five-Factor Personality Inventory and the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory. Using multiple regression analyses, it was determined that the personality and self-esteem factors that were assesses, were significantly associated with both the level of social networking site use and its addictive tendency. Those who were found to be extroverts and unconscientious were the participants who reported higher levels of both use and addictive tendencies for social networking sites.

The Teen Demographic and Social Networking Sites:

Unlike some older demographics who quickly tired of certain social networking sites, the teen demographic did not. Instead, teens, according to Barrett (2006), found these networking sites a natural extension to how they were already spending their time online. It allowed them an additional opportunity to explore and spend more social time with friends. This potential exploded with the creation of MySpace, a social networking site created for the musically inclined, as a place where they could showcase their music. "By the end of 2005, MySpace reportedly had 32 million users. While MySpace was intended to be a site for older teens and adults (it does not allow the creation of accounts for anyone under the age of 15), it has proven popular with young teens. Kids 14 or younger have to lie to create accounts" (p. 9).

Cyberbullying and Social Networking Sites:

Cyberbullying is defined as "anyone who repeatedly misuses technology to harass, intimidate, bully, or terrorize another person" (Franek, 2005/2006, p. 36). In the more traditional childhood bully, this face-to-face bullying would stop once the last bell at school rang. However, with the advent of the Internet and cyberbullying, the bullying is not limited to school hours. Cyberbullying often occurs through instant messaging, via social networking sites, and allows the bully to torment their victim virtually.

Franek (2005/2006) sees that the virtual nature of social networking sites removes the social cues that often affect the interactions between the bully and his victims. Body posture, volume, and even the facial expressions often contribute to the interactions. However, with the Internet and social networking sites, these cues are no longer present. All that is left are the bullying words, without so much of the context that comes with face-to-face communications. Franek's surmised that children who have been cyberbullied are more likely to perform cyberbullying on others.

With cyberbullying on the rise, this is of particular concern. "When asked if they had been buillied while online, 10% indicated yes. The 2006 NASSP publication News Leader indicated that 33% of all teens aged 12 to 17 years have had mean, threatening, or embarrassing things said about them online" (Kite, Gable, and Filipelli, 2010, p. 162). As suicide is a very real, but extreme, result of cyberbullying, clearly this issue needs to be addressed by both parents and educators.

Livingstone and Brake (2010) cite slightly different figures indicating the incidence of cyberbullying. In fact, they cite a few surveys that provide contradictory information of the rate of cyberbullying. A 2006 survey in the UK, Bullying UK, found that although 69% of UK students had been bullied in the previous year, only seven percent had indicated that they had received unpleasant or bullying e-mails, instant messages or text messages. Another British survey cited by Livingstone and Brake found that 20% of those surveyed had been cyberbullied.

In the United States, Livingstone and Brake (2010) also provide study information that is contrary to other studies reported. In one online study of 12 to 17-year-olds, 72% had indicated that they had been bullied online in the previous year. Eighty-five percent indicated that they had been bullied in school. This, the researchers conclude, show a link between online and offline bullying. To further support this claim, Livingstone and Brake cite Hinduja and Patchin who found that 82% of those who had been bullied online knew their perpetrator, and 42% who reported being cyberbullied also indicated that they had been bullied at school.

Lack of Understanding of Threats, Conduct and Consequences of Social Networking Behaviors:

Kite, Gable and Filippelli (2010) agree that both cyberbullying and Internet predators are serious threats to young people on the Internet. Additionally, there are lasting consequences to the conduct these young people take on the social networking sites, which made lead to problems for school administrators, parents and even law enforcement. As such, the researchers used a 34-item survey to assess the knowledge of what constitutes appropriate behavior on social networking sites. Five hundred-eighty eight seventh and eighth grade students from a suburban and an urban school were surveyed. It was discovered that although Internet predators is a serious concern for children using social networking sites, a student is far more likely to encounter cyberbullying. The researchers found that most children do not fully understand the risks they are taking or the consequences to their online behavior.

The findings of Kite, Gable and Filipelli's (2010) study uncovered some disturbing facts regarding children's knowledge about the threats that exist with social networking sites. Approximately 71% of the student respondents did not think that an Internet predator would contact them, given the information they had posted online. Additionally, 63% of the respondents did not fully comprehend the possible risk of Internet predators, including a lack of understanding that predators could track students on the Internet. Disturbingly, "only 40% of the students indicated that they would tell an adult if they were contacted by someone they did not know. The fear is, perhaps, that they would not be allowed to continue using the Internet if this were to happen. (…) Similar to the finding for the Internet predation item, only 44% indicated that they would tell an adult if they were the victim of cyberbullying" (p. 162). This finding is much lower than the national average; however, out of the 588 students surveyed, approximately 59 had been bullied by another student. The authors note that some would conclude that even one cyberbullied child is too many.

Brandtzaeg, Staksrud, Hagen, & Wold (2009) note that cyberbullying is an emerging threat for students in Europe. However, despite this, they concluded that there was little research and knowledge on the topic. For their study, "cyberbullying' involves the use of different technological platforms to support hostile behavior by an individual or group that harm others" (p. 349). Their research examined whether the experience of children regarding cyberbullying differs with the technological platforms and socio-demographic variables. Two Norwegian studies are reviewed that conclude that cyberbullying most often occurs through e-mail.

Past research showed that girls were not only most often victims, but also perpetrators of cyberbullying. And frequent Internet users are more likely to experience cyberbullying. Additionally, Brandtzaeg, Staksrud, Hagen, and Wold (2009) found in their review of past research that older children and those who spent more time online, were more likely to engage or encounter the risks of online communication, and are more likely to be victims of bullying. It was further found that most cyberbullying that occurred through social networking sites, was sexual and also most often took place in online communities where the users were anonymous. The past research found that teenage girls were the most common victims of this type of cyberbullying, with the perpetrators most often being adults.

Brandtzaeg, Staksrud, Hagen, and Wold's (2009) results differed slightly from the previous research they had reviewed. Their research found that cyberbullying most often was experienced via e-mail (22%)

followed by IM (15%), while the services that were least often problematic

were chat rooms (9%) and mobile phones (8%). Given the results of previous research and media richness theory, (they) would have expected that the prevalence of cyberbullying would be higher for chat rooms and IM than for e-

mail. E-mail is a more personal media and is not regarded as high level anonymity technology compared to chat rooms. However, one explanation is that most children still use e-mail frequently and therefore still are accessible for bulllies in this platform, while chat rooms no longer are a prime communication arena for today's always-on generation (p. 361).

Age was also determined to be an important factor, in Brandtzaeg, Staksrud, Hagen, and Wold's (2009) study. The youngest children in their study were found to be less likely to experience bullying. Teens, especially the oldest teens, were found to more likely experience bullying across all of the technological platforms investigated. However, the researchers note that this finding may be due to the design of the questionnaire. It asked if the participant had experience cyberbullying in their lifetime, rather than over a shorter period of time, such as within the last month or year. For this reason, the findings indicating older children were more likely to experience bullying may be due to the simple fact that they have more exposure to online communications. As such, this finding may indicate that educators should be more wary of cyberbullying as their students age.

In online communities, where the accepted etiquette is to use nicknames and not real names, was found to be an instance where girls more frequently experienced cyberbullying. The communities where this cyberbullying most often occurred, according to Brandtzaeg, Staksrud, Hagen, and Wold (2009), where the members in the community were more geographically dispersed, and were less oriented toward intimate social groups. Instead they groups that were oriented toward users who wanted to meet new online people, experienced higher incidents of cyberbullying. Social networking sites with lower levels of cyberbullying were sites that encouraged and supported real-life connections with other members. These types of sites have a reduced level of user anonymity. Brandtzaeg, Staksrud, Hagen, and Wold surmise from these findings that anonymity in social networking sites contributes to higher levels of cyberbullying.

Social Networking Sites and Identity Development in Children:

Livingstone and Brake (2010) note that an individual's identity is built through the interaction with other people. With the increased adoption of social networking sites, these sites are becoming places where young people experiment and perform with their identity. "As both technology and its uses evolve, this reconfigures the possibilities for social identity construction in ways that are not yet fully understood" (p. 76). Despite the consequences, there is one thing that remains constant, the desire for young people to connect with their peers no matter what the time of day or the place.

Children have a strong need to express themselves, share their experiences and stay in touch. This is contrary to the popular worries about children who are isolated loners, staying at home and chatting with online strangers.

As distinct from the sociable kids with healthy face-to-face social lives, empirical research undermines any sharp line between online and offline, or virtual and face-to-face. Rather, youthful practices are best characterized by the flexible intermixing of multiple forms of communication, with online communication primarily used to sustain local friendships already established offline, rather than to make new contacts with distant strangers, and this applies equally to social networking and others (Livingstone & Brake, 2010, p. 76).

Livingstone and Brake (2010) note that the catalyst of the growth in online communication is partially due to the need to develop a valued representation of oneself that not only affirms, but also is affirmed by an individual's peers. By observing the social networking practices of teenagers, it can be seen that they take great pleasure in creating an online 'project of the self'. The researchers found that one profile page of an average MySpace profile had a large, sparkly pink welcome. This 13-year-old's page had music, photos, a love tester, dedication pages, and a guest book. Everything in this page is customized, including the scroll bars and cursor, and is decorated with glitter, pink candy stripes, flowers, angels, hearts, butterflies, and more. The teenager indicated to the researcher that she could change her profile all the time to demonstrate the different sides of herself. It was found that friends' responses to the pages that were reviewed by several other researchers cited, were strongly affirming. This offers mutual recognition in the peer network.

Where, in the past, teenagers decorated their bedroom walls with images that were reflective of their identity, as well as diary keeping, photo album creation, note sending, and chatting with friends, today social networking sites offer a new means of conducting these same activities. Most would agree that social networking sites have dramatically changed children's and young adult's lives, according to Livingstone and Brake (2010). Technology has facilitated significant changes in the quantity and quality of communications. These include the ease of communications thanks to the Internet generally, and social networking sites specifically, the speed with which these communications are delivered, and how convenient it is to distribute content vastly across the Internet. This further contributes to the interactions children have as they develop their identity.

Exposure to Harmful Content, Release of Personal Information and Social Networking Sites:

According to a UK Children Go Online survey that surveyed 9 to 19-year-olds, it was discovered that in addition to one-third of participants having received bullying comments, 57% of the respondents who went online weekly had seen online pornography. Thirty-one percent had seen violent content. Eleven percent had seen racist content. Additionally, 31% of respondents to the study had received sexual comments from someone online. Disturbingly, 28% had received unsolicited sexual material. Eight percent had gone and met someone in person that they had first met online (Livingstone & Brake, 2010).

Brandtzaeg, Staksrud, Hagen, and Wold (2009) found that girls between the ages of 13 and 18 years of age were most often the targets of unwanted sexual solicitation, when compared to their male counterparts. The researchers conclude from this finding that the power relationships in the real world also are present in cyberspace. They further surmise that the gender differences persist in the online world, despite those who would argue that the Internet is free of gender restrictions. Eight percent of respondents between 9 and 12 years old have had sexual comments directed towards them a few times. This, Brandtzaeg, Staksrud, Hagen, and Wold note, indicates a need for preventive action for younger children, especially as most studies focus on teenagers.

Brandtzaeg, Staksrud, Hagen, and Wold (2009) further found that the level of anonymity in social networking sites significantly affected the prevalence of sexual cyberbullying. This sexual bullying of children were found to most often to be perpetrated by male adults. This finding concurs with past research regarding girls being more likely the recipients of unwanted sexual solicitation on social networking sites.

Citing previous theories, Brandtzaeg, Staksrud, Hagen, and Wold (2009) note that anonymity and self-distancing via the online media, facilitates uninhibited online behavior. Therefore, the researchers suggest that if social networking sites were not anonymous, young girls would be less likely to upload revealing photos of themselves. In addition, they would also be less likely to receive sexual comments. This finding is similar to past research that "found that the greater anonymity that young people perceive themselves to have online, the greater their tendency towards sexual disclosure" (p. 362). This theory is further supported by more general social psychological research for more than twenty years. This research lists the two most important factors in developing a state of deindividuation is anonymity and a lack of self-awareness. For this reason, unsolicited sexual encounters online may not be primarily due to the user's activities online, but it may be more related to the social networking site being used and their policy on anonymity.

Livingstone and Brake (2010) identified two practices in adolescents that exacerbate online risk. These are 1) the disclosure of personal information, and 2) the experimental nature of peer communication. Despite this, it was concluded that teenagers are fairly, but not entirely, careful when communicating online.

A content analysis of a random sample of 2423 public MySpace profiles produced by under 18s found that many provided personal photos (57%), but only a few discussed alcohol consumption (18%), showed images of friends in swimsuit/underwear (16%), provided real names (9%), discussed smoking (8%),

showed themselves in swimsuit/underwear (5%), or discussed marijuana use

(2%) (p. 78).

An American survey found that boys and younger teens are more likely to post purposely false information. In contrast, older teenagers, especially female older teenagers, were more likely to reveal detailed information about themselves. According to Livingstone and Brake (2010), 49% of those surveyed included their school information online, and 29% included their e-mail address. In Ireland, a survey of 10 to 20-year-olds found that 49% of respondents gave out their date of birth online, yet only 12% gave out their mobile phone numbers, and eight percent gave out their home address. Livingstone and Brake surmist that since social networking sites are often designed for users to provide at least their name, birth date and photographs, it is unsurprising that such personal disclosures happen.