Pew Survey Provides More Data on Teens Online

The Pew Internet and American Life Project recently published a detailed study on teen activities online, called "Teenage Life Online: The Rise of the Instant-Message Generation and the Internet's Impact on Friendships and Family Relationships." The study, based on a survey of 754 children, ages 12 to 17, and their parents in late 2000, covers a wide variety of topics, including the issue of online safety. About 57 percent of parents surveyed said they worried that strangers would contact their children when they were online, and close to 60 percent of the teens surveyed said, in fact, that they had received an instant message or an e-mail from a stranger. Only 23 percent of teens, however, expressed any notable level of concern about encountering strangers online. Full details are available at www.pewinternet.org/reports/toc.asp?Report=36.

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