Study Says Teens Often Post About Sex, Drugs On MySpace

Boston (dbTechno) - According to new studies released this week, it is becoming common for teenagers to talk about topics such as sex and drugs on the social networking site MySpace, and post about these topics and their experiences in their profiles.

Both of the studies released were carried out at the Seattle Children’s Research Institute.

They focused on 500 randomly selected MySpace profiles, all 18-year old men and women.

What they found was that 54% of their MySpace profiles contained information which was said to include high-risk behavior.

On top of that, 41% of the profiles revealed substance abuse or drug issues, while 24% revealed information on sexual behavior of the teens.

This initial study revealed that the risks are clearly there as teens are showcasing a lot of risky behaviors on MySpace.

The second study focused on 190 profiles of teens who had high-risk behaviors being shown online.

They had the teens receive communications from a Dr. Meg, Dr. Megan Moreno of the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health.

Over a period of a few months, talks with Dr. Meg helped 13% of the teens reveal less about sex on their profiles, and 26% revealed less about drug use.

The two studies were both published this week in the January 2009 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, and reveal that teens are taking part in some risky behavior online.