New Study Looks At Online Behavior Of Kids
I came across a news study that was recently released and made just a blip on the radar screen outside of the upstate New York area (where it came from). It’s one of those things where, yes, there is good info. But if you are in the loop, you know it already… well, you know it if you have the ability to notice trends within news stories.
Here is the link to the full report: rit-cyber-survey
Now, below is a direct cut and paste (with proper links) to their press releases on the study. I have interjected my comments in red. Please know, I agree with everything in here…
June 18, 2008
There’s a new cyber enemy for parents to worry about—and it’s not the stereotypical middle-aged stranger that has long been feared. This new threat lurks not only in cyberspace but in the school yard, the classroom and, at times, the home.
A Rochester Institute of Technology study of more than 40,000 adolescents reveals that 59 percent of cyber victims, in grades 7-9, say their perpetrators are a ‘friend’ that they know personally. That perpetrator, according to the survey, is also significantly more likely to be a fellow student than an adult.
I thought we already knew this?
“Most people have long thought the perpetrators of cybercrime to be some ‘boogey man’ holed up in his attic, searching the Internet for children to prey on,” says Sam McQuade, who led the research effort and is the graduate program coordinator in RIT’s Center for Multidisciplinary Studies. “While that is certainly something to be feared, the startling new reality is today’s children are most frequently preying on each other online—and their parents rarely have any idea it’s happening.”
This whole theory was “debunked” a while ago. Plus, if you are a parent and ask any kid on the street – they will most certainly tell you they are being bullied online before they mention being harassed by predators. Again, good research, but nothing new here to anyone savvy in the field.
McQuade’s research was designed to determine the nature and extent of cybercrime abuse and victimization by and among adolescents. The survey was administered to students in Kindergarten-through-12th grade, varying by grade level, in 14 different school districts.
Cyber bullying
Survey results indicate that cyber bullying—consisting of sending threatening and nasty messages—begins as early as the second grade, peaks in middle school and sometimes continues through high school. One-in-10 second-and third-graders report having been “mean to someone” online, while one-in-five report that someone online has been “mean to them.”
“What has traditionally happened on the playground has now moved into cyberspace,” McQuade says. “The major difference is that children have a sense that they’re anonymous and invincible online. Therefore, they seem to lash out in ways that they may not in person.”
What is becoming the primary reason to use monitoring software like PC Pandora is so you can know if someone is bullying your child (and they aren’t saying anything about it) or, worse, that your child is bullying someone else! At which point, it’s up to you to step in and be a parent.
Unethical and criminal behavior
Children are utilizing the Internet and other electronic devices to perpetrate unethical, socially deviant and even criminal acts.
Online identity theft is prevalent, even with younger Internet users. Twelve percent of fourth-through sixth-graders report having experienced someone pretending to be them online and 13 percent report someone having their password or account used without their permission.
Remember crank calls? Now they have more severe outcomes and consequences.
Illegally downloading music and movies often begins in the fourth grade, as eight percent of fourth-sixth graders admit to the act. Meanwhile, 65 percent of 10-through 12th-graders admit to having illegally downloaded music in the past year, with 34 percent admitting to illegally downloading movies.
Another reason to use PC Pandora monitoring software. Do you want to get in trouble (because, as the parent, you will) for your kid illegally downloading music… which, I gotta be honest, is complete crap today! You want to get sued by the RIAA for an Amy Winehouse song?
The research has serious repercussions for the classroom as well. Twenty-one percent of 10th-through 12th-graders admitted using a computer or electronic device to cheat on a school assignment within the last school year. Twelve percent admitted using technology to commit plagiarism and nine percent admit using an electronic device to cheat on an exam.
Cheating is the unspoken epidemic. Trust me – the numbers are FAR larger than this. A close relative found 80% of her students cheating on a paper. The worst part about it is, this is what today’s kids consider research: cutting and pasting. They don’t know it’s plagiarism and cheating. That is the schools’ and parents’ faults.
Dangerous and disturbing behaviors
Adolescents, as young as kindergarteners, frequently come in contact with content that may be sexually oriented. Forty-eight percent of kindergarteners and first-graders reported viewing online content that made them feel uncomfortable. One-in-four students did not report the incident to a grown up.
Yikes
Survey questions varied depending on the age group, therefore, older students revealed more specific information. Of the seventh-through ninth-graders surveyed, 14 percent reported they had communicated online about sexual things. Eight percent had been exposed to nude pictures and seven percent had been asked to reveal nude pictures of themselves online.
Within the past year, 10th-through 12th-graders indicated that the used the Internet to interact with strangers in a variety of ways, including chatting (48 percent), flirting (25 percent), providing personal information (22 percent), talking about private things (17 percent) and engaging in sexually oriented chat (15 percent).
And you think you shouldn’t know what your kids are doing and whom they are talking to? Why are you giving them the freedom to talk to strangers? Would you let them go to New York City for the night by themselves and hang out at clubs and bars?
McQuade attributes much of the research data to the fact that many young people are more technologically astute than their parents and teachers.
“Kids today grow up with this technology and are knowledgeable about it in ways that many of their parents and teachers, through no fault of their own, simply are not,” McQuade says.
Parents are responsible for catching up. The “edge” that kids feel they have over their parents is what swells their teenage heads even further into thinking they are all-knowing and untouchable.
Fifty percent of students at the kindergarten and first-grade level report that their parents don’t watch them when they use a computer. Only 32 percent of second-and third-graders surveyed report being watched by their parents when they go online.
That’s why McQuade and RIT have formed partnerships with more than 20 Rochester area school districts, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Time Warner Cable, the Information Systems Security Association and the InfraGard Member Alliance to form The Cyber Safety and Ethics Initiative. The goal of the initiative is to utilize the survey results to determine a comprehensive, community-wide approach to tackling this increasing problem.
“This is not a problem that can be solved by parents and educators alone,” McQuade says. “This is a societal problem that requires a societal solution. That’s why The Cyber Safety and Ethics Initiative is comprised of representatives from higher education, K-12 education, community groups and members of the business community. We all need to work together.”
Then there are the stats. Here’s an overview. I will let them speak for themselves.
Key RIT Cybercrime Research Findings
SUMMARY: The majority of cyber offenses involving children, adolescents and young adults are perpetrated by peers of approximately the same age or grade level. The old paradigm of adults preying on children has been replaced with the new reality that kids now regularly prey on each other online.
Kindergarten-1st grade
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48% of students at this grade level interact with people on Web sites, while 50% indicate that their parents watch them when they use a computer, leaving the other half of those youngsters more prone to being exposed to predation behaviors or other threats posed by online strangers or even persons they know or regard as friends.
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48% reported viewing online content that made them feel uncomfortable, of which 72% reported the experience to a grownup, meaning that one in four children did not.
2nd-3rd Grade
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32% of students surveyed report being watched by their parents when they go online.
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9% report having been “mean to someone online” (cyber bullying) and 18% report that someone online has been mean to them, within the last school year.
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38% report having been exposed online to something that made them feel uncomfortable, of which 70% indicated that they reported that incident to a grown up, meaning about three in 10 children did not.
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13% of students report that they used the Internet to talk to people they do not know, 11% report having been asked to describe private things about their body and 10% have been exposed to private things about someone else’s body.
4th-6th Grade
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27% report that they are completely unsupervised when they go online, while 31% report they are watched by their parents “a little” or “sometimes.”
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Frequently children in these grade levels engage in social networking activities. In the process they post personal, potentially exploitable, information about themselves online. Specifically, and within the last school year: 16% posted personal interests online, 15% posted information about their physical activities and 20% gave out their real name. In addition, 5% posted information about their school, 6% posted their home address, 6% posted their phone number and 9% posted pictures of themselves.
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12% reported someone pretended to be them online and 13% report someone having used their password or online account without their permission.
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7% of students reported being the victim of cyber bullying/threats. However, 10% of students have been embarrassed online, which along with harassment is often an aspect of being bullied online.
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Music, movie and software piracy often begins at this age. Within the last school year 8% of students reported they have downloaded music and 3% admitted to downloading movies without paying for these.
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Most victims report the perpetrator of their cyber abuse to be one of their peers, either a girl (in 27% of cases), a boy (in 25% of cases) or a friend they know in-person (36%). Only 16% did not know the person responsible for the cyber offense.
7th-9th Grade
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34% of middle school students report using the Internet with no supervision, another 36% report receiving only a little supervision.
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42% report having spoken with at least one online stranger within the past year.
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39% have posted photos of themselves, 36% have posted their real names, 14% have posted their schedules and personal contact information.
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9% have accepted an online invitation to meet someone in-person and 10% have asked someone online to meet them in-person.
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15% have reported being embarrassed online and 13% indicate that they had been bullied or threatened online.
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14% reported that they had communicated with someone online about sexual things; 11% of students reported that they had been asked to talk about sexual things online; 8% have been exposed to nude pictures and 7% were also asked for nude pictures of themselves online.
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59% of victims said their perpetrators were a friend they know in-person; 36% said it was someone else they know; 21% said the cyber offender was a classmate; 19% indicated the abuser was an online friend; and 16% said it was an online stranger.
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Students are more likely to be victimized by other students rather than by adults. Further, when peers are identified as perpetrators of cyber offending, 46% of the time they are girls and 42% of the time they are boys. However, only about 12% of known cyber offenders were identified by students as being a man or a woman.
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22% of middle school students illegally downloaded music within the last school year.
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11% pretended to be someone else online, 4% admitted to intentionally embarrassing another person online and 4% admitted to harassing or threatening another person online.
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Data also reveal various type of academic dishonesty. 5% admitted to online plagiarism; 5% admitted to cheating on school work and 3% admitted to cheating on tests.
10th-12th grade
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Within the past year, many students indicated that they have used the Internet to interact with strangers in a variety of ways, including: chatting 48%; flirting 25%; providing personal information 22%; talking about private things 17% and engaging in sexually oriented chat 15%.
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14% have accepted an invitation to meet an online stranger in-person and 14% of students, who are usually the same individuals, have invited an online stranger to meet them in-person.
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16% have experienced cyber bullying; 17% have been embarrassed online; and 15% have been harassed or stalked online.
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23% have been exposed to unwanted pornography and 23% have been asked about sexual things online.
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21% admitted using a computer or electronic device to cheat on a school assignment within the last school year. 12% admitted plagiarism and 9% reported having used a device to cheat on an exam.
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65% have illegally downloaded music in the past year; 34% have illegally downloaded movies and 30% have illegally downloaded software.
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12% of students in high school reported they circumvented computer security systems designed to filter or block their access to Web sites.
