Facebook is the most popular Social Networking Site (SNS), with 93.4% of teenagers using it, followed by MySpace, with 26.6%. Many students use more than one SNS.

A recent study carried out in Victoria, Teenagers, Legal Risks and Social Networking Sites, took 1,004 students aged 13 to 16 years old, 204 teachers and 49 parents and conducted a survey to find out if they were aware of the legal implications of using Social Networking Sites (SNS).

Main areas of the law that give rise to possible legal liability for young people using SNS:
• Privacy, disclosure and breach of confidence;
• Intellectual property rights, especially copyright infringement;
• Defamation; and
• Criminal laws, including harassment and offensive material.

Tips on how to help teenagers protect themselves when using SNS
• Ignoring ‘friendship’ requests from strangers.
• Blocking or deleting unpleasant or unwanted friends.
• Setting their profile to private.
• Not disclosing personal details.
• Frequently changing their password.
• Asking for guidance or help from adults.

Most commonly posted content on SNS:
• 60.9% of teenagers post photographs of themselves.
• 52.6% post photographs of their friends.
• Nevertheless, posting of third party content, including music, video and photos of celebrities, is still significant.
• Amount of video posted increases with age and access to other kinds of technology like video cameras, mics and editing equipment.

The study found that young people, their parents, and teachers were generally aware of risks but concerns for this differed greatly between the 3 groups. The findings also confirmed that using SNS is a daily occurrence for most young people.

Key findings included:

• 94.9% of 13-16 year olds have used SNS.
• Most students update information on their SNS at least every day, and over 25% update their SNS profile several times a day.
• 80.4% of parents indicated that they had seen their child’s SNS profile at least once.
• 45.6% reported that their photos had been posted on their friends’ SNS and most were not concerned by this.
• 48.8% of students recognised that there was some element of risk in using SNS, but 28.3% thought that SNS were safe.
• 6% of students were ambivalent about risk, essentially reporting that the degree of risk was irrelevant to them as it is “just what everyone does”.
• 72.4% of the students surveyed indicated that they had had unwanted or unpleasant contact by strangers via their social networking profile.
• 13.8% were concerned about security risks, such as identity theft. A small group of student respondents (3.2%) identified concerns relating to privacy or unwelcome disclosure of data.
• Parents and teachers were particularly concerned with issues of cyber-bullying, and grooming or stalking, with a lesser number expressing concerns about identity theft and disclosure.
• Despite the acknowledged risks of students using SNS, there is surprisingly little ongoing conversation about SNS use between parents and their children, on the one hand, or teachers and their students, on the other.
• 46.1% reported that they did not talk with their parents about SNS use.
• 74.6% reported that they did not talk with their teachers about SNS use.

Writer Helen Splarn. Editor Dr Ramesh Manocha.
Source: Teenagers, Legal Risks and Social Networking Sites
Copyright: Melissa de Zwart, David Lindsay, Michael Henderson and Michael Phillips. 2011.