Number of Media Stories on Internet Problems by Year

1. Media Portrayal of MySpace and Internet Dangers: An Archival Study By: Larry Rosen, Ph.D., Scott Mariano, Helen Gutierrez, and Saira Rab • Are Teens Really in Danger on the Internet? • 8% to 15% of teens report unwanted sexual • solicitation (Rosen et al., 2008; Wolak et al., • 2006). 90% to 94% are by peers, not adults • (Internet Safety Technical Task Force Final • Report, 2008). 90%+ react “appropriately” and • are not upset by the experience (Rosen et al., • 2008). • 8% to 9% of sampled teens report being • harassed online; 90%+ react appropriately and • are not upset by the harassment (Rosen et al., • 2008; Wolak et al., 2006). • 14% of sampled teens report being exposed to • sexual material they did not want to see • (Rosen et al., 2008). Results Number of Media Stories on Internet Problems by Year • The number of articles and stories were • nearly nonexistent from 2003 through • the year 2005. • In the year 2006, there was a large • increase in the number of articles that • dealt with Internet and MySpace dangers • which continued to rise over the • succeeding years. • For the first half of 2008, newspaper • articles on Internet and MySpace dangers • began to decline slowly while television • station stories on MySpace dangers are • still increasing throughout 2008 and • magazine articles are leveling off. Magazines Newspapers Television Discussion Methodology • This archival study shows that the • media has portrayed the Internet and • MySpace negatively, focusing on issues • of online dangers and continues to do • so in spite of data showing those • dangers are small AND mostly done by • peers AND are handled appropriately • AND do not upset the teens. • The print media appear to be slightly • reducing their negative articles while • television news stories are increasing. • The “moral panic” about online dangers • has been stimulated by television shows • such as Dateline’s To Catch a Predator • and national print and television news • stories about tragedies such as the • Megan Meier suicide. • An archival search was done on websites of • the top 20 newspapers, TV networks, and • magazines (based on circulation). • Starting with the year 2003 (first year of • MySpace) through the end of 2008. • The searches were done using the keywords • MySpace/Internet Sex, MySpace/Internet • Porn, MySpace/Internet Cyberbullying, • MySpace/Internet Harassment, and • MySpace/Internet Addiction. • The resulting articles and news stories were • then tallied and are presented to the right • by the four problem areas (sex, porn, cyber- • bullying, addiction) and then separately for • MySpace and the Internet dangers. Background Research: Parental Concerns About MySpace (Rosen, Cheever, & Carrier, 2008) • 63% of parents feel that there are quiet a “few sexual • predators” on MySpace. 46% of teens claim that there are “only • some, but not to many” sexual predators on MySpace. • --------------------------------------------- • 43% of parents believe that “media is accurate” in their • reporting of sexual predators. 59% of teens believe that media • coverage on sexual predators is “overblown.” • --------------------------------------------- • 83% of parents are somewhat or very concerned about sexual • predators compared to 35% of their children.