Who does your Child 'Hang Out' with on Social Media Networks?
All you mums and dads: you certainly know that if your tween or teen hangs out with the wrong crowd, it can encourage risky behaviour such as drinking or smoking.
WASHINGTON, September 2013.
But did you know that this same theory applies to social media networks such as Facebook too?
A study released earlier this week concludes that youngsters who see friends smoking and drinking alcohol in photographs posted on Facebook and Myspace are more likely to smoke and drink themselves.
Image by AFP PHOTO/LOIC VENANCE
Mr Thomas Valente of the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine was the study's principal investigator. He and his team drew conclusions from a survey of 1,563 students from the El Monte Union High School District in Los Angeles County in October 2010 and April 2011.
The researchers found that the size of a child's online network of friends was not a major factor associated with risky behaviour.
But exposure to friends' online pictures of partying or drinking was linked to smoking and alcohol use.
Also, young people whose close friends did not drink alcohol were more likely to be affected by exposure to risky online pictures.
This is important to know, given that 95 percent of 12 to 17 year olds in the United States (and certainly in many other countries in the world) access the Internet every day. What's more, most of these youth use online social networking sites to communicate.
For those of you interested to learn more, the study appears in the September 3 online edition of the Journal of Adolescent Health.
Story by AFP/The Whiz Times.
Featured image by parentingfive.com/Google images/Creative Commons
