Are Social Networking Sites a Source of Online Harassment for Teens?
) (Department of Economics, San Francisco State University, San Francisco) Abstract Media reports on incidences of abuse on the internet, particularly amongst teenagers, are growing at an alarming rate causing much concern among parents of teenagers and legislations aimed at regulating internet use among teenagers. Past studies have found that one in five youth were exposed to sexual solicitation, one in seventeen were harassed or threatened and only a fraction reported these cases while more than 63% reported being upset, embarrassed or stressed as a result of these unwanted contacts. Social networking sites (SNS) have been blamed to be a major source of harassment for teen users. Despite several media reports, there is a serious paucity of research in this area that explicitly identifies risk factors that make teens prone to internet abuse, and strategies for prevention and intervention. This study examines the extent to which internet use and having SNS site memberships result in in
