USA Africa Dialogue Series - Teens, Social Media, and Privacy

Teens are sharing more information about themselves on social media sites than they have in the past, but they are also taking a variety of technical and non-technical steps to manage the privacy of that information. Despite taking these privacy-protective actions, teen social media users do not express a high level of concern about third-parties (such as businesses or advertisers) accessing their data; just 9% say they are "very" concerned.

Teens are sharing more information about themselves on their social media profiles than they did when we last surveyed in 2006:

•     91% post a photo of themselves, up from 79% in 2006.
•     71% post their school name, up from 49%.
•     71% post the city or town where they live, up from 61%.
•     53% post their email address, up from 29%.
•     20% post their cell phone number, up from 2%.

60% of teen Facebook users set their Facebook profiles to private (friends only), and most report high levels of confidence in their ability to manage their settings.

• 56% of teen Facebook users say it's "not difficult at all" to manage the privacy controls on their Facebook profile.
• 33% Facebook-using teens say it's "not too difficult."
• 8% of teen Facebook users say that managing their privacy controls is "somewhat difficult," while less than 1% describe the process as "very difficult."