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2008 Social Networking Survey – 41% of Young Children Have a Public Profile
by Allen Stern on April 4th, 2008
The Office of Communications in the U.K. has just published an 80-page social networking study that should be on your list to read. The study looks at social networking usage across age brackets and includes data on male/female as well. Bebo, Facebook and MySpace take the lead role when specific networks are discussed.
Pages 63-65 include a glossary of terms that provides a simple overview of many common social networking terms. If you work in a large company, this is a perfect primer for the executive branch.
Some interesting stats from the report:
- Despite the fact that the minimum age for most major social networking sites is usually 13 (14 on MySpace), 27% of 8-11 year olds who are aware of social networking sites say that they have a profile on a site.
- The average adult social networker has profiles on 1.6 sites, and most users check their profile at least every other day
- 41% of children aged 8-17 who had a visible profile had their profile set so that it was visible to anyone
- 25% of registered social networking users had posted sensitive personal data about themselves on their profiles (phone numbers, home addresses, etc.)
- The majority of adults who had used a social networking site had a profile on Facebook (62%) and this was the most mentioned main social networking site (49%). Nearly half of all respondents reported having a profile on MySpace and one-third had one on Bebo.
- Two-thirds of parents say they set rules about their child’s use of social networking sites, although only 53% of children said that their parents set such rules
Here’s one of the charts showing top social networking usage by site:
Great post, Allen.
One thing I’ve certainly noticed here in the UK is the amount of users’ time social networks steal from other sites. To so many now, facebook or myspace ARE the internet. You don’t log on to google for nightclubs in Manchester, you go on facebook and talk to your friends.
Facebook and Myspace seem to mirror the North/South divide of England, too. Myspace seems more prevelant in the North, and Facebook in the South. This is just a perception, with no facts or stats to hand, but it agrees with Darah’s report a while ago on the demographic differences between the two.
This is very interesting. I think it is slightly worrying that so many children have profiles on social networks – it makes them quite vulnerable. I saw something on the news this morning about paedophiles being banned from social networking sites, which is a good move. Hard to implement though.
This is an interesting article, it really highlights a problem with adult social networks.
There’s been a lot of growth in adult use of social networks in the past few years, but what’s interesting is that the majority of adults tend to use social networks geared towards teenagers. Look at adoption of Boomj.com versus 35+ users on Myspace or Facebook.
There needs to be a fundamental shift in what adults look for in social networks, we as a demographic and age group want different things out of social networks.
Read my post at fuegonation.com/blog to find more details. I broke down the problems associated with current social networks and why they are not fundamentally appealing to social networks.
Hope this helps Allen!
Best,
Brogan Keane