Among the 11,300 respondents aged 12–17-years, two thirds were girls, which also represent the gender proportion on these services. 74 % of the young users visit the sites daily and 88% use them mostly for communicating with their friends. Half of the adolescents had made new friends through these sites and every fourth had also met these friends in the real world. Every tenth person had found a girl- or boyfriend from the site.

The most common problems encountered were bullying and misuse of photographs. Two thirds of the adolescents were familiar with these problems and one out of three had been mocked. Almost a third of respondents had received disturbing sexual comments. Sexual harassment by older users was found particularly disturbing. Every fifth teenager had noticed that someone had published a photo of him/her without permission. Other common problems included gossip, discrimination and racism.

Many respondents were worried about the youngest users sharing their personal contact details and photographs online. Almost half (42 %) of the respondents considered many users of social networking sites to be too young. One fourth said that their parents had seen their profiles and knew their nicknames.

To address these problems, this last year the Mannerheim League for Child Welfare has worked closely with IRC-Galleria, which is the favorite social networking site in Finland. Among others, this collaboration has resulted in five short videos on internet safety and the launch of an online video competition for teenagers.

Mr. Juuso Peura, Mannerheim League for Child Welfare