This was the main conclusion of the Social Networking Event on November 27th, organised by the Dutch Awareness Node Digibewust together with the Foundation My Child Online (Mijn Kind Online). These to parties also presented new research results about teenagers (12-18 years old) and their online privacy in the Netherlands.

One of the main findings of this research is that over 66 % of the teenagers use a social networking site, most of all to keep in touch with friends or to gain new friendships. Therefore they share all sorts of information: first name (92%), last name (62%), e-mail address (44%), place of residence (40%), personal photos (60%).

62% of the teenagers know they can be found and identified on the Internet. However, over 50% of them make clear that they don’t have a problem with the idea that everybody can peek into their personal information. Mostly though, young teenagers think that they are anonymous: 18% of the teenagers of 12 to 13 years old say: “I’m completely anonymous”.

During the Social Networking Event different very popular social networking sites (Hyves.nl, Sugababes.nl, Habbo Hotel) stated that they want to join forces in protecting the privacy of teenagers online. Therefore in 2008, under the chairmanship of Digibewust, they are going to set up guidelines together.