Pew Internet Report: Teens and Online Stranger Contact

Everyone is concerned about teens being contacted by strangers online. This report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project provides some information about the factors that can lead to being contacted by a stranger. The abstract is below and the complete four-page report is available here.

Abstract:

Fully 32% of online teens have been contacted by someone with no connection to them or any of their friends, and 7% of online teens say they have felt scared or uncomfortable as a result of contact by an online stranger. Several behaviors are associated with high levels of online stranger contact, including social networking profile ownership, posting photos online and using social networking sites to flirt.
Although several factors are linked with increased levels of stranger contact in general, gender is the only variable with a consistent association with contact that is scary or uncomfortable--girls are much more likely to report scary or uncomfortable contact than boys.