SOCIAL MEDIA INCREASE RISK OF DRUG ABUSE FOR TEENS: POLL

Pictures Viewed Include Images Of Peers Drunk, Passed Out, Using Drugs

WASHINGTON =95 Time spent social networking
increases the risk of teens smoking, drinking and
using drugs, according to a national survey of
American attitudes on substance abuse.

On a typical day, 70 per cent of teens ages 12 to
17 =AD 17 million teenagers =AD spend from a minute
to hours on Facebook, MySpace and other social
networking sites, according to the National
Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.

But for this same age bracket, social network
savvy teens are five times more likely to use
tobacco; three times more likely to use alcohol;
and twice as likely to use marijuana than teens
who do not spend any of their day on social networking sites.

The results are profoundly troubling ... the
anything goes, free-for-all world of Internet
expression, suggestive television programming and
what-the-hell attitudes put teens at sharply
increased risk of substance abuse,=94 CASA founder
and chairman Joseph Califano Jr. said in a statement.

Knowledge Networks surveyed 1,037 teens ages 12
to 17 and 528 parents of these teens over the
Internet. QEV Analytics, Ltd. conducted the
annual telephone survey of 1,006 teens 12 to 17,
asking questions CASA has used to track trends.

Results revealed that half of teens who spend any
time social networking in a given day have seen
pictures of kids =93drunk, passed out, or using drugs on these sites.=94

But even beyond the daily teen social networkers,
14 per cent of teens who reported spending no
time on such sites in a given day said they have
seen pictures of drunk, passed out, or drug-using kids on the sites.

Teens who had seen such pictures were four times
likelier to be able to get marijuana, three times
likelier to be able to get prescription drugs
without a prescription, and twice as likely to be
able to get alcohol in a day at most.

Teens who had seen such pictures were also more
than twice as likely to think they would try
drugs in the future, and much more likely to have
friends who used illegal drugs.

Especially troubling =AD and alarming =AD are that
almost half of the teens who have seen pictures
.. first saw such pictures when they were 13
years of age or younger,=94 the report said. =93These
facts alone should strike Facebook fear into the
hearts of parents of young children.=94

But the surveys, which also questioned adults,
found that nine of 10 parents do not think teens
spending time social networking are any more
likely to drink or use drugs. Only 64 per cent
said they monitor their child's social networking page.