Teens are not as dumb as you think they are

Time and time again, library staff (mostly older librarians--really, I hate to say it, but it's true) come to me and say something along the lines of--"We can't do X on our website, because the teens can't control themselves" or "No way are we having a MySpace profile--that would tell the teens that we endorse the site, and they can't handle themselves online!"

How dumb are we?  Pew just showed us how dumb we are.  Their newest study, "Teens, Privacy and Online Social Networks," shows that teens are very, very intelligent in the way they manage themselves in their online presence.  The report shows a lot of interesting things that I sincerely hope libraries read and take to heart. The study found that 55% of online teens have profiles restrict access to keep sensitive information out of the reach of people they don't know or who they don't want to see the information (like parents).  Additionally, very few of the surveyed teens ever post information that would allow malicious people to find them (last name, phone number).  Read the full report for more details.