Media Campaign Fact Sheets

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Teens & Technology Fact Sheet

Young people are seeking or getting drug information online, and the content they find is often detailed and dangerous.

• Fifty five percent of Internet users say they have received an unsolicited email advertising a prescription drug and 40 percent say they've received an unsolicited email advertising an over-the-counter drug .¹
• In September 2005, a DEA investigation resulted in the arrest of 18 people, operating more than 4,600 rogue Internet pharmacy Web sites.²
• A search on MySpace.com, a social networking site used by millions of people and popular among teens, turns up tens of thousands of people talking about marijuana.³
• Twenty-two percent of Internet-using teens say they have looked for information online about a topic that's hard to talk about, like drug use, sexual health or depression.⁴
• Pro-drug Web sites commonly include descriptions of the preparation, dose, administration and psychoactive effects of drugs, as well as recommendations for managing the adverse effects of illicit drugs.⁵
• One popular online pro-drug encyclopedia, Erowid, contains 20,000 documents that provide enormous detail on drug use, including dosage, modes of administration and intended effects. It receives 250,000 daily page visits and 6 million annual unique visitors seeking information on more than 200 psychoactive substances.⁶
• A study found that the Internet leads adolescent drug users to try new drugs and drug combinations; take steps to minimize the harmful effects of drugs; and modify the use of preferred drugs.⁷

Teens frequently go online alone, unsupervised, and often engage in risky behaviors:

• Nearly one-third (29%) of students surveyed said their parent or guardian would disapprove if they knew what they were doing on the Internet.⁸
• Sixty-four percent of online teens say that most teens do things online that they wouldn't want their parents to know about.⁹
• One-third (33%) of 13-17 year olds and nearly half (48%) of 16-17 year olds report that their parents or guardians know "very little" or "nothing" about what they do on the Internet.¹⁰

Many parents are not monitoring or supervising their teens' digital activities:

• Just under half (42%) of parents do not review the content of what their teenager(s) read and/or type in chat rooms or via instant messaging.¹¹
• Thirty percent of parents allow their teenagers to use the computer in private areas of the house, such as a bedroom or home office.¹²
• More than one in five (22%) 13-17 year olds said their parents or guardians have never discussed Internet safety with them.¹³
• A majority of parents (65%) feel they could do a better job supervising their children's media use.¹⁴

Nearly all teens are using technology all the time, everywhere.

• Close to nine in ten teens, or 87 percent of youth ages 12 to 17, are Internet users, and half of these teens go online daily.¹⁵
• Approximately 19 million teens instant message.¹⁶ Sixty percent of teens have their own cell phone.¹⁷
• One-third (33%) of teens have used a cell phone to send a text message. One in four cell phone-owning teens has used their phone to connect to the Internet.¹⁸
• Thirteen percent of young people report having a handheld device that connects to the Internet.¹⁹

References

¹ Pew Internet & American Life Project, Prescription Drugs Online, October 10, 2004.

² Drug Enforcement Agency press release, "Operation CYBERx Dismantles Nationwide Internet Pharmacy Scheme," September 21, 2005.

³ ABC News, What Are Teens Hiding on MySpace, May 18, 2006

⁴ Pew Internet & American Life Project: Teens and Parents Survey, October-November 2004 survey.

⁵ Boyer, E, Shannon, M, Hibberd, PL. (2001) Web sites with misinformation about illicit drugs. New England Journal of Medicine, 345: 469-471.