A recent study called “Digital World, Digital Life” conducted by market researcher TNS Global, has revealed that more than half of all adults who first made contact online go on to meet face to face . More than 27,000 participants aged 18 to 55 across 16 countries were interviewed. Of the 2,500 UK web-users that were surveyed, 58 % (6 in 10) said they had met an internet ‘friend’ in person , 45 % had telephone conversations with friends who were previously just online acquaintances. "What comes out in this survey is that we are actively engaging with people online, but we haven't lost the knack for conventional social contact. At the same time, online acquaintances are now perceived by most of us as real acquaintances. This is underlined by the high percentages of people who, having first met people online, go on to meet them in person or at least by talking on the phone. But behind that is the sense of worry among our respondents who clearly express concern about the true online identity of these apparent friends." Arno Hummerston, TNS Global managing director.
This report echoes statistics for that of young people; CEOP estimate that 1 in 4 young people (11-16) years have met an online friend.
Can we still advise young people not to meet online friends when so many adults are doing it themselves?
Has the time now come for us to educate them how to meet such ‘friends’ safely such as taking an adult they trust with them, meeting in a public place and not giving away personal information etc.
For me, the fact people are meeting online friends is not the biggest concern; it's the fact that of those young people who met an online friend only 1/4 of them took someone with them, and of those who did take someone, 83% took a friend and not an adult. Of the adults questioned in the 'Digital Life, Digital World' survey, only 37% said they could not be sure of an internet contact's identity. So are we as much at risk as young people?
Google has published its year-end Zeitgeist 2008. It's a tool which reveals what internet users are searching for by studying the aggregation of the billions of search queries that people type into the Google search box.Most popular 10 Searches in the UK (2008)
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Facebook
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BBC
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Youtube
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Ebay
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Games
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News
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Hotmail
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Bebo
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Yahoo
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Jobs
10 Fasting rising UK Searches (2008)
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iplayer
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Facebook
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iphone
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Youtube
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Yahoo mail
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Large Hadron Collider
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Obama
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Friv
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Jogos
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Wiki
The list also reveals what searches have been popular in different countires and globally. In 2008 this year the US election candidates and the Beijing Olympics figured highly. Globally the most poular sites are around socialising and politics, according to Marissa Mayer, vice-president of search at Google:"Social networks comprised four out of the top 10 global fastest-rising queries while the US election held everyone's interest around the globe"
10 Fastest rising Global searches
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Sarah Palin
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Beijing 2008
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Facebook login
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Tuenti
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Heath Ledger
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Obama
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Nasza Klasa
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wer kennt wen
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Euro 2008
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Jonas brothers
Youtube has recently announced making changes “ the collective YouTube experience even better”.
The aims of the new ideas from youtube are to ensure users find content that is relevant and appropriate and that inappropriate material is removed quickly.Here’s some of the key ideas they’ve come up with:
- Stricter standard for mature content - videos featuring pornographic images or sex acts are always removed from the site when they're flagged, youtube are reconsidering and “tightening” the standard for what is considered "sexually suggestive." Videos with sexually suggestive (but not prohibited) content will be age-restricted, which means they'll be available only to viewers who are 18 or older – however this does rely on age verification being successful.
- Demotion of sexually suggestive content and profanity - Videos that are considered sexually suggestive, or containing profanity, will be demoted on the 'Most Viewed,' 'Top Favorite,' etc functions. The classification of these videos will be based on a number of factors, including video content and descriptions.
- More accurate video information – Youtube’s Community Guidelines have always tried to stop users from attempting to gain view counts for their videos by entering misleading or inappropriate information in video descriptions, tags, titles, and other metadata. Youtube will be enforcing these rules and violations of these guidelines could result in removal of videos and termination of accounts.
You can read more about this here These changes do raise some questions well worth considering both at a county and a school level · Do these new functions mean that we should consider allowing more access to youtube in an educational setting?· Is youtube an appropriate resource for young people to be using and if so at what age should be consider allowing access to it?· If we do allow access – what key skills should we be encouraging young people to develop in using youtube as safely as possible?