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by Lisa Dewey
Not so long ago, hearing the words the "chatting teenage girl"
may have instantly brought to mind the image of a girl with a telephone
handset pressed to her ear. While telephones and teens are still synonymous,
today that image also needs to include PCs. Especially for girls, e-mail
and instant messaging (IM) are indispensable social and communication tools.
Add in doing research, either for personal interest or for school homework,
and the result is an ever-growing number of teenagers logging more and more
hours online.
Just how are girls doing on the information superhighway? All too often
they are driving without a license, according to The Net Effect: Girls and
New Media, a study conducted by the Girl Scout Research Institute with the
assistance of Girl Games, Inc. When it comes to the Internet, many teenage
girls are extremely computer savvy but can be naive and vulnerable when
encountering emotionally charged situations like the prevalent online pornography
or sexual harassment in chat room conversations. The study, published in
February 2002, is one of the first to look at how the large amount of time
girls spend online is affecting their social and emotional lives. Its findings
are based on the Internet experiences of 1,246 girls, ages thirteen to eighteen.
"Being online is a new dimension of being a girl in the 21st century,"
says Michael Conn, Ph.D., director of the Girl Scout Research Institute.
"This study shows, however, that girls may be gaining tech savvy skills
at a rate that exceeds their social maturity or their ability to deal with
situations they can easily confront while surfing or chatting. So even if
parents, guardians, teachers, or other adults are not as comfortable using
the Internet, they still have a vital role to play in helping girls."
A Growing Phenomenon
Because girls in the study are often online, they see themselves as the
most computer-savvy members of their households. Internet access by everyone
is increasing at remarkable speeds. The most recent data compiled by the
U.S. Department of Commerce estimates there were 116.5 million Americans
online at some location in August 2000 — 31.9 million more than there
were only twenty months earlier. Most of these connections were happening
at home. More than half of all households (51.0 percent) have computers
— up from 42.1 percent in December 1998.
Teenagers are also going online at school and at libraries and other community
centers. If current trends continue, according to the Pew Research Center-Internet
and American Life Project, the implications are significant: In a generation,
use of the Internet is likely to reach the same levels as that of the telephone,
which is now used by 94 percent of Americans, or the television, which is
used by 98 percent.
While no comprehensive survey has been completed, it is evident that more
youth camps are allowing campers to go online to communicate with home and
surf the Web for information either as part of a program activity or during
free time.
What Girls Are Finding
Short of installing a filtering software program to block access to adult
content sites, if teens are online, it is fairly certain they will be faced
with choosing between safe and unsafe behavior. Yet The Net Effect found
that all too often girls are not receiving guidance from adults in their
lives about such choices but are relying on their own judgment. When asked
how they know what is safe or unsafe behavior on the Internet, 84 percent
of the girls surveyed cited their own common sense. Unfortunately, girls'
common sense does not always protect them. The study found:
- Girls often do not know what to do when they are sexually harassed in
chat rooms. Harassment comes in many different forms, ranging from being
asked for bra sizes to being sent unwanted naked pictures of men. Thirty
percent of the girls who completed an online survey reported that they
had been sexually harassed in a chat room. In focus groups, girls reported
grappling with how to react to online sexual harassment.
"I was in a chat and the guy IM'd me . . . then he started saying
really perverted stuff." — Age 13
- Most girls try to avoid pornographic sites, calling them "disturbing,"
but say they are frequently spammed or accidentally end up on these sites.
"It was like a car crash. You want to look away but can't."
— Age 14
- Some girls fail to see online crime as serious, because it is in the
realm of cyberspace.
Getting Driving Advice
While many parents and teachers have a list of "don'ts" —
don't give out personal information, don't go to certain Web sites, don't
respond to e-mails from people you don't know, and don't talk to strangers
— what girls want is more proactive involvement. Girls need help in
dealing with the situations they encounter, not just prohibitive advice.
The Net Effect found that girls want parents and adults to fully understand
their online lives and help them successfully navigate both positive and
negative experiences.
At camps, when girls are away from parental oversight, it is critical for
adults to help them deal with any situations they may encounter online (see
Tips for Helping Girls Navigate Cyberspace). It's important for these adults
to keep in mind that potential problems do not outweigh the many benefits
for girls.
"Discovering new information on the Internet — and learning
a new skill — is empowering to girls," said Harriet S. Mosatche,
Ph.D., director of program development at Girl Scouts of the USA. "Plus
there is the wonderful benefit of girls being able to stay in touch with
their family and friends via e-mail. But the Internet also presents situations
that girls may not be ready for — pornographic Web sites, which they
may be curious about but uncomfortable with, and unwanted comments in a
chat room. Any adult working with girls who go online needs to be available
to support their experiences."
Originally published in the 2002 September/October
issue of Camping Magazine.
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