Teens Are Exposed To Tobacco Content On Social Networking Sites

Main Category: Smoking / Quit Smoking
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 23 Jul 2009 - 4:00 PST

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When teens surf the Internet, are they exposed to tobacco content or imagery? The study, "Exposure to Tobacco on the Internet: Content Analysis of Adolescents' Internet Use," tracked the Web pages viewed by 346 teens between the ages of 14 and 17 years. During a one-month period of data collection, these adolescents viewed 1.2 million Web pages. Of those pages, 0.72 percent contained tobacco or smoking content. Pro-tobacco content was found on 1,916 pages, anti-tobacco content on 1,572 pages, and complex and/or unclear content on 5,055 pages. Most of the tobacco-related content seen by teens was found on social networking sites. MySpace in particular represented 53 percent of the pages on which tobacco content was found. Previous studies have found a link between exposure to tobacco content in traditional media and adolescent smoking. The authors caution that as more communication occurs online in social networking sites, this may also impact adolescent smoking.

The August issue of Pediatrics also features the article, "Evaluation of School-Based Multisession Versus Single-Session, Group Smoking-Cessation Interventions for Self-Described Adolescent Smokers." It will be published online July 27.

Source
The American Academy of Pediatrics