Research with MySpace users found that more than half often discuss subjects like alcohol or drug use, sex and violence.
This is the VOA Special English Health Report.
Researchers say more than half of young people who use MySpace often discuss high-risk behaviors. Two studies of the social networking site recently appeared in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.
In one study, researchers examined the pages of 500 18-year-olds from the United States. They found that 41 percent of the profiles chosenat random included information about alcohol or drug use. 24 percent discussed sexual behavior. And14 percent included discussion of violence.
Young people who said they were active in religious groups, sports or other interests were less likely to discuss risky behaviors.
In the second study, the researchers read the MySpace profiles of about 190 individuals. All said they were18 to 20 years old. Each person discussed high-risk behaviors.
One of the researchers was Megan Moreno, now at the University of Wisconsin. Doctor Moreno sent a message to half the young people. Her e-mail suggested that they change their profiles. She also warned them about the risk of sharing personal information.
About 14 percent of those receiving the e-mail removed information on sexual behavior. Among individuals who did not receive a message, about 5 percent later removed such information.
In the United States, about half of all young people use social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook.
Doctor Dimitri Christakis at Seattle Children's Hospital worked on the research. He says parents have a responsibility to know what their children are doing on the Internet.
On February third, the top law enforcement officials in Connecticut and North Carolina announced some news about MySpace. MySpace told them it has identified and removed about 90，000 registered sex offenders from its site in the last two years. These people were found guilty of crimes that require them to be publicly listed as sex offenders. The number is 40,000 more than MySpace has reported in the past.
The officials in Connecticut and North Carolina lead a group of state attorneys general who are seeking to make social networks safer. Connecticut's Richard Blumenthal said many other offenders may be using sites under false names and ages. A spokeswoman for North Carolina's Roy Cooper, Noelle Talley, says Facebook has not yet answered a demand for information.
And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. I'm Steve Ember.
high-risk: 高危險度的，充滿危險的
at random: without definite aim, purpose, method, or adherence to a prior arrangement; in a haphazard way（隨便地，任意地）
