In a moment of passionate texting, they decided it was time…to share their passwords.
A thoughtful New York Times article published yesterday speaks to an eerie new trend: In the digital era, teenagers in love want to share their most intimate secrets, ideas and, of course, their Facebook accounts. They leave virtual residue on each others’ Facebook walls, they send Facebook messages, they text each other and video chat. And they even share their passwords with each other.
A 2011 Pew Internet and American Life Project study revealed that 30% of all teen Internet users shared a password with a friend or significant other. Of that percentage, 38% of girls shared a password with a friend or significant other versus only 23% of boys. Teens in the 14-17 age group were more likely to share passwords than those in the 12-13 age group.
Why are teenagers doing something so risky? To feel close. As with sex, teens engaging in this type of behavior aren’t thinking about the potentially huge consequences. After a break-up, an angry ex could hack into the other person’s account and steal their identity for a period of time. Or worse yet, one ex could damage the other person’s online reputation. How easy would it be for an angry teenager to log-in to their ex’s Facebook profile, spam a bunch of friends and post intimate secrets about their relationship? This is the other downside to not changing one’s password often enough. According to the same Pew survey, however, only 17% of teenagers set their profiles to public; so even if this were to happen, at least the information would only broadcast out to a network of friends.
