Finding Teens in TheirSpace: Using Social Networking Sites to Connect Youth to Sexual Health Services

Abstract

The increasing popularity and widespread use of the Internet has made it an emerging venue for delivering health-related messages and interventions. The current study explored the potential for using social networking sites (SNS), specifically MySpace, to connect youth to sexual health services. Surveys and focus groups with youth aged 14-19 living in low-income communities in California revealed high levels of overall Internet access, frequent use of SNS, and experience in searching for health information online. However, disparities in frequency and location of Internet access by race/ethnicity, and hesitancy among some youth to join a clinic's online social network, may affect the success of this new strategy in some populations. Interviews with clinic staff highlighted the successes and challenges of using MySpace as part of their outreach efforts. Staff described balancing the benefits of web-based outreach, including its low cost, wide reach, and teen friendliness, with its challenges, including overcoming technological barriers, ensuring teens' safety from inappropriate contact, and remaining timely and relevant given the dynamic nature of the Internet. This study indicates that SNS and other technologies have strong potential for reaching diverse youth with critical health information when implemented as part of a comprehensive outreach strategy.

Social Media Use and HIV-Related Risk Behaviors in Young Black and Latino Gay and Bi Men and Transgender Individuals in New York City: Implications for Online Interventions

“…8,37 Given that we found high rates of access to and use of social media and the Internet by low-income YMCSM and transgender women, groups most vulnerable to HIV in the USA, social media may be a particularly effective and efficient tool for reaching and engaging this population in health-related interventions. 38 Although many studies of Internet-based behavioral interventions for HIV have been published, 39 only a handful of social media-based HIV interventions exists 9,10,[40][41][42][43] with several more in the pipeline. 12 Behavioral interventions leveraging online social networks have the potential to affect population health dramatically, given their capacity to disseminate information virally, facilitate social support, and modify norms.…”

Disconnecting with Social Networking Sites

“…Disconnective practice as self-editing was very much at play in respect of sharing health information and, as shown in other parts of this book, sharing too much irrelevant information was seen as an inappropriate thing to do. This analysis adds to discussions of relevance and SNSs by going beyond the association of relevance and disconnection in terms of discourses of technological progress of the "why people left MySpace" kind (Bull 2010, Ralph et al 2011. That is, a lack of perceived relevance may not necessarily lead to leaving a space, especially if one is talking about particular content.…”

Enabling Online Safe Spaces: A Case Study of Love Matters Kenya

“…If sexual health organisations want to influence the behaviour and attitudes of young people, they have to go to the places where young people spend time -both offline and online -and take part in their conversations (Ralph et al 2011). For Kenyan youth, Facebook has become one of these places: 11 per cent 6 of the population have a Facebook account and this percentage is steadily increasing.…”

“…When people feel anonymous, they find it easier to share more personal information online (Ralph et al 2011). Anonymity, however, provides a freedom that can also encourage participants to post offensive comments (Reader 2012).…”