PCC and Ipsos Research: Public concern about Social Networking and Privacy

42% of young160web users aged 16-24 know someone who has been embarrassed by information uploaded on to the internet without their consent.160 And 78% of the entire adult online population would change information they publish about themselves online160if they thought the material would later be reproduced in the mainstream media.160

These are among the findings of new research into public attitudes to social networking, commissioned by the Press Complaints Commission.160 It reveals the huge popularity of social networking sites in the UK today - with an astonishing 83% of160web users160aged 16-24 using them, and half the total population of adults online.160 Yet despite this popularity, only just over half of users (55%) think before posting information that it might later be used by third parties without their consent.160

Public concern is demonstrated by the fact that 89% of160web users160think there should be clear guidelines about the type of personal information that can be published online so that they can complain if material published about them is wrong or intrusive.160