News / Education
Explicit Drug Abuse Portrayed In Forty Percent of Substance Related On-line Videos
One Million Teens Online View Internet Videos Depicting Drug Use and Drug Addiction
Facebook. MySpace. YouTube.
Millions of teens watch videos posted on-line, some funny, some silly, others possibly not what you would want them to watch.
“Parents often think their teens engage in harmless chatting and posting on the web,” comments Mary Rieser, Executive Director for Narconon Drug Rehab GA. “While this may be the case, an online survey showed that this may not be the case. They are taught to avoid predators, but what else should they avoid?”
Nearly one million U.S. teens viewed internet videos related to alcohol or other drug use in June 2008, according to an online survey that monitored the internet activity of 13-18 year olds.
Of the 1.2 million substance-related videos viewed by teens, 39% portrayed explicit use of alcohol or other drugs and/or intoxication. In addition, the majority (85%) of these videos had comments posted that promoted substance use (see figures below). The survey also found that more than one-third (35%) of viewers of all substance-related videos were younger than 16, and females were more likely than males to watch these videos (57% vs. 43%).
“More information about teens and technology, including cell phone use, social networking websites, and music and onlinevideos, is available on ONDCP’s TheAntiDrug.com website,” comments Ms. Rieser. “Ensure your children realize that watching videos glorifying drug use does not make drug use cool or funny. Teach them that drug addiction and drug rehab are not fun places to end up. Neither is death.”
*Source: Center for Substance Abuse Research, University of Maryland, College Park
For more information on drug rehab or if you know someone who needs help, contact Narconon Drug Rehab at 1-877-413-3073.
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