Using social networking web sites like Facebook and MySpace have connected people from all over the world. However, a new study claims that teenagers who regularly uses these sites are more at risk to use drugs along with smoking and drinking. The study comes from the The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. In a press release today, the organization said it asked a group of 12 to 17 year olds questions about social networking sites in its 16th annual survey on substance abuse.
The study showed that a whopping 70 percent of the teenagers who were surveyed spent time on social networking sites. The organization claims that those teenagers are five times as likely to use tobacco, three times more likely to drink alcohol and twice as likely to use marijuana compared to those who don't use social networking sites. Also, the study claims teenagers who have seen pictures on sites like Facebook showing other kids getting drunk or using drugs are many times more likely to use drugs or drink.
According to Joseph A. Califano, Jr., the founder of the organization,
"The time has come for those who operate and profit from social networking sites like Facebook to deploy their technological expertise to curb such images and to deny use of their sites to children and teens who post pictures of themselves and their friends drunk, passed out or using drugs. Continuing to provide the electronic vehicle for transmitting such images constitutes electronic child abuse."
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