Privacy and predators

But the survey was not all about debunking myths. It also confirmed facts. Like, privacy concerns and fear of strangers remain barriers to complete online comfort for a great many of our respondents.

Overall, just over half our respondents who are members of social networking sites (51%) agreed that online social networking has its dangers. The Brazilians were the most nervous about online social networking with 79% agreeing there is danger, followed by the US (69%) and Poland (62%). Least concerned are Indians on 19%.

Nervy networkers' biggest concerns were lack of privacy (37%) closely followed by lack of security for children (32%).

The Dutch were the most concerned about privacy at 54% and lack of security for children was the biggest worry for Americans with 62% of respondents nominating it.

We also asked respondents whether they agreed or disagreed with the statement "I feel comfortable giving out personal details on social networking sites" and found that this makes most people, even those who are social networkers, uncomfortable. Of the group who are members of social networking sites, only 26% are comfortable giving out personal details. This is led by 71% of Serbians and 57% of Indians.

But the more interesting finding is the unease among social networkers. 85% of Japanese and German social networkers were uncomfortable handing out details, followed by 83% in Taiwan, 79% in Canada, 77% in Brazil and South Africa and 70% in Poland and the US.

Harald Hasselman, Managing Director of Synovate in Germany says: "Data protection is a huge issue in the German media at the moment and very top-of-mind for online Germans. Germans are extremely sensitive about giving personal data to strangers or even organisations."

Something that US-based Bob Michaels reiterates... "Identity theft continues to be a major problem in the US so handing out any personal information online is going to make people wary. Another growing issue in the US is online defamation – posting negative and sometimes untrue information about someone else online – so people are becoming more and more careful about the information they share and who they share it with."

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> Let's start at the very beginning... (it's a very good place to start)

> Who's in the in-crowd?

> Sites of choice

> Poking around social media attitudes

> Is social media a marketing dream?