Research recently released by Instagram supports claims that the social media site contributes to poor body image among teenaged girls and boys. The results of the studies, commissioned by and released this week by Instagram itself (well, parent company Facebook) suggest, rather than, as they claim, refute the claims made recently that Instagram leads an appreciable percentage of teen girls (in particular) to feel badly about their bodies and themselves.

By now everyone has heard about the weekend verdict in the Steubenville Rape case: Two teen Steubenville High Big Red football stars, Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond, charged with the rape of the 16-year-old girl known as “Jane Doe”, and the posting of related images on social media, were found guilty of the charges. What many don’t know, however, is that KnightSec, a branch of the hacking group Anonymous, outraged by what they saw as a cover-up, played a role in bringing the online materials to the attention of prosecutors and the court. And that the Ohio Attorney General is calling for a grand jury to force the sixteen other teen witnesses to divulge what they know about who else was involved. (Includes graphic video, images, and texts.)

A recently released study has discovered that teenagers who do an excessive amount of texting are more likely to also be involved in riskier behaviors, including drinking alcohol, experimenting (or worse) with other drugs, and being active sexually, even to the point of promiscuity. This excessive texting is being dubbed “hypertexting”.

More information is coming to light about the situation with Google and David Barksdale, a Google engineer who used his access to the massive stores of data that Google has gathered about its own users to spy on the private lives (and data) of several Google users, who also happened to be minors. That’s right – Google employee David Barksdale was spying on children, even cyberbullying them, using the access that his position with Google afforded him to look at the private information of children. What’s more, it was going on for months.

A new study has found that a mind-boggling 20% of teens – one in every five – are engaging in ‘sexting’ – the act of sending nude pictures of themselves to others via cell phone.

A new study about teens who talk about teen sex on MySpace, and other risky behaviours in their MySpace profiles and pages, has found that if someone in a position of authority, such as a doctor, who is also on MySpace, contacts them about the risky behaviour being discussed, they may stop talking about it on MySpace. No kidding?

A new study conducted by the unlikely pair of Cosmo Girl and the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy has found that teens are “going sex crazy in cyberspace.” Teens and cybersex are, apparently, a natural combination. So, why not encourage it as an alternative to in-person sex, which is so much riskier?