There needs to be less panic and hand-wringing about the phenomenon of young people using social networking sites, as many teens are savvy enough to minimise risks for themselves, according to a QUT researcher. Professor Kerry Mallan, of the Faculty of Education’s School of Cultural and Language Studies, and her colleagues interviewed 170 students as part of an ARC Discovery-funded study, and learned a lot about their social networking habits – mostly, that young people are savvier than they often get credit for. QUT News, 22 June 2009