Facebook, Twitter linked to teen drug use, study says

Teenagers who frequent social networking Websites like Twitter and Facebook are more likely to smoke, drink and get tangled up in illegal drugs, according to recent research from Columbia University.

About 70 percent of teens spend time networking online every day. Compared to teens who don't log on, researchers at Columbia's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse found teens who use social media are five times more likely to use tobacco, three times more likely to drink alcohol and twice as likely to use marijuana.

About 40 percent of teens have seen photographs of kids drinking or using drugs while perusing sites like Facebook, according to the survey. Researchers believe viewing such images puts kids at risk for developing substance abuse disorders.

"The relationship of social networking site images of kids drunk, passed out or using drugs to increased teen risk of substance abuse offers grotesque confirmation of the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words," said Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA Columbia's founder and chairman.

Califano is the former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.

Most parents, though, are unaware of the connection, the survey concluded. Eighty-seven percent of surveyed parents said they don't believe spending time on social networking Web sites will make it more likely their child will drink alcohol. Eighty-nine percent believe online socializing will not influence their child to use drugs. Only 64 percent of parents who said their child has a social network page also said they monitored it.

"Especially troubling — and alarming — are that almost half of the teens who have seen pictures of kids drunk, passed out or using drugs on Facebook and other social networking sites first saw such pictures when they were 13 years of age or younger; more than 90 percent first saw such pictures when they were 15 or younger," Califano wrote in a statement that accompanied the release of the study. "These facts alone should strike Facebook fear into the hearts of parents of young children."

The study also found a link between increased risk of substance abuse and viewing suggestive television programs. Teens who watch shows like "Jersey Shore," "Teen Mom" and "Gossip Girl" are twice as likely to smoke, twice as likely to drink and one-and-a-half times more likely to use marijuana.