TEENAGE girls have become increasingly scared for their personal safety, with one in three not feeling safe in their own home at night.
The Dolly Youth Monitor, which surveyed 600 youths aged between 10 and 17 across Australia, also found three-quarters of girls don’t feel safe in their neighbourhood at night and 60 per cent are scared to walked down their street after dark.
Dolly editor Gemma Crisp said she was shocked by the result.
“We didn’t even see this one coming,” she said.
“But teenagers have a lot more freedom than in the past, and increased freedom means increased vulnerability.”
Information overload and teenagers’ self-absorbed attitude contributed to teenage fears, Crisp said.
“They hear about bashings, muggings, gangs, people getting attacked in their homes, and think ‘I’m not safe then either’,” she said.
“Teenage girls live their lives thinking ‘it’s all about me’ instead of ‘that would never happen to me’.”
Wangaratta triplets Steph, Marina and Amelia said yesterday they often feared for their safety.
“Sometimes what I hear about people getting attacked and bashed, it really scares me and makes me think twice about going out by yourself,” Amelia said.
“I hate being home by myself and don’t feel safe sometimes, especially when it’s dark and something frightens you, like a phone ringing,” Marina said.
Steph said she would never walk around Melbourne or parts of her home town alone at night.
“It’s something I often think about,” she said.
In line with the surging popularity of alcopops among teenage drinkers, four out of five teens surveyed said regular drinking was acceptable.
The number is a sharp increase from 16 years ago, with only 62 per cent believing it was OK when the bi-annual survey began in 1992.
But the number of teens who thought using drugs, especially marijuana and cigarettes, was acceptable had dropped.
Teens are also increasingly tech-savvy, sending an average of 7.3 SMS each day and spending about $26 on mobile phone calls each month, with mum and dad usually paying the bill.
The survey also found three-quarters use their mobile phone daily.
One in five survey respondents said they had their own website, and more than half of teenage girls aged 14-17 used social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook.
