By Leanne Italie
NEW YORK (AP) --Remember those declarations that teens are done with Facebook? Think again.
Facebook remains the most used social media site among American teens ages 13 to 17, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center. And, surprisingly, boys visit the site more often than girls.
Aided hugely by smartphones and other mobile devices, 71 percent of teens surveyed said they use Facebook, with the same percentage saying they use more than one social network of seven options they were asked about.
Half the teens said they also use Instagram and four in 10 said they used Snapchat, according to the study released April 9.
Among 22 percent of teens who use just one site, 66 percent use Facebook, 13 percent use Google Plus, 13 percent are Instagram users and 3 percent use Snapchat.
The Pew center didn't compare the latest survey to its previous studies on the subject because it switched its national representative sample from telephone interviews to an online format, potentially skewing results when comparisons are made.
The latest study points to Facebook as a dominant force in teens' online lives even as Instagram and Snapchat have gained momentum.
Facebook was the site they used most frequently, at 41 percent, followed by Instagram at 20 percent and Snapchat at 11 percent. Boys are more likely than girls to report they visit Facebook most often — at 45 percent versus 36 percent of girls.
Pew's data also revealed a distinct pattern in social media use by socio-economic status.
Teens from households with earnings of less than $50,000 are more likely to use Facebook the most — 49 percent compared with 37 percent of teens from households with earnings of $50,000 or more.
As far as how much time is spent on social media, 24 percent of teens overall go online "almost constantly," the study said, with 56 percent saying they go online several times a day and 12 percent reporting once-a-day use.
Among other sites the 1,060 teens were asked about are Twitter, Vine and Tumblr. Thirty-three percent said they use Twitter and Google Plus, while 24 percent said they use Vine and 14 percent said Tumblr.
Six percent said they use Twitter most often.
South Korea fines Meta $15 million for illegally collecting information on Facebook users
South Korea's privacy watchdog on Tuesday fined social media company Meta 21.6 billion won ($15 million) for illegally collecting sensitive personal information from Facebook users, including data about their political views and sexual orientation, and sharing it with thousands of advertisers.
It was the latest in a series of penalties against Meta by South Korean authorities in recent years as they increase their scrutiny of how the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, handles private information.
Following a four-year investigation, South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission concluded that Meta unlawfully collected sensitive information about around 980,000 Facebook users, including their religion, political views and whether they were in same-sex unions, from July 2018 to March 2022.
It said the company shared the data with around 4,000 advertisers.
South Korea's privacy law provides strict protection for information related to personal beliefs, political views and sexual behavior, and bars companies from processing or using such data without the specific consent of the person involved.
The commission said Meta amassed sensitive information by analyzing the pages the Facebook users liked or the advertisements they clicked on.
The company categorized ads to identify users interested in themes such as specific religions, same-sex and transgender issues, and issues related to North Korean escapees, said Lee Eun Jung, a director at the commission who led the investigation on Meta.
"While Meta collected this sensitive information and used it for individualized services, they made only vague mentions of this use in their data policy and did not obtain specific consent," Lee said.
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