Box 5.2 The Youth Internet Safety Survey In the period from August 1999 to February 2000, the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire conducted the Youth Internet Safety Survey, a telephone survey of a representative national sample of 1,501 young people, ages 10 through 17, who use the Internet regularly (defined as using the Internet at least once a month for the past 6 months at home, school, a library, or some other place). Parents or guardians were interviewed first for about 10 minutes, and if they consented, young people were interviewed for about 15 to 30 minutes, with the interviewer taking care to preserve privacy and confidentiality during the youth interview. Youth survey participants were 53 percent male and 47 percent female. Ethnically, they were 73 percent non-Hispanic white, 10 percent African American, 3 percent American Indian or Alaskan native, 3 percent Asian, 2 percent Hispanic white, 7 percent were in other ethnic categories, and 2 percent did not answer. Seventy-five percent of the households approached completed the screening necessary to determine their eligibility for participation in the survey. The completion rate among households with eligible respondents was 82 percent. Five percent of parents in eligible households refused the adult interview. Another 11 percent of parents completed the adult interview but refused permission for their child to participate in the youth interview. In 2 percent of eligible households, parents consented to the youth interview, but youth refused to participate. An additional 1 percent of eligible households were in "call-back" status when 1,501 interviews were completed. The final sample consisted of 796 boys and 705 girls. This is not a representative sample of all youth within the United States because Internet use is not evenly distributed among the population. Internet users tend to have higher incomes and more education than non-Internet users, and, among lower income groups, Internet users are more likely to be white, although this racial difference disappears at higher income levels. While boys are somewhat more likely than girls to use the Internet, the difference is small and is attributable to boys' propensity to play computer games. The sample for the Youth Internet Safety Survey generally matches other representative samples of youth Internet users. Source: David Finkelhor, Kimberly Mitchell, and Janis Wolak, 2001. Youth Internet Safety Survey, Crimes Against Children Research Center, University of New Hampshire. See <http://www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles1/ojjdp/fs200104.txt>.