Young people say online slurs are common, aren’t OK

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Most young people say they aren’t very offended about the slurs and mean-spirited videos mocking overweight people or gays or blacks that they encounter on social-networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

“You can’t let those things get to you,” says 15-year-old Vito Calli, an immigrant from Argentina whose online friends tease him with jokes about Hispanics.

In a notable shift, however, young people are coming around to the idea that it’s wrong to contribute to this ugly side of the Internet free-for-all, a poll released Wednesday shows.

A bare majority, 52 percent, of people age 14 to 24 now say it’s never OK to engage in discriminatory language, even when it’s just among friends who don’t really mean it. That’s up from 44 percent in 2011.

A stronger majority — nearly 6 in 10 — say using slurs is wrong, even if you say you’re “just kidding.” Only about half were so disapproving two years ago.

Meanwhile, the share of young people who come across slurs online has held steady, according to the new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and MTV.

More than half of young users of YouTube, Facebook and gaming communities such as Xbox Live and Steam say they sometimes or often encounter biased messages.

Teens and twentysomethings say these slurs and taunting images they see online are mostly meant as jokes. The majority say they aren’t very offended when they see foul words online for women or gays — or even the N-word for African-Americans.

“Sometimes I make a couple of jokes that might be offensive to someone and I don’t even realize it,” said Calli of Reading, Pa. “You forget there’s a person behind the computer with actual feelings.”

Young people say derogatory stuff is most often posted online or texted on cellphones to be funny or cool. Less than a third believe a major reason people use slurs is because they actually harbor hateful feelings toward the groups they are maligning.