‘One Direction Effect’ sees teens disregard internet safety

Global pop giants One Direction have helped two Irish schoolgirls unearth a worrying online trend, prompting an internet safety warning for teenage girls.

Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, and Louis Tomlinson — who between them have over 80m Twitter followers and who have used social networks to develop a global and fanatical fan base — inspired Molly Maguire and Heather O’Sullivan, both 16, to conduct research into the role of social networks in developing the cult of fanaticism.

The transition-year students in Christ King Cork, discovered through their ‘One Direction Effect’ project that teenage girls, aged between 12 and 13, are spending up to 10 hours a week on social networking sites like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook, checking out news about their favourite celebrities.