Social networking programs have been used for many years. “Facebook” as been up and running since 2004 and has only just really taken off. Before that “My space” by Microsoft was popular for pre- teens to express their feelings to their friends. Not always to design standards at all. There are many programs out there that allow people to network over the net. This article expresses some concerns about the safety and privacy of these interactions.
In modern society, many of us ‘live’ in an interactive digital world where we socialize, post photos and videos and share our interested with family, friends, friend of our friends and sometimes even strangers. Many of us see this everyday. Many children go online without being supervised and although most of them are ok some are taken advantage of by people who want to harm them.
This article focuses on social network programs the writer has used and feels could have safety and privacy issues for everyone. But will concentrate on children’s safety. The programs that will be discussed are www.blogger.com (online web journal), www.flickr.com (photos) and www.facebook.com (Social networking website).
Reflection
I will touch on two questions I feel are important when it comes to the internet and privacy and safety.
1.Trusting ‘friends’ is your information really safe?
2.How private is private on the internet?
Trusting ‘friends’ is your information really safe? And who are they befriending?
In facebook people can search for you and if you choose, they can view some things about you. They can request to add you as a friend and you can either accept deny or ask them how they know you. Once you accept they can see all the information you have created in your profile.
After investigating facebook and looking at their privacy settings, it seems like a fairly safe environment but again it is important in knowing who is accessing your information. You can set visibility from All networks and friends, People in (selected network) and friends, Friends of friends and All friends. So it is up to the user to set these.
Another consideration is young teens go through so many friends and information we share could be used against us should the friendship fail. Safekids.com suggests that teens should think about what they post as posting provocative photos, and/or intimate details online even privately to your friends can cause you problems later as someone you consider your friend could turn against you.
The other thing to consider with children’s friends is their naïve and trust people quickly. Its easy to see this, my nephew went to the airport and befriended a little girl. They didn’t know each other but hugged each other and gave each other a kiss.
According to CEOP children are being targeted by people doing the wrong thing in chat rooms (64.7%) or social networking programs (10.8). Children are at risk online, it is obvious. Parents need to monitor their children’s activities and teach them about people who want to become friends online. People are not always who they say they are.
It seems that because Net Generation (15-25) “have grown up online, extending trust and talking about everything (just look at some Myspace pages) online is only natural to this generation.” (David Coleman). These children seem to be willing to put there whole lives online. They seem willing to share what they are doing with everyone (Twitter is an example of this. in short it’s a micro-blog) although many of these programs that the ‘net generation’ uses is not limited to them. I am discussing children and teen’s use of these programs. Many of these kids will post a question/issue they are having to get advise from friends and even people they don’t know. We seem to be assisuationg more with online groups these days than real life groups although some online groups do extend our real world. As seen in facebook, I am a member of my high school’s group and university groups. According to David Coleman a Collaborative Strategies analysts young people are commonly in groups of friends they talk to everyday but who may be in different locations over the world who they have never met. This leads to how can you trust them when you have never met them? Can you really trust them with your information?How private is private on the internet?
When you first join a social networking site, you are confronted with so much information to fill in. People fill these in, in the hope of finding people with similar interests. People who leave these blank are seen as sitting in the corner and will most likely get ignored. When children access these sites they may not be thinking in a privacy way. When the see name, living address and telephone numbers they may just put them in without thinking about the ramifications that come from sharing this information.
The first thing I do on facebook is go through my requests list. This lists all the applications that my ‘friends’ what to share with me. Sometimes this is fun but most times it’s like spam. When you install one of these applications it asked you questions about how you would like to show it on your profile. One thing you have to do is share your information with the application. I receive around 6 spam emails a day since adding applications on my facebook. This goes to show that our information is not always just for the application but it can have sinister means.
“Privacy on Facebook is undermined by three principal factors:
users disclose too much, Facebook does not take adequate steps to protect user privacy, and third parties are actively seeking out end-user information using Facebook.” (Harvey Jones, Jos_e Hiram Soltren)
Allow this application to...
3rd party application adding in facebookBlogging or keeping a ‘web log’ or online journal, has spread around the world like fire ants. According to research done by Microsoft, Teenagers write about half of all blogs today and many without their parents knowledge. Two out of three provide their age, and three out of five reveal their location and contact information. And one out of five reveals their full name. This information is shocking as I have a young cousins and she has friends who use blogs and programs like facebook. If one child put all that information up, anyone could find them. There have also been cases of children competing for popularity on blogs which leads to inappropriate information and pictures on these children’s blogs.
www.blogger.com was reviewed as part of my study into child safety and privacy. Blogger allows the user to set up if they want their blog listed in the directory, and in searches using engines like Google. This is a good example of safety it is not available for set up straight away. You have to go into settings and change is your self. The other area is permissions, who can view your site? The blogging site has three options, everyone, invitation only and authors only. This allows the writer to restrict who views the blog but again this is a setting done latter. I know I didn’t realise straight away that my blog was listed for everyone to see. I feel that websites offering social networking to allow these setting to be done in initial set up as many young teens may not know how to change it later.
There are many websites parents can visits that help them to understand about blogs and how to publish to them. One such suggestion is to always assume your information is available to everyone. If you wouldn’t show that to a stranger don’t post it. (Microsoft.com, Safekids.com) It is important the parents take an interest in their children’s activities online and don’t use it as a babysitting tool.
Through my research and experience I have found that there are too many children who are using these social computing without their parent’s knowledge and who put too much information up for stalkers and sex offenders to find. But if these programs are used properly they can be used in a safe environment and be beneficial to the user.
Social Networking seems to be the next step in human to human interaction. It is taking off; people just need to use it properly and safely.
References:
Safekids.com (2008) http://safekids.com/2008/03/18/safety-myths-and-web-20/\
Microsoft (2007) http://www.microsoft.com/protect/family/activities/blogging.mspx
Jones. H, Soltren. JH., Facebook: Threats to Privacy (2005) http://www-swiss.ai.mit.edu/6805/student-papers/fall05-papers/facebook.pdf
Harris. A BBC News, When Online Friends Spell Danger (2007) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7046986.stm
Coleman.D, Generational Trust and Collaboration (2008)
http://www.collaborate.com/cs_evl/collab.php/2008/02/14/generational_trust_and_collaboration
6 comments:
some of the privacy isseus are just plain terrifying.
You raise some interesting issues to ponder in a still new medium, but i think that with good education and being careful any nightmares can be avoided.
Couldn't agree more (as my post shows) and I doubt that our posts will be the last ones that present a concern for privacy and security on social networking sites.
Jarrad Webber - 41209141
have to agree with the others privacy concerns are a major issue, especially for parents of young children. As others have said nightmares can be avoided, but children need to relise the seriousness in giving out personal details
I also agree how children are ignorant with online privacy and security.
I used to be those who provide all personal details on public profiles back in low-mid teen, not knowing or even dreaming of the risk that act possessed. (Luckily, I was fine)
It should be something that's taught home and even at school considering how much Internet has penetrated into our lives.
This is something that I also covered in my post. How as a parent do you combine educating a child with the need to ensure their security? Its something that parents will have to consider carefully.
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