What are the risks of Using Social Networking websites?
Like most online activity there are risks to the users. In the case of social networking websites the risks include the unintentional disclosure of personal information, bullying or harassment, and in a small number of cases targeting of users by predators.
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It is important to highlight that children and young people may not only fall victim to these harmful behaviours but they may also be involved in initiating, maintaining or perpetrating the same against other children, young people, adults and /or organisations.
1. Disclosing Personal Information
The way these sites work is based on users creating sites/profiles including their personal opinions and in most cased their photographs. This enables people with the same interests to meet others. Users’ profiles are also a way of attracting potential girlfriends or boyfriends. Many young people will send flirtatious comments to others having been attracted to photos on their site.
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Young people may not only fall victim to these harmful behaviours but they may also be involved in initiating them.
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The problem with posting personal information to the internet is that as soon as it goes online, you have lost control over who will see it and how it will be used. Pictures can be easily be copied and displayed in a completely different context. Because of the digital nature of the photos, they can be even be altered or distorted.
Many social networking websites give the impression to users that they are in closed networks of friends. This encourages young people to disclose more personal information or to be more intimate with their communications than they would be if they thought it was a completely public forum. This is a dangerous fallacy.
The fact that certain websites claim to connect students from the same school means nothing. The information provided by users when they are registering is not validated. Anyone can create a user profile pretending to be anyone else. Moreover, anyone regardless of their real or pretend age can join as many school communities as they want.
2. Bullying and Harassment
Many social networking sites include modules where users are encouraged to rate profiles they come across on the site. This relatively innocuous capability can lead to users being sent harmful comments. As these comments usually relate to personal pictures posted on the websites they can often relate to physical appearance and ethnic origins.
There is also a tendency for offline bullying to be amplified online. Under the perception that there is a reduced likelihood of being caught and because they aren’t directly confronted by the consequences of their bullying, it is easier for children to engage in bullying online than it is in the offline world. Young people need to be made aware that despite the perception it is relatively easy to trace online bullies and that the consequences of being identified can be very severe. Many online bullying activities are illegal and are frequently dealt with by the police.
3. Being targeted by predators
Because there is no routine validation of users, personal information contained in profiles can be harvested by unscrupulous individuals who can use it as the basis for scams, malicious attacks, or in the worst case by pedophiles to groom potential victims. These people often operate by collecting small pieces of information at a time while slowly building up a bigger picture of their target without rousing suspicion. They can use multiple different identities to avoid detection.
Related Articles on Webwise:
Social Networking Websites - Bebo, Myspace, Friendster etc.
Social Networking Advice Sheet
What is Cyberbullying?
Related weblinks:
Myspace safety tips and tips for parents.
"Identity Production in a Networked Culture: Why Youth Heart MySpace" , danah boyd, American Association for the Advancement of Science, February 19, 2006.
