Social Networking facebook, bebo, MySpace and others

Betsy Knodel, Martin Sieverding and NHS Members March 26, 2009

What is social networking? facebook, bebo, MySpace, etc. Online communities Varied reasons for existence Share information Interact with others Video – Social Networking in Plain English Video – Why do teens use social networking

Are you for real Profiles handed out Outside of envelope is public profile Inside of envelope is real profile

Reality - April 2008 Two and a half million children aged between 8 and 17 have created profiles on social networking sites, according to research. But parents fail to realise that poor security means that about four in ten personal pages are open for anyone to look at. Although the three main social networks, Bebo, Facebook and MySpace, claim to have a minimum age limit of 13 or 14, a quarter of all children with internet access and aged between 8 and 11 say that they have a page on a social networking site, according to the communications regulator, Ofcom. Source - Sabbagh, Dan. “Children’s social network pages ‘must have privacy lock’” The Times. April 2,

Commonalities Profile Friends Pictures Messages Privacy controls

Pros Keeping in touch with family and friends from across the nation and the world Old friends - reconnecting Sharing pictures with others Joining causes Following politics Networking for employment Fun

Cons Photos become property of Facebook Read the EULA SPAM Information poaching Misconstrued social capital Immature behavior Safety Bullying

Safety Issues Facebook does not have parental controls but My Space does have parental controls MySpace requires members to be at least 14 years of age to join their site. Facebook requires members to be at least 13 years of age to join their site. MySpace uses IP addresses to manage their website, track member usage and market the user information to their third party advertisers. Facebook’s advertisers download marketing trackers or “web beacons” to your computer to identify where their ads are most effective.computer Personal information collected by MySpace is openly shared among users so that they may communicate with each other. MySpace clearly expresses in their policy that you are sharing your information at risk. All private information given to Facebook is not sold or shared with third party advertisers or marketers.

Steps to Safety Keep personal information private Use a nickname that doesn’t identify location, gender, age Only add friends you know in real life Alter pictures to remove identities Share profile and photos only with friends Ignore harassing or rude comments Never post sexually provocative photos

More Steps Never meet with someone you only know online Don’t post information, photos, videos you may later regret Use privacy settings to limit access Online choices have offline consequences Once posted it is online, somewhere, forever

Consequences Facebook photos land Eden Prairie kids in trouble. Facebook posting by students sparks legal fights students-sparking-legal-fights-p/ students-sparking-legal-fights-p/ NC – 2116 state sex offenders found on MySpace ?eref=rss_tech ?eref=rss_tech

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