Social Networking: Facebook, MySpace and more...

If you ask many parents what their worst nightmare is regarding their children and social networking websites, they’ll probably tell you it is having someone stalk their child online, gaining their trust and abducting them.

Luckily, the reality of internet abduction and social networking isn’t like that at all. There is very strong evidence that social networking is safe if some safety guidelines are followed and if privacy settings are tightened up a bit.

The Research:

In May 2007, the Advisory Committee to the Congressional Internet Congress invited a group of experts to discuss The Facts About Youth Online Victimization. The panel consisted of: danah boyd, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley and fellow at the University of Southern California Annenberg Center for Communications; Dr. David Finkelhor, the director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire; Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist at Pew Internet & American Life Project; and Dr. Michele Ybarra, the president of Internet Solutions for Kids.

The following two paragraphs are lifted directly from a BBC article by Anastasia Goodstein, author of Totally Wired: What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online:

Dr. Finkelhor went through several revealing stats gleaned from law enforcement over the past couple of years about who is being victimized — and it’s not who you would think. The predominant victims of online sex crimes are not young children — they are teens. He also debunked the myth that these seductions involve online predators posing as other children to stage an abduction or assault. Most of these men (80%) were pretty open about their sexual intentions talking to teens who were talking back.

Who are the teens talking to these men? They’re teens who most likely have been victimized either physically or sexually and/or have a troubled home life. Only 3% of these cases involved an abduction. In 73% of these crimes, teens had met the perpetrator on multiple occasions and have had multiple sexual encounters. In half the cases teens claimed they were “in love” with the adult. In a quarter of the cases, “victims” ran away from home to be with these adults. This is a very different picture of who is at risk than a teen who simply posts their photo and the name of their high school on a MySpace profile.

Unfortunately, their testimony did not receive a lot of media attention and I believe the reason for that is that their findings contradict most Internet Safety training being conducted by schools, police and other “experts” as well as the alarmisim being spread by the media. The good news is, social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace aren’t as dangerous as we’ve been led to believe. In my experience, cyberbullying is a more serious threat to your children when they are socializing online.

If you Google the names of the researchers listed above, you can find more evidence to back up their testimony.

What does this all mean?

The overarching message of their findings is that there is little or no difference between Internet risk factors and “real world” risk factors, the same individuals, it would seem, are at risk. That is, the kids who routinely get into trouble in the real world are the same kids getting into trouble online. The Internet isn't the problem, it is another place where at risk kids are having problems.

The upshot is, if users tweak their privacy settings and use some common sense, navigating these sites can, for the most part, be enjoyable and safe. Common sense safety techniques include, but are not limited to, the following:

1. Tighten up your privacy settings make sure only your friends can view your profile. It is better to have the least amount of information visible to others, even friends.

2. Be wary of strangers and be careful who you friend, friending people you don't know can be risky.

3. Create secure passwords and don't share your password with friends. Ever.

4. Think before posting something online. Insulting or harassing somone online could create real dangers in the real world.

Stay in control of your online reputation!

• Don’t post information, photos, or videos you might regret later.
• Think about your online image (Who will see this? What will they think?).
• Use privacy settings to limit access to your page; don’t let anyone – not predators or cyberbullies - gain access to information that’s yours.
• Remember that online choices have offline consequences and in some cases, legal implications.
• Consider how fast information and images get forwarded to people beyond your group of friends via texting, IM, and e-mail – especially sexually explicit ones. Assume the entire world is going to see everything you post online.

 

Safe Social Networking: Change Your Privacy Settings for Increased Safety

Most social networking sites have privacy features to protect users. For instance, Facebook safety features and privacy settings are explained here.

At the bottom of every MySpace page there is a link entitled Safety Tips that explain the many features of MySpace’s privacy settings. To make changes to your privacy settings, click on Account Settings and you will arrive at the page where you can change all of your privacy settings.

If you are unsure how to change your privacy settings, there is usually a 'help' feature on each website.

Smartphone Dangers

If you have a Smartphone and you upload pictures and updates, you could be inadvertently giving away a ton of information and not even be aware of it.

If you have a GPS feature in your phone and upload a photo, the coding in the photo can be exploited by anyone with the knowledge and software to extract your information. That information tells exactly where the photo was taken and will even provide a map of how to get there. This is called Geotagging and can be easily disabled on any Smartphone. There is excellent information on how to do this at icanstalku.com, a website dedicated to 'raising awareness about inadvertent information sharing.'

 

How You Can Help Bully-Proof Your Facebook Page

Situation	Action	Result
You want to know if someone posts something malicious on your Wall or tags you in a photo.	Click on Account » Account Settings » Notifications (tab) to make sure you are notified when someone posts to your Wall (remember to Save settings).	You may get a lot of emails if your account is active.
You want to make sure that no one can post malicious things on your Wall	Account » Privacy Settings » Customize Settings » Things Others Share » Friends Can Post on my Wall then you can turn off the ability of even Friends to post to your Wall.	Only your own postings will appear on your Wall.
People who are NOT your friends can see some of the posts on your Wall	Account » Privacy Settings » Customize Settings » Things Others Share » Can See Wall Posts By Friends (dropdown menu) » change to “Friends Only”	None. Only your Friends can see what is posted on your Wall.
You see a nasty conversation on your Wall	Delete it. Move cursor to the right of the conversation and a Remove button will appear.	The offending conversation goes away.
You see one nasty remark that is part of a conversation on your Wall	Delete it. Under the remark is a Delete link. This will only delete the remark (not the whole conversation).	The offending remark goes away.
Control who can access your private contact information	Account » Privacy Settings » Customize Settings » Contact Information to edit who is able to view your personal info.	None. You can always give your info to the people you want to have it. You may have added strangers or others you don’t know well to your Friends List.
You see a nasty remark about you on someone else’s Wall	Ask the Wall’s owner to delete it. Report it. To report a person for cyberbullying or abuse: The best way to report abuse is to do it in the same place it occurs on Facebook. For example, if you receive a harassing message in your Inbox, you can report the message by clicking on the "Report" link next to the sender's name.	None. All Reports are confidential, so they won’t know who reported
There’s someone you don’t want to interact with, or you don’t want to have them post to your Wall.	Account » Privacy Settings » Block List then add their username to that list. Remove their name from your Friends List. or Account » Privacy Settings » Customize Settings » Things Others Share » Can Comment on Posts (dropdown menu) » Customize » Hide this From. You can prevent certain individuals or entire groups from posting to your Wall.	None. Users are not notified when you block them. But they may notice because they won’t be able to send you a message or find you in a search; it’ll be like you’re invisible to them. There will not be a ‘Comment’ or ‘Like’ option for the person and they won’t be able to post to your Wall.
Secure Browsing	Account » Account Settings » Accouont Security » Secure Browsing (https) to help keep hackers from hijacking your Facebook if you're operating on WiFi (remember to save settings)	You may get a lot of emails if you are tagged often.
Control what you share on your Wall. You can elect to keep your likes and comments invisible.	Clicking on the X next to your comment activates a dropdown menu where you can select to never display that type of message in the future.	Your page won’t display things such as: “(you) likes X. or (you) commented on so and so’s Wall.
You don’t want just anybody to be able to find you using a search.   You can also conceal your friends list within these settings	Account » Privacy Settings » Connecting on Facebook » View Settings » Search for You on Facebook and choose “Friends Only” under “Facebook Search Results”. Also, go to Account » Privacy Settings » Connecting on Faceboook » View Settings » See Your Friends List (dropdown menu) » Custom and unselect “Allow" under "Public Search,” this will prevent search engines from accessing your publicly available information.	Old friends seeking to reconnect might not be able to find you.   Only people you designate can see your friend list
Someone is harassing you.	Block and Report them. To report them, see above.	None. Users are not notified when you block them and Reports are kept confidential.
Control who can see or comment on your photos	Account » Privacy Settings » Customize Settings » Things I Share » Edit Album Privacy for Existing Photos to control who is able to see or comment on your photos. You can also receive notifications when someone leaves a comment on a photo (see Notifications above).	Photo comments are under your control
Periodically check which applications have access to your profile	Account » Privacy Settings » Apps and Websites » Edit your Settings (link)	Sometimes applications can gain access to your profile without your knowledge.
'Likejacking' Be Very Careful what you 'like' on Facebook.	If you click on a link and don't get to see the promised content but rather a message asking you to "click here to continue" STOP, this is the latest trend for Facebook hackers to hijack your computer or gain unauthorized access to your information.	Clicking on that link will download a worm that can permit unauthorized access to your information.
I "Liked" a page or was "likejacked" and I want to 'Unlike' it but there is no Unlike option.	1)On your Profile, click on the "Info" tab 2) Go to "Activities & Interests" and click on "Edit" 3) Scroll down and click "Show Other Pages" 4) A Flash page will load showing all of the pages you are a fan of 5) Click on "Remove Page" to delete them from your profile	The page will go away.
If you want to return ‘home’, click on Home or Profile at the top right or, if your profile picture is visible, clicking on that will always return you ‘home’.	REMEMBER: Your page (Facebook, YouTube, etc.) is YOUR little corner of the Internet so if someone is being mean to you, saying things you don’t approve of, or saying things about someone you know, delete their posts and/or delete them from your Friends List. Your space = your rules. If someone is being mean to you, they are NOT your friend.

 

 

Facebook is serious when it comes to protecting users from harassment and abuse. Here are some more tips on how to protect yourself.

Accept Friend Requests Only From People You Know
You reduce your chances of being cyberbullied if you only accept friend requests only from people you know in real life.

Most Facebook profiles are the user’s real names and Facebook will typically delete pages that are obviously bogus or offensive if other users report them. Don’t be afraid to report suspicious profiles or messages.

Because only your confirmed friends can post messages to your Wall or contact you via Chat, it reduces your chances of being bullied or harassed.

You can hide your Friends List from specific people, groups or from everyone: Account > Privacy Settings > Connecting on Facebook > View Settings > Under 'See your Friends List' select ‘customize' and change setting to 'Only Me' and no one will be able to see your friends list.

Report Abusive Behavior
There is a feature that allows you to report abuse on nearly every area of Facebook. For instance, next to every photograph there is a ‘Report’ feature and messages in your Inbox have a similar feature – don’t hesitate to use them if your being harassed. Also, if someone is harassing you, block them.

Use The Block Feature
A block prevents specific users from viewing your profile and they won’t be able to contact you via Facebook. The Block feature is accessible in your privacy settings.

It's a good idea th periodically check under Applications to make sure there aren't applications running that you did not authorize.

Remember, if you receive a message that is threatening you, it may be a law enforcement issue and the Lawrence Police Department has officers who only investigate internet crimes, contact them if you're not sure.

In addition: Sophos.com has a fairly comprehensive list of best practices for privacy settings on Facebook.

 

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By Brian C. S. Runk, 01 June 2008, updated 11-2010 -- Copyright 2008 Headquarters Counseling Center