Today, social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace are some of the most visited websites on the Internet. Minors have played a significant role in the popularity and success of social networking. With children having such an active presence on these types of sites, parents and legislators alike are concerned about the child’s online safety. A common suggestion is age verification. Ideally, age verification would exclude users over a specified age or under a specified age. However, age verification for social networking sites has its flaws. In Adam Thierer’s article, “Social Networking and Age Verification: Many Hard Questions; No Easy Solutions” he discusses the issue of children’s online safety. Thierer argues the potential pitfalls in age verification and emphasizes value of education. In my opinion, age verification is ineffective safeguard, may prove dangerous by creating a false sense of security, and is an inferior safety measure when compared to education.
The broad goal of age verification is to protect children from cyber-stalkers, cyber-bullies, and most importantly, child predators. I think Thierer makes a strong argument when he puts the problem of childhood abductions into perspective. Thierer points out that an overwhelming majority of abductions are by an acquaintance, not a stranger. He cites the findings of the 2002 NISMART survey from the U.S. Department of Justice. The survey shows that less than one tenth of one percent of abductions are from total strangers. This is a much smaller percentage than I would have guessed or what shows like “To Catch a Predator” would have you believe. It seems that age verification may reduce stranger abductions, but it would do very little in reducing ov...
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...effectual in reducing overall abductions. Moreover, teens tend to seek out the companionship and will likely circumvent security. Age verification creates a false sense of security because of the general misinterpretation of the term “verified”. Users are more likely to let their guard down and a layer of credibility is added to an online predator once he has thwarted the verification process. Lastly, I feel Adam Thierer’s metaphors for social networking and online safety are applicable. Facebook and MySpace are the modern day shopping malls and roller rinks. It is indeed true that the same commonsense safety measures still apply in the virtual world of the Internet. Education, both for the parent and the child are paramount. Although the pool fence, age verification, can prevent trouble, ultimately learning to swim is a superior safeguard against drowning.
Williams, R. (2014). Children using social networks underage 'exposes them to danger'. [online] Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/10619007/Children-using-social-networks-underage-exposes-them-to-danger.html [Accessed 24 Apr. 2014].
The expansion of the Internet infrastructure across the world, has brought an increased audience. Which has provided expanded markets for businesses and exploited new opportunities. There are virtually countless social sites and media used by individuals to access and share experiences , content, insights, and perspectives. Parents today tend to believe they should spy on their kids online activity. I argue parents should respect the privacy of a child's social life and his/her internet activity.
Lily Huang author of Protect the Willfully Ignorant states “An increasingly urgent question of privacy or how best to keep your public plot walled in” (474). Most internet users savvy or not, are aware of the potential risks. Most people know the potential risk for permanency and of the pictures or information we put out on social networks or other sites and the content being seen. We have all heard the warnings since grammar school from everyone about the internet and how to use it. Teachers, parents, librarians and school inundate our children all throughout school about information on safe usage. To be aware of predators and such is common knowledge. Why the need for laws to protect childrens’ privacy, and usage against exploitation? Similar reasons to why we wear seatbelts while driving and it is enforced by law. We all want our freedoms not to be infringed but at what cost and to who? We are aware of the statistics and outcomes of auto accidents without seatbelts and the need “to protect the willfully ignorant” (Huang). Lily Huang discussed consumer’s lack of expertise for making the best privacy decisions and how important default privacy settings are on social networks (475).
...traying these situations is supported by the fact that 73% of teens are on a social network and 55% of teens have given out personal information to someone they don’t know, including photos and physical descriptions (Taylor). Parents see this as a threat because they can’t monitor what their children do 24/7 due to 67% of teens knowing how to hide what they do online from parents and only 34% of parents actually checking their social networks (Thomas). However, the circumstance still comes to a government threat when predators break the law of being involved with a minor, along with bullies triggering self-harm like suicide and cutting to their victims.
Social networking sites leave opportunities for vulnerability, however, I don’t believe many youths are an easy target. Using ethos, pathos and logos individuals can create their own reality to relate to the internet world who they think are and how they wish to be seen. In mediated publics such as Facebook and Instagram, the user has complete control of his or her profile and is the only one who can allow content about his/herself to be shared. It is my personal belief that as technology has evolved many people have taken to fabricating some truths here and there and omitting details to give an ideal representation of who they are without incriminating themselves or leaving themselves vulnerable for mistreatment. The fantasy of what is or could be is more desirable than reality. In the past few years, privacy settings have been adapted to cover the growing technological advances to keep users safe from online predators.
"If you are not paying for it, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold."
Not just that, they supplementally misidentify offenders from the line-up most likely because of their failure to review legitimately (Zack et al, 2000). Thusly, one might verbally express that age of witness moreover affects eyewitness testimony and it acts like a hazard for
There are consequences of sharing personal information Children increasingly use social networking sites and online diaries. These have a minimum age but children of 9 years or younger have been known to use them. Children can place information about themselves online, which makes it easy for them to be identified. Some include addresses, phone numbers and sometimes even photographs. This makes them easy targets for adults who wish to exploit them by: talking to and building †̃friendshipsâ€TM with children online with the intention of meeting the child – this is called grooming encouraging children to engage in conversations which are
Problem Statement: In this white paper we will address how privacy and security can be improved on Facebook.
With the level of exposure that teens are facing today by joining the social networking trend, they often forget the dangers of social networking such as stalkers and pedophiles, who may use the sites as a major tool of the trade. Said dangers can befriend naïve teens and lure them into dangerous situations. For example, Raymond Wang had a friend being stalked by an unknown person through one of the social networking sites. This stalker acquired private information about her via Facebook, and it got to the point where the stalker was sending her threatening or perverted letters to her actual mailbox detailing what he would do to her. “This has really affected her a lot because now she’s scared other stalkers might do the same and she doesn't want that to happen or have anything happen to her.” (Wang 19) Even though users are given the option to make one’s profile private, there is still the looming threat that stalkers are able to gather enough information about the person’s whereabouts. Another similar incident happened to Regina Chau, a member of a social networking site catered to the raver lifestyle, Plurlife. When she first joined with her offline friends she liked everything about the SNS, but “[where] most of the people you accept to your friends list would probably be strangers.” (Chau 18) she had befriended a person she did not know offline and one these “friends” got a little too friendly with her; “he would keep asking over and over if I wanted to meet up with him at the next event. I found this a little creepy and did not message him back after that.
When it comes to having an account online it can get quite dangerous. Not only is it dangerous but having the gadget lying around the house or even having their own at a young age can make it easier for them to have easy access to those social media accounts. Parents need to take precaution with their children and the internet. Meeting someone online is so much more different from meeting them in person. It is hard to tell if people and kids are their real age that they put on their information because you can actually lie about how old you really are. There has been many cases where involving younger girls talking to older men, a 15-year-old can be talking to a
I believe that the key to safe and secure social media begins with proper use. Illegal and highly discouraged activities should not be tolerated and consequences should be mandatory. In terms of social media use in teens and young adults, it is important for parents to teach their children what acceptable use of computers and social media is so that they can understand the potential danger and all minors should be monitored while using the Internet to ensure safe usage is being followed. Regardless of age, all users of social media should think twice before clicking the post button about what unintended consequences that post could have.
Privacy Issues in Social Media Social Media is a current way in which people are using to interact with one another daily. Since the launch of various Social Networking Sites (SNS) its been a huge attraction in a new way to share information with others and correspond with interests of your choice in many different forms. Although social media sites allow users to share information with friends and other sites on the internet, many people are unaware of how their privacy is being affected. Now that the expansion of global connection through these social media networking sites are so highly present in todays society, giving us easy access to information, the lack of privacy is being diminished. Everyday peoples privacy rights are being taken advantage of and the government should therefore implement more laws to avoid violating users.
Although social media is a healthy channel for personal interactions among friends and peers for the youth of today, the lack of understanding about online privacy creates a severe threat on multiple levels. Many teenagers and young adults remain oblivious to the consequences of their online posts and have little to no discretion when sending personal information to...
Social media is described as content created and shared by individuals on the web using freely available websites that allow users to create and post their own images, video and text information and then share that with either the entire internet or just a select group of friends (Affilorama, 2012). They are more like a website allowing you to express your daily activities, beliefs, locations, likes, dislikes, photos, music, etc. They are used by creating a profile, and logging in through either the website, or apps now used on smartphones, or any portable device with Wi-Fi connection. Although most social media networks are directed towards adults and young adults, young children are getting into these websites as well. There are usually age limits but there isn’t a certainty that all the users provided their actual age, allowing whoever wants to be a member of these sites to bypass an age limit “security” procedure. Facebook and MySpace require users to be at least 13, but they have no practical way to verify ages, and many young users prete...