Social networking communities are online environments for socializing and meeting new friends or business contacts. There are communities across the globe for particular interests and age groups. Members prepare their own profile that can include personal information, pictures, likes and dislikes. These profiles are used to search for other members with similar interests. Depending on the policies of the individual community, members can create blogs (online journals) for other members to view and sometimes to leave comments or remarks. Discussion groups and text messaging features can be available.
During registration, the applicant must agree to the policies of the communities. If they do not agree, they can’t become a member or gain access to the features. For example, some communities have a minimum age restriction between 13 and 16. However, communities do not yet have the technology to verify the young applicant’s age. So, the community website must depend on the honesty of the applicant during registration.
At most communities, it is against their policies to post harmful or threatening words, malicious gossip, or slander; to impersonate another member or user such as changing someone else’s profile or to register if you are underage. If a community website is told a member is violating their policies, they have the options to remove the violating material, cancel the membership, or some point in between according to their posted policies. However, it is the responsibility of the victim or the victim’s attorney to contact the ISP. The ISP will need copies of all correspondence (including email headers) and your log to determine if you have a valid request or not. Keep in mind that you are asking the company to reprimand (if only to remove the offensive content) or turn away one of its paying customers. If the ISP does not take any action against their customer who is your harasser, you or your lawyer can contact your local cybercrime task force. If you are the prey of the harasser, you can ask your ISP or device account provider for a new username, email address, phone number, or account identification.
Social networking communities are public places. There is usually no privacy to the content posted at the webpage of a member. Profiles and blogs are searchable and readable by any internet user unless the policies of the website specify differently. Any information posted by or about your child or teenager is potentially available to any internet user. You and your child can change permissions at their webpages so only persons you approve of are allowed to view their webpage and information. But, you can’t control what their friends and other people display online about them. They can still potentially be identified and located by strangers from other people’s webpages. Does your child act and respond responsibly towards others in public places when they think you’re not around or they think you will not be told of their behavior? This is one of the safety concerns regarding children and teenagers with social networking communities. However, as a parent, you are still responsible for their safety and actions. Periodically review the personal pages of your child and their friends. If this is your first time at a social networking website, don’t overreact to the language, content, profiles, comments, photos, or videos of other users. Kids will be kids. Just be sure your child and their friends do not post anything that will jeopardize their safety such as personal or identifying information. Typically, teenagers may recognize bad or potentially dangerous behavior in their friends and peers but don’t seem to recognize the potential threat in their own behavior. If you think your child may be involved with risky behavior online, you can search blog websites by your child’s name, nickname, school, interest or your location.
Social networking communities can reinforce positive behavior and promote self-esteem through networks of persons sharing their interests of healthy, profitable, or interesting topics. For example, at Classmates.com members can find people they went to school with a while ago or, current students can discuss career options with graduates. Social networking communities offer members their own stage where they can present themselves in a personally comfortable manner for the world to see.
They can also reinforce negative behavior and promote unhealthy ideas such as anti-social behavior, hate organizations, gangs, or suicide. Social networking communities and blogs can be an effective way to prey on unsuspecting people, including your children, because of the vast amount of personal information available. Identity theft, cyberbullying or inappropriate communications can be the goal of child predators besides the face-to-face encounter. Remember, the tools of technology can be used for good or bad purposes depending on the intent of the user.
The two biggest concerns about social networking communities with teenagers and younger children is the people they are associating with online and the information they are posting about themselves and their friends. Teenagers still usually do not fully understand that the information, pictures, blogs, and comments they post can potentially be indefinitely accessible to anyone in the world. When you post your information to a social networking community there is not a law that protects your right to remove your information. The only protection users have is the posted policy of the website. Now, whether the “anyone in the world” will consider using found personal information for harm is a flip of the coin. Most persons are honorable and do want to experience new friends through new technologies. But, remember that it only takes one bad person to compromise the safety of your child. Even though the reported number of teenagers abducted, harmed, kidnapped, or lured from the safety of their homes resulting from an online association is small compared to the number of teenagers using the internet every day, the small percentage is still too much when your child becomes part of that small percentage.
Social networking communities are part of the technology revolution. They are not going away. They are an integral part of most teenagers' social lives; it is their lifeline.