Social Networking and personal publishing sites are websites which help connect friends using tools like blogs, personal profiles, email and photos. Popular sites of this type include Bebo, Myspace, Friendster and LiveJournal which have become part of contemporary culture for children, especially teens.
Such sites enable users to publish their work, thoughts, opinions and photos. Viewers of these sites can have the opportunity to add comments on the information posted.
Personal publishing is a powerful medium that allows children the opportunity to quickly publish their work to a worldwide audience. Social networking sites can encourage communication between people from diverse cultures and other countries and provide the opportunity to make friends with people who share their interests.
There are however downsides to this technology, which include users publishing personal information which can make them identifiable to potential predators. With the explosion of SNAPPS it becomes important for Parents to be aware of both the technology and the dangers associated with it, to ensure their children are safer online.
How do you use them?
Users sign up and create their own profile or ‘space’. Often, these contain prompt standard sections such as ‘about me’ and ‘who I’d like to meet’; they also include sections for favourite music, films, sports, ‘scared of’ and ‘happiest when’….
Children can add personal details such as marital status, physical appearance and the school they attend (or used to attend). Children can also have their own blog that allows them to write daily thoughts or maintain a diary of events.
A major part of customising their ‘space’ can be the uploading of images or pictures. Children can set a chosen image to appear automatically on their main page and to the side of their user-name on comments and messages to others.
To today’s children, who are familiar with using the Internet for social purposes, posting a personal profile and sending messages and files to friends seems natural and harmless; however, there are safety concerns.
Parents and children should discuss issues of inappropriate content, publicising personal information, and potential contacts with friends they make online.
Key Tips
Many of these sites will ask the child to enter personal information in order to obtain a profile or ‘space’ – avoid these sites.
Some SNAPPS will ask the child to register using their school name, which is then displayed at the top of their profile or space – this is misleading and parents may assume the site is regulated by the child’s school – IT IS VERY UNLIKELY THAT THE SCHOOL IS INVOLVED!
Help the child understand that they should not publish pictures of themselves, their family or friends. If the child publishes a picture or video online – it is open for anyone to change it or share it without the child’s knowledge.
All users must understand that there are rarely any checks to ensure users are who they say they are, and age, sex and interests are often made up.
It is important that the child does not publish personal information on their profile or ‘space’, e.g. avoid real names, school, address, mobile number, friend and family names etc.
Always encourage the child to communicate what they are doing to you. It is important that a child feels able to tell someone if something makes them feel uncomfortable.
Ensure the child has protected their space with a suitable password so that only invited people can view.
Teach young people how to block unwanted contacts and to report them if they feel uncomfortable.
Action
Set internet use ground rules (limit their time online, don’t let them use the internet to aimlessly search)
Research SNAPPS and understand how they work
What to say
Talk to the child about the dangers of these sites and how they should use them safely
Ask the child if they have their own social networking or personal publishing site. One anonymous way of finding out is to try searching for the child's name using one of the free Internet search tools. Also search for your address, phone number, school name, and the names of the child's close friends.
If they have a personal site or space, ask to see it, and for them to show you how to use it
Prevention
Keep the computer in a family room where you can see what the child is doing when on the Internet.
Take an interest in what the child is doing on the computer
Discuss the dangers associated with SNAPPS and look together at websites that show how to use these sites safely and responsibly
The Child Exploitation & Online Protection centre (CEOP) have produed a preliminary report on the findings of their Social Newtworking Seminars to look at the use of Social Networking Servies by Young People The report details the key outcomes of this seminar series. The aim of these seminars was to:
Explore usage patterns among youth and adult populations
Determine the positive and negative aspects of social networking
Identify risks to the welfare of youth users
Identify the respective responsibilities of safeguarding stakeholders
Establish ways in which youth can be bettersafeguarded in this online environment.
CEOP invited a range of stakeholders to participate in the seminars, principally young Internet users, parents, teachers, SNS and other media providers, law enforcement, local and national child protection agencies, educational authorities and members of the Home Office Task Force on SNS.
Sixteen workshops were held over a four-day period in July of this year. In the course of these workshops, adult and youth participants were invited to discuss their own experiences of social networking fora and share their perspectives on this online environment.
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