Social networking has many benefits but it is also prone to abuses that make it look like a curse.

25/04/2010 Ernesthojilla 14 comments

Social networking has many benefits but it is also prone to abuses that make it look like a curse.

Author : Ernest Hojilla

Introduction

Online social networking has over the last few years changed the way people connect and communicate. Many of the Internet users may have heard of Facebook and what it does. Well, Facebook just happens to be the most popular social networking website. But what really is social networking? In simple terms, social networking is putting individuals together into specific groups according to some common attributes like education, religion, age, and interests, among others. To complete the definition you can imagine such groups of people, for example, friends, family, students’ e.t.c sharing information and experiences online. In addition, the users are able give their comments or feedback. This is what social networking is about.

Besides, Facebook, there are other social network sites like MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn, among others. The popularity of social networking has been growing rapidly, perhaps much more that any other Internet technology in recent times. To correctly gauge its popularity, it is important to look into statistics. It is estimated that Facebook, the leader in the social networking, has more than 400 million active users; including the 110 million from the recently acquired My space. (Ralph, 2010). Twitter has about 60 million users and Linked In, 35 million. With this high number of users, social network is a clearly an expansive Internet business which benefits users in a number of ways.

Social networking allows people to connect and interact remotely. In addition, it offers an opportunity for instant feedback and often, audio conversation is enabled. Business can be transacted, clarifications sought and other deals sealed on the net within a short time. Generally, it is cheaper to use online social networking than the traditional forms of social interactions. Before coming in of these networks, for example, people used to incur more expenses on travelling and print media. In particular, advertising for products and services was mostly done in print media. Presently, a large portion of advertisement is done through social networking, and the cost has significantly reduced.

While there are many benefits in social networking, there are abuses and negative attributes that are linked to it. To a great extent, social networking thrives on trust because individuals hardly know each other. However, over the years, social networking has attracted a fairly large number of undisciplined users and they are largely to blame for the abuses. The common abuses include computer bullying and crimes associated with creating fake social network profiles; which are then used to bully, threaten or cheat unsuspecting users. Within the working place, social networking has been abused too, mostly through improper use of employer’s resources. There are also allegations, though largely unsubstantiated, that social networking harm children’s brain. They are affecting us in one-way, or another This paper discusses these abuses and how they have impacted into social networking.

Cyber Bullying

Cyber bullying is one of the most common social networking abuses. With more than 70 million Internet users being active in social networking, perhaps this is expected. Cyber bullying is more or less like the normal bullying we encounter in our daily lives only that it is done through the Internet. “…it refers to bullying through information and computer technologies… internet chat rooms, and instant messaging-and the latest trend-social networking websites such as My space, Face book and Bebo”. (chris, 2007). Though cyber bullying can be found in other facets of the Internet, it is most common in social networking sites. Though cyber bullying is mostly targeted to children and teenagers, adults have not been spared either. How then does bullying manifest itself?

A study of 15,000 pupils conducted by the National Centre for Social research offer some insight. (Polly.C,2009). Pupils who participated in the survey mostly reported name-calling, threats of violence, and being ‘frozen out by their friendship groups. Generally, bullying is accompanied by undesired effects such as exclusion from school, as happened to some students in the study. Needless to say, it also causes fear and distress. And, taking into account that the essence of social networking is indeed trust, the harassment unleashed to the victims of cyber bullying is unacceptable. Even with these negative effects, there are major indications that a lot of cyber bullying if happening in social networking.

A web-based study involving 1,454 kids, which was conducted at the University of California in 2008 clearly shows how pervasive bullying is. (Desiree, E. 2008) According to the study, three out of four teens were bullied online during the previous year. Strangely, as the results of the study show, “only 1 out of 10 kids told their parents or another adult about it” Without doubt, the traditional forms of bullying have been replaced with the online type of bullying. Recently, the Science Daily estimated that around 10 per cent of all adolescents in grades 7-9 are victims of Internet bullying. (Science Daily, 2010). Internet bullying is worse compared to conventional bullying because it can be unleashed to its victims anytime and anywhere. The fact the bullying comes from unknown and discreet sources is also a point of concern. Of course the more difficult it is to trace the net bullies, the harder it becomes to eliminate them.

Ethics and Employee Abuses

In virtually all-social networks, creating user profile accounts is free and involves relatively simple steps. Again, some people have abused this gesture. There are numerous reports about people setting up fake profiles, which they use to molest, threaten or bully some users known to them. But of most interest are the ethical and moral implications among some vulnerable groups. For instance, with the social networking all around us, it is very easy for children to access adult sites. In a study reported by BBC in 2006 it was revealed that, the ease with which accounts can be created left open many avenues for abuse. In this study one researcher posed as a 14 year old on MySpace and proved that no identification was required, neither was there means of carrying out age check. Also in another incident of cyber bullying, one teenage boy organized a vote on his page on whether a girl had AIDS. (BBC News, 2006). Even worse there was evidence to show that upon signing in, one can easily find link to pornographic images. With these malpractices, the trust in social networking is waning and users are getting to be more cautious.

The social networking abuses have also found their way in work places. The service providers themselves, it seems, are culprits too. Recently, Face book was in the news with two employees being accused of abusing the privilege of universal access. (Raywood, D 2010). An insider source revealed that one of the accused “manipulated some other person’s data, changed their religious views or something like that…., but he got reported, got found out, got fired” Other form of abuse reported involved viewing other peoples profile without the required permission. Besides the facebook abuses, there is a good chance that it is happening with more social sites. Another company, Computing reported that eighteen officers from the Scotland Yard received warnings for misusing social network sites. The Metropolitan Police had also disciplined five civilian staff for committing the offence. The policy is that staff cannot access social networking sites for personal reasons. (Computing, 2010). It must be pointed out the abuse by the service provider is a grave one for it somewhat makes users loose confidence with social networking services.

With the popularity of social networking reaching an all time high, new concerns for companies have emerged. The main issue is how to ensure the employees are granted their freedom to access social sites and at the same time perform their duties. A study reported in Bloxx, a Webster’s filtering blog, further points to the costs incurred by companies through social networking. For example when staff spend time surfing non-work related sites. According to the Bloxx report “ internet abuse cost companies dear:.., it costs businesses #120,000 per year- without factoring in overheads or opportunity costs.(Bloxx, 2008).When employees spend a lot of time networking operational efficiency is somehow compromised.

Harm to children and young people

Another serious negative effect that has raised concern is the allegation that social websites causes harm to young users. “sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Bebo are said to shorten attention spars, encourage instant gratification and make young people more self-centered” (Derbyshire, 2009).The argument advanced here is that children, “ have small attention spar and live for a moment and therefore can easily be affected by buzzing noises and bright lights. This kind of scenario, suffice it to say causes fear among parents whose children spend long hours on the social networks-something which acts to cause mistrust towards network.

The addictive nature defining the use of these sites has posed a challenge to school going children. While the sites provide a good platform for exchanging information, it is feared that some children are waste a lot of their valuable time on the net; at the expense of other important learning activities.

Social Network Fraud

With social networking being used by masses, scams are becoming a serious threat. The scammers have mainly targeted personal information contained in users profiles. Once they manage to distort the users profile, sending and receiving of spams becomes common. As is often the case, victims end up either loosing money or some personal and sensitive information. By normal standards, this is criminal and weighs negatively on the good work social networking is meant to achieve.

Product misuse is another form of abuse common in social networking. The abuse comes in form of unknown people making money from your product illegally, and at times abusing it. For example, it is not uncommon for Spammers to use social network site’s group discussions for unrelated advertising, such as online gambling. Spammers also send pornographic and other offensive material to users. With such scams it becomes difficulty to trust some unfamiliar messages appearing in social networks.

Indeed the rapid increase of spam message has become a bother, prompting users, and service provides alike, to look to counter measures. The fact that selling of spam filter software is on the increase clearly shows that there is a problem to deal with. Other Internet service provides have prohibited their users from visiting ‘blacklisted’ sites.

Further stressing on this reality, (Richard, B. 2010) notes that social networking has compelled companies to write “social media policies” and activate new ways of their customers to interact. However, he warns that social networking fraud is becoming a serious threat. As the writer explains, the nature of networking empowers rapid growth of the number of connections that anyone has. As the number of connections grows, fraudsters take the opportunity to tap into your network.

A FBI report in 2009 had also indicated that phishing scams are becoming more common on social networking sites. (Schiller, Kurt 2009). Particularly the report warms users of Facebook and Twitter. According to the report, the fraudsters send messages which masquerade as warnings related to agreements or other notifications, but contain malicious code that covertly installs software on victims PC, “letting thieves steal account names and passwords. The fraudsters then use this information to distribute messages to friends of the victims, “requesting large sums of money of money and spreading the malicious code even further.

Another study done around this time also indicated that social networks such as Twitter and Facebook are increasingly popular targets for phishers.( Walsh, S,2009) According to the study “phishing scams make up to 7 per cent of all spam sent out and on average 55,000 people a month fall for them and give up personal information”. By any standards these statistics are at best worrying, particularly considering the methods fraudsters employ. For example, in one incident Twitter users were asked for say, their pets names and the street they lived in but unfortunately the information landed in the hands of the fraudsters. Surely it is very easy to conned where such sly methods are used.

Conclusion

From the foregoing, it is clear that social networking is growing in popularity because of the accompanying benefits. Social networks have indeed become part of modern age communication .So far, social networking sites perhaps remains the most used aspect of the Internet as far as exchange of information is concerned. Despite the many benefits, there are serious concerns that have been bought about by undisciplined and dishonest users. Cyber bullying network scams and related abuses are concerns that need to be addressed. The users of the Internet are advised to proceed with caution to avoid falling victims of networking abuse..

References

BBC News, 2006: Social Networking Sites such as Bebo and Myspace must do more to police what users do, warns Computing Watch. Retrieved 22 April 2010 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5344722.stm

Chris W. (2007) What is bullying ? Retrieved 01 April 1, 2010 at http://www.cyberbullying.info/resources/downloads/ChrisWebster_WhatIsCyberbullying.pdf

Computing Staff, (2010) Police and Moj Staff displined for social networking abuse. Retrieved 22 April 2010 at http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2257886/police-moj-staff-told-

Derbyshire (2009) Social Websites harm children’s brains: Chilling warning to parents from top neuroscientist. Retrieved 31 March, 2010 at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1153583/Social-websites-harm-childrens-brains-Chilling-warning-parents-neuroscientist.html

Desiree, E. (2008) Kids keep parents in the dark about cyberbullying Retrieved 22 April 2010 at http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10058444-93.html

Polly,C. (2009) Cyberbullying is as common as name-calling, study shows. Retrieved 22 April 2010 at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/nov/12/cyber-bullying-n-dubz

Raywood. D. (2010) Facebook employee reports widespread privacy abuses. Retrieved 22 April 2010 at http://www.securecomputing.net.au/News/164539,facebook-employee-reports-widespread-privacy-abuses.aspxttp://www.buzzle.com/articles/what-are-the-effects-of-computer-hacking.html

Ralph F. (2010) The Myth of social Networks; Retrieved on April 1, 2010 at http://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/pique/index.php?content=Social+network+myths+1713

Richard, B. (2010) The Social Networking Paradigm Shift and Internet Fraud. Retrieved 22 April 2010 at http://thetargetedgroup.wordpress.com/2010/03/22/the-social-networking-paradigm-shift-and-internet-fraud/

By Schiller, K. (2009) Phishing Scams Edge Into Social Networks. Retrieved at http://www.allbusiness.com/crime-law/criminal-offenses-cybercrime/13420094-1.html

Science, News (2010) Cyber bullying: A growing Problem. Retrieved 22 April 2010 at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100222104939.htm

Suchit L. (2010) Social network hackers abuse : threat sees Identities mimicked. Retrieved on 01 April 1, 2010 http://www./34959/social -networks-hackers-employ-abuse-of -trust.

Walsh, S. (2009) Study Finds Phishing Scams Fool over 55,000 a month Retrieved 22 April2010 at http://www.allspammedup.com/2009/08/study-finds-phishing-scams-fool-over-55000-a-month/

Social network has many benefits but it is also prone to abuses that make it look like a curse. by Ernest Hojilla is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Australia License.

Social Networks cyberbullying, Facebook, Social Networking, social networking sites, social networks

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Comments

Written by TessaG about 2 years ago.

Hi Ernest,

I really enjoyed reading your paper and am sorry I didn’t get to post this comment during the conference.

You have raised some good issues and cyberbullying is one area that I feel needs to be addressed in a better and more workable format.

Hope you are well
Written by Marie McCabe about 2 years ago.

Hi Ernest,

Great paper. The world has embraced the Internet.

Online security and online etiquette is certainly a major concern for all users – young and old.

As Chriso points out education on online security is paramount to tackling the increase in violations.

Good luck
Marie
Written by PeterP about 2 years ago.

Hi Ernest. I enjoyed reading your paper and agree with you that there are many negative aspects to social networking sites like Facebook. As you mentioned there is no real identity checks for Facebook users and it’s too easy for young children to beat the age check by lying about the year they were born. I also think there is not enough attempt by sites like Facebook to educate young users about the risks involved with using social network sites. I think something like an online compulsory quiz or form to complete that will explain some basic rules as well as having security settings that default to being the most secure rather than the least secure would go a long way to making the facebook experience a safer one.
Written by Jiawen Lin about 2 years ago.

Hi Ernest, I enjoy reading your paper which presented clear argument with headings and good structure. I agree with you that even though social networking has a lot of benefits to users, it also can be abused and put users in risk. Cyber bullying is an interesting topic to me but I cannot see how cyber bullying happened from your paper? Do people send harmful message to the victim or reveal the victim’s personal information to the public? I would like to know a bit more about it.

As you mentioned in the paper, social network fraud became a serious problem. Scammers target victims’ personal information, which can cause financial lost or other harmful consequence. I think all social networking site users should be educated how to protect their privacy while they enjoy communication and share experience online. As I argue in my paper, I believe that users take the responsibilities on their privacy protection.
Written by Michael N about 2 years ago.

You have written about a relevent and interesting topic and highlighed the concerns which are part of the modern more open internet age we are in. The employer employee abuse issue is a topic in itself. There are those organisations that are more than willing for their employees to use Bebo and Facebook claiming it is good for them. In another paper in another stream or this one, it was argued in fact Facebook use amongst a group of employees was a way of building a social network within the organisation. That horrified me for a number of reasons and I argued the internet can be set up to do the same thing. You have backed up the claim that misuse is rife. I worked in organisations where I saw YouTube and Facebook was taking up much time.

I am not interested if an employer allows this or not that is their decision but you have alerted that issue and other issues to consider when employing social networking personally and professionally.
Written by Ernesthojilla about 2 years ago.

Hi Lee ann,

What I mentioned on my paper is that ” the traditional forms of bullying have been replaced with the online type of bullying.” – they go hand in hand is some area but mostly-Online bullying is more influencial since Online communication is concerns.

Internet bullying is worse compared to conventional bullying because it can be unleashed to its victims anytime and anywhere. ( one click away- you can bully someone at any time,anywhere using Social Media/or Social Networking- its like an email scams using as an example-

Employees-

Most businesses have Social Networking policies specially ‘Facebook” – Some businesses are missing policies towards social networking too. either way,either way this must be handled appropriately if business/workplace area is concerns. Facebook is an open platfrom as far as online communication is concern. ” a post shout out message- can relay the message to millions of users”

Thanks for the links..really appreciate it.

Cheers!
Written by Ernesthojilla about 2 years ago.

Thanks for the link Chriso!

Dealing with Education program that needs to be funded.

I agree with that! in order for children/teenagers to understand the dangers of it, it needs a proper extra time to discussed and educate them.Though nowadays, because of the Internet and social networking sites, everyone is a victim.

Proper treatment or Social Networking discussion in the classroom must be brought up as a topic, for them to understand the uses, benefits and its danger.

Cheers!
Written by Ernesthojilla about 2 years ago.

Hi Paula,

Indeed! facebook can triggers abusive behaviours.Friends or non existent friends you dont know who became your friends on facebook accidentally can be manipulative in terms of abuse. Since Facebook is an open platform for Social Networking, theres a lot of things that a person can do & others can join or access as long as they have a valid account. my latest findings is that, Facebook has a policies for abusive behaviours on Facebook, we can either report,delete or block them from our own friends list. But the problem is, once we blocked them, that person can easily create another account name holder with a different name & the abuse still goes on and on…

Thanks for the comment!
,
Written by Chris Johnson about 2 years ago.

Ernest

I enjoyed your paper. With Facebook now trying to get your data more open and searchable[sic] the threats of phishing is becoming more of a threat. Just yesterday I received a notice from Facebook that my account had been compromised and to change my password. After answering a series of questions I was the able to access my account. The notice also warned me to change my password on several other SNS accounts. This is a major concern to me.

The vulnerable are the targets. A for me I am very net aware but a young child may not be.

Many parent allow their children to be on Facebook because of peer pressure despite that the rule state the member must be over the age of 13.

I am very much a supporter that education programs needs to be funded to educate our communities of the dangers of Social Media. There is a lot of hype in the media about singled out cases as your have quoted in your paper however understanding of the implication of such stories is what the communities needs educating about.

Take the case in this weeks media of Kates Party.http://www.news.com.au/technology/kates-party-prank-takes-aim-at-facebook-privacy/story-e6frfro0-1225858792605 Although this was a prank it also highlights the very dangers of SNS (Ramadge,2009)

David Thorne the creator of the prank may have been a sinister character who could have taken advantage of this situation for evil gain. Thankfully he is not.

Ramadage A.(2009), Kate’s Party hoax takes aim at Facebook privacy, Retrieved 2nd May 2010 from http://www.news.com.au/technology/kates-party-prank-takes-aim-at-facebook-privacy/story-e6frfro0-1225858792605
Written by Lee-Ann Khoh about 2 years ago.

I don’t know that cyberbullying has replaced traditional bullying; I think they go hand in hand (I discuss the issue, including the misuse of new technologies in my paper, Bullying 2.0: The Rise of Cyberbullying).

Another thing I thought of while reading your paper is the fact that some people have been fired over statuses, photos, or other information they post on social networking sites that have been seen by bosses or co-workers. This story about a woman who insulted her boss, forgetting that she had added him as a Facebook friend, went viral last year. There have also been instances of people calling in sick then revealing to Facebook that they weren’t. While the employees in question didn’t act intelligently in those cases, I think there is an ethical debate here because to what extent should the things you do or say on a SNS outside of work be grounds for dismissal?

Moult, J. (2009, August 14). Woman ‘sacked’ on Facebook for complaining about her boss after forgetting she had added him as a friend. Daily Mail. Retrieved May 2, 2010, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1206491/Woman-sacked-Facebook-boss-insult-forgetting-added-friend.html
Call centre worker caught out by boss after posting ‘sickie’ plan on ‘Facebook’. (2008, October 23). Daily Mail. Retrieved May 2, 2010, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1080010/Call-centre-worker-caught-boss-posting-sickie-plan-Facebook.html
Written by Paula Lay about 2 years ago.

A well chosen topic Ernest, and there is much more to be said on this issue. With Facebook becoming the most viewed website (in the US, overtaking Google.com: http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/15/hitwise-says-facebook-most-popular-u-s-site/), the social networking site is connecting millions daily with messages that will not all be “social”, but perhaps sinister, abusive, calculating and manipulative because of the ease of creating accounts and the degree of anonymity one can maintain.

Thank you for sharing your paper.
Written by Ernesthojilla about 2 years ago.

Hi, Ibrahim Thanks for the comments!

Social networking sites perhaps remains the most visited sites in the Internet as far as exchange of information is concerned. My first draft is all about the advantages, disadvantages & benefits at the same time, social networking (Facebook, Myspace etc.) That is being abused that is causing great concerns among users. My final conference paper is the enhancement of it.

“The users of the Internet as opposed to the network applications used largely cause these concern too.”

A study conducted in 2009 at the University of Southern California and the University of California at Berkley shows that constant communication through social networks provides useful skills (Karen, 2009). These skills are, for example, creating opportunities in the social and development of technical skills.

The sudden increase of such social networks has brought about many benefits in the area of communication but there are also negative attributes caused by abuse such as the unstoppable Cyber bullying & workplace concerns etc. Addictions in using any social networks sites are detrimental nowadays and it is unstoppable.

The main one is Cyber bulling (which is highlighted as part of your comment) or Internet bullying which is worse compared to conventional bullying because it can be unleashed to its victims anytime and anywhere. The fact that bullying comes from unknown and discreet sources are also a point of concerns. Of course the more difficult it is to trace the net bullies, the harder it becomes to eliminate them. My first researched from my draft are the Statistics adapted from a youth research on cyber bullying .Please see below!

Youth Cyber Bullying Statistics
The following statistics are adapted from the youth research compiled at CyberBullying.us: (Source: http://safety.lovetoknow.com/Cyber_Bullying_Statistics

• 33 percent of youth have been victimized by cyber bullying.
• Among this percentage, being ignored and disrespected were the most common forms of cyber bullying.
• The primary cyber bullying location where victimizing occurs is in chat rooms (56 percent).
• Following chat rooms, 49 percent are victimized via instant message and 28 percent via e-mail.
• 34 percent of youth who are bullied feel frustrated, 30 percent angry and 22 percent feel sad.
• Oddly, because many studies show that females often deal with harder situations by becoming sad, this particular study suggests that females feel much angrier than males about being cyber-bullied.
• 41 percent of victims do not tell anyone in their off-screen lives about their abuse, but 38 percent did tell an online friend.
• The situation only improved for 19 percent of victims when they did tell someone about the bullying.
• 17 percent admitted to bullying another individual online.
• Of the offenders interviewed most considered it fun or instructive; such as a way to strengthen their victims.
• More than half of study participants feel that cyber bullying is as bad, or worse, as bullying in real life.

Weaknesses (ethic and employee abuses) ( The harm to children and young people)

Employers have notices that employees who have subscribed to facebook steal company time socializing on it, which trickles down to reduced productivity too. heres one example -at the tender age of thirteen, one can subscribe to Facebook (Stone, 2009). Explicit content is on facebook as users are at liberty to post whatever they want on it and comment in whatever manner on the same. This is because facebook gives a user the liberty to post information on it and control that same information. Young teenagers can access this material thus interfering with their maturing process. They also lose track academically as most of their time is spent on Facebook.

There are also security issues like impersonations that can eventually lead to severe losses. Furthermore, child protection organizations pose a threat to Facebook since it exposes children to explicit materials.

In my own opinion,Despite the many benefits of Social Networks it has changed the way people socialize et.all. With its simple functionality, it has enabled people from various walks of life to interact. Families separated by distance have been able to communicate and long lost friends found. It has become a household name in various places. It has also changed the way we do business (Stone, 2009). Strong marketing programmes have been achieved through facebook.Myspace,twitter Truth be told, It is a tool to move the world forward but controls have to be put in place to protect our children and privacy and also to make every user legit.

Stone, B. (2009). Is Facebook Growing up too fast? Retrieved April 26, 2010 from
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/technology/internet/29face.html?_r=1

Karen, G., M. (2009). Retrieved 26 April 2010, From http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/28/

Weber, L. (2009). Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities
Build Your Business. (2nd ed.). New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Written by craigj about 2 years ago.

Ernest,
I can relate what you are saying about children not telling their parents about online bullying. In my paper I mentioned this:

Orleans and Laney (as cited in Hughes, 2001) “…observed 32 children between the ages of 8 and 17 on three or more occasions for an hour more while they did computer work on their own or with others” (p. 781). Through this observation, they found “little social conversations between children and their parents while their children were using the computer” (p. 781).

The cyber bulling/abuse of social networks reminded me of a story that was going to add in my paper, but I removed it.

In 2006, Megan Meier committed suicide because of a failed MySpace relationship with a 16-year-old boy named Josh (Lowen, 2007). It is quite scary to think that a girl of that age would end her life over a failed relationship, without ever meeting Josh. Megan had issues with depression and was self-concise with her body. Josh broke of the friendship as he ‘heard’ Megan was mean to her friends and started cyber bulling her. Megan was actually befriended by a 48-year-old woman, the mother of one of Megan’s friends, bent on avenging her daughter over a break-up in friendship. The mother posed as a 16-year-old boy on MySpace to gain Megan’s trust, intending to hurt her and to teach her a lesson for her actions.

I also came across this story which I believe is related to the self-centred acts by teens mentioned in your paper.

Tragic news struck a family when they learned that their daughter is dead via a post made on Facebook (AAP, 2009). A teenage girl died in a car crash in 2009, and before the family was notified by the police, they were informed by Facebook. The family now aware, rushed to the scene.

Children have integrated this technology into their lives, just as we all have with the toothbrush.

References:

AAP (2009). Family learns of daughter’s death via Facebook post Retrieved March 25, 2010, from http://www.news.com.au/technology/family-learns-of-daughters-death-via-facebook-post/story-e6frfro0-1225785010144

Hughes, R. (2001). Computers, the Internet, and families: A review of the role new technology plays in family life. Journal of family issues, 22(6), 776.

Lowen, L. (2007). ‘Lori Drew’ Speaks Out About Megan Meier’s Suicide Retrieved March 27, 2010, from http://womensissues.about.com/b/2007/12/05/diary-of-a-mad-myspace-momlori-drew-speaks-out-about-megan-meiers-suicide.htm
Written by Zohara Ibrahim about 2 years ago.

I agree what you wrote in this paper, firstly, you paper is matching for my topic’s paper “The Danger of Social Networking” where i wrote more details in there. According to your paper, we should remember that social networking such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Bebo, and extra can also, be misused and we need to take care our privacy or scammers as you mention as above. According to your papers, now days the smammers are more expert to make money for them self for their illegal products, there are a lot of copy product through their website who sell their product through internet. And some of them steal the password and user id through internet, as I said before the scammers are more expert in computers and internet. Usually, the “Solid Network” who the person repair the computer is very expert and know how to steal the users data from the existed data. As I said, before scammers are very dangerous for the users who never know more about internet, sometimes we forget to log out our computer that the other way the scammers steal the users passwords and personal data.
The other danger that you mention in your paper is addicted. Everyone will get addicted when you become part of social networking such as Facebook, you always have fun to read other friends email, play online game where is available on Facebook as example. The young users as students will ignore their study and routine time because of addicted. as we know addicted is a bad habit. I agree, young users as example spend a lot of times on Social Networking.
And also, I agree as you point as above, the “ethic and employee abuses”, the manipulated some other person’s data is a very dangerous especially if they know our personal details and she or he will change their religious views because today religious is the big issues for terrorsim and may be the predator as a result she or he got reported, got found out, got fired Other form of abuse reported involved viewing other peoples profile without the required permission. that is true, for example the users always use other users works or report that they easily find from the websites or other people blogs for she or he work, and some of the users used other users video from Youtube without permission and also easy to download through the PC or free software through net just for their research or presentation for their project Besides the face book abuses, there is a good chance that it is happening with more social sites. here is a good point as you paper said there “another company, Computing reported that eighteen officers from the Scotland Yard received warnings for misusing social network sites”.
The important point to remember is “cyber-bullying”. According to cyber-bullying definition where I research for my paper, cyber-bullying refers to defines as “will full and repeated harm inflicted through the medium of electronic text” (Romm & Setzekorn, 2000, p. 172). according to one of the new from New South Wales the 17 years old high school student jumped to his death off the west Gate Bridge after reading death threat online. In this case, kids have get this enormous power of this internet thing and it is out of control, because they are not mature enough to know what are they doing (“Teens killed in cyber-bullying epidemic,” 2009). I agree, as you mention, the cyber-bullying usually for school students or young users who post the nasty words or comments other users with bad comments, in my opinion because they are still young never known what does Social Networking they will do anything bad such as jump from building or suicide as I said before.