Regarding Facebook and other Social Network sites

For researchers or health officials seeking to identify teenagers'
sexual intentions, Facebook may be the place to look.

According to a new U.S. study, first-year university students who
posted sexual "references" on the popular social-networking site were
more likely to say they were seeking to become sexually active.

The American researchers studied 118 public Facebook profiles by
users at the same state university.

Of that group, 85 students filled out surveys about their sexual
intentions. About 55 per cent of the students were female, and
two-thirds of them were Caucasian.

Researchers found that sexual activity was more common among those
who had posted sexual references online.

"Facebook profiles may represent an innovative venue to identify
adolescents considering sexual activity who may benefit from targeted
prevention or education messages," the study concludes.

That could prove to be "a key opportunity to provide relevant
education and prevention messages," the study says.

Teens who are sexually active run a greater risk of having an
unwanted pregnancy or contracting sexually transmitted infections.

The lead researcher, Dr. Megan Morano, also led a 2007 study about
teenagers' use of the social-networking site MySpace.

It found that 54 per cent of the 18-year-olds studied had posted
information about "health risk behaviours" related to sex, substance
abuse or violence on their MySpace profiles.

The 2007 study, which was published in the Archives of Pediatrics and
Adolescent Medicine, said that such information was less common among
those who posted information about their religious beliefs or hobbies.

A Consumer Reports survey found that more than half of adults who use
social networks post information that puts them at risk for identity
theft and other cyber crimes.

A survey of 2,000 U.S. households in January showed 9% of those who
used social networks were victims of malware, identity theft, scams of
harassment within the last year, according to Consumers Union, which
publishes Consumer Reports. (The group did not say how that rate
compares with similar households that do not use social networks.)

But what constitutes risky information? Here's a handy list of seven
things that Consumer Reports says users should "stop doing now" on
Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or any other social network:

Using a weak password. Avoid simple names or words that can be found
in a dictionary, even with numbers tacked on the end. Instead, mix
upper- and lower-case letters, numbers and symbols. A password should
have at least eight characters. One good technique is to insert numbers
or symbols in the middle of the word.

Listing a full birth date. Listing a full birth date -- month, day and year --
makes a user an easy target for identity thieves, who can use it to
obtain more personal information and potentially gain access to bank and
credit card accounts. Consumer Reports' survey showed 38% posted their
full birth dates. Choose to show only the month and day or no birthday
at all.

Overlooking useful privacy controls.
Facebook users can limit access for almost everything that is posted on a
profile, including photos and family information. Leave out contact
info, such as phone number and home address.

Posting a child's name in a caption. Don’t use a child's name in photo
tags or captions. If someone else does, delete it by clicking "Remove
Tag." If a child isn't on Facebook and someone includes his or her name
in a caption, ask that person to remove the name.

Mentioning being away from home. Three percent of Facebook users surveyed
said they had posted this information on their page. Doing so is like
putting a "no one's home" sign on the door. Be vague about the dates of
vacations or trips.

Being found by a search engine.
To help prevent strangers from accessing a profile, go to the Search
section of Facebook's privacy controls and select "Only Friends for
Facebook" search results. Be sure the box for Public Search isn’t
checked.

Permitting youngsters to use Facebook unsupervised.
Facebook limits its members to ages 13 and older,
but children younger than that do use it. If there's a young child or
teenager in the household who uses Facebook, Consumer Reports recommends
that an adult in the same household should become one of their online
friends and use their e-mail as the contact for the account in order to
receive notification and monitor activity.

Parents can take steps to minimize the risk of
their middle schoolchildren falling prey to online predators, but there
is no way to eliminate it, Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart said Monday.


While predators might be intelligent and can convince
youngsters online to cooperate in a way they never could if they
approached them at a mall or park - they are not looking for challenges,
Dart said.


Warn children that people online can lie about their
age, post a false picture and convince the girl or boy they are a soul
mate, he added.


"As a general concept, any parent who is not actively
involved with monitoring a child's Internet and what he or she is doing
on it is asking for problems," Dart said. "This offers a perfect
opportunity to talk about these issues," he added.


The sheriff's department offers these tips:


• Teens should not be online privately or have a
computer in their own rooms.


• Allowing a teen to have online access from a cell
phone is insane, he said.


• Have a frank conversation with your child about the
realities. "Many, many children have been horribly hurt because of
people they have met on the Internet," Dart said. "They can share
information with their friends, but show restraint. If a stranger shows
up online, let someone know."


• Never give out personal information such as name,
address, school or phone number either online or on the phone.


• Be sure you have access to your children's accounts,
and learn how to block sites and e-mails from your Internet provider.
But remember that predators can get around your efforts.


•You want an open dialogue with your children, not
hyperbole full of fear.


Kathleen Muldoon, deputy chief of the sex crimes
division for the Cook County State's Attorney, heads up a task force
that educates parents and children about Internet dangers. Parents
should know more about the Internet than their youngsters do, she said.


Middle schoolers are often targeted because they use
computers so much and they have more freedom, she said.


Her recommendations:


• Talk to children as young as kindergarten age - as
soon as they start using computers.


• Learn from websites like those operated by the
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at missingkids.com
or netsmartz.org. Another site she recommends is isafe.org.


• If solicited, harassed or frightened, a child should
turn off the computer and report this to a teacher or parent. Adults can
call 911 or the Center for Missing & Exploited Children at
cybertipline.com or 1 (800) 843-5678.


• Besides leaving identifying information off profiles
on social networking sites, Muldoon tells parents their children should
avoid posting pictures of their houses, especially if they make the
address obvious.


• Use a name like Soccer No. 1 so strangers don't know
the child's gender


• Never post things like, "I'm free every afternoon when
my mother is at work."

PHOENIX -- A mother of eight, Linda Phillips,
didn't realize she needed to learn about Facebook until her brother
announced to her one day that her 17-year-old daughter had a new
boyfriend.“I said, ‘New boyfriend? I didn't even know she had an
old boyfriend.’ I asked, ‘How do you know this?’ He said, ‘I saw it on
Facebook,’' said Phillips. “And that's when I realized I was missing
the boat."One thing led to another and now Phillips and her
brother, Dr. B. J. Fogg, teach seminars and co-wrote "Facebook For
Parents: Answers To The Top 25 Questions.""The number one thing
parents need to know about Facebook is that it's not a private bedroom,”
said Phillips. "This is not a private space. It is like a front
lawn."One trademark of Facebook is the status update -- where
users write how they’re feeling or what they’re doing."What we're
finding with kids is they're more comfortable in that environment
expressing their feelings and talking about what they're doing than they
are face-to-face," said Phillips. "That’s a very valuable tool for a
parent."But, those posts can be seen by complete strangers if
your child’s privacy settings aren’t locked down. Phillips recommends
not listing personal details such as birth date, and restricting
profile information so that it's only visible to friends.She also
recommends checking how private your child's information really is.“The
best thing to do is if you're not their friend on Facebook -- do a
privacy check -- or have a friend do a privacy check. This can be done
by going to bottom of the page and clicking on “find friends.” That
allows you to search an individual’s name or e-mail address, and will
show you what any passerby can see," said Phillips.Phillips said
during her seminars, she often hears from parents who want to be
“Facebook friends” with their kids, but the kids are reluctant. She
suggests cutting a deal -- promising to stay in the background -- and
not posting embarrassing pictures or writing notes on their wall.More
information on Phillips’ book can be found online:
www.FacebookForParents.org.

Kids under 13 aren't allowed on Facebook, but that
hasn't stopped many of them from joining.Togetherville, a social
network for kids
ages 6 to 10, hopes to lure them into a more age-appropriate setting.
The site, whose founder has three children under 10, launches Tuesday
night.It's free to join, and kids' accounts must be created by
their parents using their own Facebook logins. Parents can approve or
reject their children's friends and see what types of activities or
games their kids are up to.

"The adults participate directly," said CEO and co-founder Mandeep
Dhillon, whose kids
are 8, 5 and 2. "Which is why this is not a digital babysitter."Kids
have separate logins to Togetherville, and the site looks different
depending on whether a parent or a child is logged in. For kids,
there are games, pre-screened YouTube videos and other activities, such
as educational applications, but no ads.There are even
Facebook-style status updates, called "quips," with a twist: kids
choose from a preselected menu of updates, which change daily. Dhillon
says that's because when given a blank space to type in, kids
tend to either write gibberish or get stumped by to say. But if they
want to, they can send in their own "quips" for approval.Parents
can send their kids
virtual gifts, review their activities on the site or look at virtual
art they've created. Togetherville plans to make money by selling
virtual goodies for its games.The site taps into a growing trend
of tech-savvy parents interacting with their kids online. Stephen Balkam, CEO of the Washington DC-based
noprofit Family Online Safety Institute, said he hopes
Togetherville will get parents to remove their young children from
Facebook, calling it a "much safer environment."Though they are
prohibited by the sites from joining, many of kids under 13
are already on MySpace and Facebook. They lie about their age, or get
their parents to do so, Balkam said.

WASHINGTON
— With his gaze fixed on a tiny screen, hearing plugged by earbuds and
fingers flying, the average teenager may look like a disaster in the
making: socially stunted, terminally distracted and looking for trouble.
But look beyond the dizzying array of beeping, buzzing devices and the
incessant multitasking, say psychologists, and today's digital kids may
not be such a disaster after all.
Far from hampering adolescents' social skills or putting them in
harm's way as many parents have feared, electronics appear to be the
path by which kids today develop emotional bonds, their own identities,
and an ability to communicate and work with others.
In fact, kids most likely to spend lots of time on social media sites
are not the least well-adjusted, but the psychologically healthiest,
suggests an early, but accumulating, body of research.
In one new study, 13- and 14-year-olds were found to interact on
social network sites such as Facebook and MySpace simply in ways that
were consistent with their offline relationships and patterns of
behavior. And of the 86 percent of kids who used social media sites (a
number that reflects the national average), participants who were better
adjusted in their early teens were more likely to use social media in
their early 20s, regardless of their age, gender, ethnicity or their
parents' income.
Adolescents are largely using social networking sites to keep in
touch with friends they already know, not to converse with strangers,
said the author of that research, University of Virginia
psychologist Amori Yee Mikami.
"So parents of well-adjusted teens may have little to worry about
regarding the way their children behave when using social media," Mikami
added. "It's likely to be similarly positive behavior."
Megan Mills, a Los Angeles eighth-grader, and her mother
would agree. Megan cut her digital teeth on the tween social networking
site Club Penguin.
Now 14, she has graduated to a Facebook account. She counts her mom
among her many "friends" — a status that gives Donna Schwartz
Mills access to her daughter's ongoing electronic chatter and a
condition that Mills laid down before allowing her daughter's foray
into teen social networking.
Mills, 54 and herself a blogger, says she's seen little to fret about
— and much to cheer — on her periodic visits to her daughter's Facebook
page. The teen, who has scaled back a once all-consuming commitment to
gymnastics, keeps in touch with friends and coaches from that phase of
her life, as well as with current friends that Mills knows well.
"People are always worried about the Internet making it easier for
strangers to hurt your children," Mills says. But she points out: "The
dangers are the old dangers of who they hang out with."
In studies of teenagers and young adults, Cal State L.A.
psychology professor Kaveri Subrahmanyam has also
found that kids' online worlds and friendships strongly resemble their
relationships offline, with overlapping casts of characters and similar
hierarchies of closeness.
"I think the majority of kids use it in ways that don't jeopardize
their well-being," she said.
Ultimately, it seems, the digital world is simply a new and perhaps
more multidimensional place to conduct the age-old work of adolescence —
forming identities separate from those of parents.
Just how outsized is digital media's presence in a child's life? In
January, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that for more than 71/2
hours a day, American children ages 8 to 18 are tethered to computers,
plugged into MP3 players, watching TV or playing video, computer or
handheld games — and for much of that time, doing several at once.
Add to that tally time spent texting by cell phone — an activity the
Kaiser study did not include — and for most kids, the daily log of media
immersion would surpass time spent sleeping. A report by the Pew
Research Center released in April found that 72 percent of U.S. teens
text-message regularly, one-third of them more than 100 times a day. As a
means of keeping up with friends daily, teens are more likely to text
than to talk by phone, by e-mail or face to face.
But a recent study in the journal Developmental Psychology
underscores the point that it is largely the kid, not the technology or
even the time a kid spends using it, that seems to influence how safely
he or she will navigate the digital world.
Certainly there are dangers online, says Subrahmanyam, who is also
the associate director of the Children's Digital Media Center in Los Angeles. But
the new media "is ultimately a tool" for kids, she says. Most will use
it constructively.
Those teens who struggle with depression or with aggressive or
delinquent behavior are more likely to find the online world to be full
of digital landmines. Mikami's research found that they were more likely
to harass, bully and take online risks such as "sexting" or "MIRLing"
(text-speak for "meeting in real life" a stranger one has chatted with
online), or to be vulnerable to others who harass, bully and coerce.
In the end, says Mikami, these risk-takers were more likely than
healthier kids to abandon public social media sites such as Facebook and
MySpace for online scenes such as chat rooms, where their behavior is
less subject to scrutiny.
All of this research comes on the heels of two task force reports
that combed the evidence on kids and their online world and found that,
on balance, that world is far less frightening than many parents
believe.
A three-year Digital Youth Project, undertaken by researchers from
schools including the University of Southern California and
the University of California-Berkeley, urged adults to
"facilitate young people's engagement with digital media" rather than
block it, begrudge it or fear it.
"The digital world is creating new opportunities for youth to grapple
with social norms, to explore interests, develop technical skills and
experiment with new forms of self expression," the group's 2008 white
paper concluded.
The second task force, commissioned by state attorneys general to
gauge the dangers that kids face in socializing online, found last year
that children are far more likely to be bullied or sexually
propositioned by peers they know than they are to be preyed upon by a
stranger on the Internet.
That report, drafted by Harvard University's Berkman
Center for Internet and Society, concluded that on social networking
sites such as MySpace and Facebook and Friendster, strangers — let alone
strangers seeking sex — are routinely locked out and readily rebuffed.
Where kids do stray into dangerous territory with strangers, it is
generally knowingly, in chat rooms and online forums intended for
adults.
It follows from these findings that the proliferation of digital
media hasn't changed the definition of good parenting much either: "The
whole thing is knowing your own child," says Cornell University
researcher Sahara Byrne, who studies the factors that make kids more or
less amenable to parental limits on their media use.
Her research has found that kids who believe they can go to a parent
with a problem — any problem — are more willing to accept parental
limits on their media use and appear to be less likely to seek out
trouble online. That belief, added Byrne, was a more powerful predictor
of a child's healthy Internet use than a family's income, education,
church attendance or political leaning.
And although she often has to "calm parents down" when she speaks to
groups of adults about their kids' digital lives, ultimately, she's
found, they come around.
Whether their adolescent selves talked to friends on the phone for
hours, hung out and flirted at a neighborhood meeting spot or made
mix-tapes to play at parties, Byrne says, most parents can see that
"many of the things their kids are doing are kind of like what we did."

Sen. George Runner today announced that Facebook supports his
legislation that would require all registered sex offenders to register
their online addresses with state law enforcement.

“Facebook
supports this legislation, and shares your goal of creating a safer
online environment for Californians,” said Facebook Public Policy
Director Tim Sparapani in a in a letter sent to Runner this week.

Runner, also author of Jessica’s Law and Amber Alert, said he is pleased
to have the support of the world’s number one social networking
website.

“Facebook has an impressive record of blocking sex
offenders from its site,” Runner said. “It’s great to partner with an
organization that places a high priority on child safety.”


Runner calls Senate Bill 1204 another tool for law enforcement to use in
monitoring some of society’s most dangerous sex offenders, like
admitted rapist/murder John Albert Gardner. “If the offenders don’t
comply with new registration requirements, they risk up to six months in
jail, under SB 1204,” Runner said.

Besides registering online
addresses, one of the objectives of SB 1204 is to prevent sex offenders
from joining social sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter. While on
parole, sex offenders can be prohibited from accessing social networking
sites. Once parole is completed, however, a sex offender is free to
join such sites.

By requiring sex offenders to register their
online addresses, SB 1204 not only creates a database for law
enforcement but creates a tool, which can be used to get sexual
predators off social networking sites. While the law cannot directly
prohibit sex offenders who are no longer on parole from joining, social
networking sites like Facebook and MySpace have voluntarily purged
thousands of registered sex offenders from New York.

As the
bill moves forward, Runner said he is committed to ensure that online
address information collected under SB 1204 may be used to permit social
networking sites to voluntarily purge registered sex offenders from the
sites.

California will join New York and Illinois in
enacting such a law. New York became the first state to pass a similar
bill in 2008, known as “e-STOP,” which was sponsored by New York
Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

Cuomo said more than 3,500
registered New York sex offenders have been purged from Facebook and
MySpace since the bill passed, including a man convicted of assaulting a
14-year-old boy and another man who raped a 2-year-old girl.


John Walsh, co-founder of the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children and host of “America’s Most Wanted, supports New York e-STOP
saying last year in a press release that “New York sets the gold
standard for other states to follow.”

SB 1204 is supported by
statewide law enforcement agencies and associations and faced no
opposition in the Senate. The bill will be heard in the Assembly Public
Safety Committee in the coming weeks.

Scaring children about the dangers of the Internet and blocking
access to social-networking sites can do more harm than good, according
to a report released Friday by a committee tasked by the U.S. government
to explore online safety. Parents, teachers, government
agencies, and other organizations should promote
online citizenship and media-literacy education, and actively
encourage the participation of children in the process, concludes the
report entitled "Youth Safety on a Living Internet." It was produced by
the Online
Safety and Technology Working Group, which was created by the
National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The
report addresses some misperceptions about the dangers children face
using the Internet. For instance, sexual predation exists "but not
nearly in the prevalence once believed," according to the 148-page
report. The report cites studies, including research funded by the U.S.
Department of Justice, that show there is a very low statistical
probability that a young person will be physically assaulted by an adult
whom they first encountered online. Research from the Crimes Against
Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire found that
use of MySpace and Facebook by adolescents did not appear to increase
their risk of being victimized by online predators. "Other risks,
such as cyberbullying, are actually much more common than
thought--starting as early as second grade for some children," the
report says. "Bullying and harassment, most often by peers, are the most
frequent threats that minors face, both online and offline."
Nine percent to 35 percent of young people report being the victim of
"electronic aggression," according to a survey conducted by the Centers
for Disease Control. An Iowa State University study found that 54
percent of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth had been victims
of cyberbullying within the past 30 days, according to the report. "Meanwhile, 'new' issues such as 'sexting' garner a great deal of media
attention, though recent studies suggest it is not quite as common as
initially believed," the report says. The research mentioned
other, less obvious risks, such as: identity theft (children and teens
are valuable targets because of their typically clean credit histories);
over-use or obsessive use of technology; and loss of reputation from
posting photos and written records that could be embarrassing later. Teaching children civil, respectful behavior online and offline is the
key to fostering a safe Internet environment, the report says. It urges
the government to promote nationwide education in digital citizenship
and media literacy and specifically recommends that the government
create a Web-based clearinghouse for youth-risk and social-media
research. The report also recommends that the government avoid
"scare tactics" and rather promote an approach to risk prevention based
on social norms. Dangerous online behavior mirrors unsafe offline
behavior and similar notions of etiquette and safety should apply, the
report says. Schools often filter sites or block social
networks, believing it is in the best interest of the students. But
students can get around the firewalls and filtering technology, while
blocking the sites can have a negative effect on student safety, the
report warns. "There is some evidence that social networks can
be protective in helping to shape and reinforce positive norms," the
report says.

Remember going out as a young teenager just being introduced to social
situations? Didn’t you have friends your parents trusted explicitly
while other acquaintances the folks weren’t so happy to see in your
company?

“OK, well, as long as it’s Tommy’s house that’s fine,” your Mom might
have said. “But that Jimmy kid? No way.”

Now friendships in this modern technological cyber space age aren’t
just the peers children and young adults are exposed to in person.
Today, a “friend” can be someone who engages in a purely virtual
relationship via a social networking site like Facebook or My Space.

Which begs the question — in this “brave new world” of Internet
interaction, do you know what your kids are up to when they log on?

“My 10-year-old son has a Facebook account, and we have 100 percent
access to it,” said Kevin Spradlin, a reporter with the Times-News and
avid Internet surfer. “Of course, now that he has one, his 8-year-old
sister wants one. We've said no, because we think letting her have one
will prompt her 8-month-old brother, Josiah, to ask for one.”

“My 12-year old son has had a Facebook account for a year and actually
had to tutor his technologically challenged mother on how to set one
up,” said Debra Frank of Cumberland. “I do have his password and
periodically check his account — but not often enough, I'm sure. My
major concern at this point is the number of friend requests he receives
and his willingness to let anyone in.”

A recent Kaplan Test and Prep admissions survey of high school
students found that 56 percent of teens surveyed who use Facebook allow
their parents to have complete access, 9 percent say they limit their
parents’ access or don’t want their parents to see their pages, and 34
percent claim their parents have no interest at all in their Facebook or
My Space pages.

But should they? Should parents take notice to what their teens and
preteens do on these sites? What they write? What pictures they post?

“We have 100 percent access to all stored material. We do not monitor
his conversations in Facebook chat rooms,” said Spradlin. “We just have
to prepare him to be mature, responsible and should something come up,
be comfortable enough to bring it to us early on.”

Carrie Witt of Cumberland said her teenage daughter is probably on a
social networking site for about two hours a day. However, the computer
is located in a shared family room and she can look over her daughter’s
shoulder at any time.

“I think that Facebook is a fun and good way to stay in touch with
friends and family but there are always those few sick people that have
to ruin a good thing,” Witt said. “I try to monitor what kind of photos
my girls post on Facebook, but it is hard to check all of them. And what
looks like an innocent photo to her can, of course, be quite damaging
to the sick people out there. I have had many long conversations with
both my girls about what they can and cannot do. All I can do is hope
and pray the message got through.”

According to the Kaplan Survey released earlier this month, 58 percent
of the teens said their own parents are not on Facebook, while for the
parents who are, moms are more likely than dads to have an interest in
what their child is up to online.

Barrelville native Brenda Sneckenberger said she allowed her children
when they were younger to have MySpace and Facebook accounts and then
learned the hard way that not everyone asking to be a friend had the
best of intentions.

“Both of my girls had a MySpace first and then a Facebook,”
Sneckenberger said. “I did have their passwords and did check on friend
requests and private messages from time to time. I was glad I did
because one of them was corresponding with a boy who said he was 15 —
the same age she was at the time. I did some serious research and found
he was not as he stated. That prompted a more in-depth conversation
about the need to be more careful.”

“We have five kids, all under 16 and none of them have a Facebook
account,” said Diane Preaskorn, wife of Allegany High School athletic
director Tom Preaskorn and a nurse with the Western Maryland Health
System. Preaskorn, however, has a Facebook profile.

“Upon questioning our almost 11-year-old, he stated that in his class
of 24, he thinks maybe 15 have an account. When I asked him if he
thought kids should have one, he felt that kids could be easily tricked
into giving up private information,” Preaskorn said. “I asked him, ‘Like
what?’ and he replied, ‘Things like where you live, and other personal
information.’ I think he may be ready for an account but I’m not really
sure it’s the utility for him. In the event one or all decide to have an
account, depending upon their age and maturity level, I would want
access to it.”

Since some young adults and preteens can also be more technologically
savvy than their parents, parents should be cautioned that their own
children could be playing a game of Internet bait and switch.

“Growing up in the age of technology I certainly didn't want my parents
looking over my shoulder, at my webpage or MySpace,” said Jared Rowan,
of Cumberland, a junior at West Virginia University. “I admit I found
ways to manipulate the Internet so my parents didn't know exactly what I
was doing so it wouldn't surprise me if kids now can do even more to
block their parents from reading things online. Plus, I think that kids
can now easily create dual pages, allowing their parent to read what
they believe is their one and only page, when in fact they are reading a
dummy page.”

Still, most parents do seem to trust their kids when it comes to
Internet use.

Sheila Bridges of Cumberland said she and her husband had a lengthy
talk with her son about his Internet use and social networking activity.

“My son is now 14 and no longer has a MySpace. I felt there were too
many nasty pop-ups on that network, and he agreed and closed it out. But
he now has a Facebook page in which I have his password,” Bridges said.
“I explained to him the only way he would be allowed to have one is if I
had his password and he had to abide by our rules. He is only allowed
on the Internet if my husband and I are aware that he is and that we can
check his page at any given time. And he is not allowed to accept any
friends that he does not know.”

For Allen Daugherty, visiting friends in Cumberland, he is in no hurry
for his 13-year-old daughter to grow up and be exposed to the forays of
Internet social networking. Even though she has repeatedly asked.

“At this age, who does she really have to connect or re-connect with?
Use the phone, go out and play, walk to your friend’s house, but stay
off the electronic baby-sitter,” he said. “I am not comfortable having
her out there for all the world to see until I can assess more social
maturity, responsibility, and an ability to appropriately react to
things on her part instead of inaction when things are just too much for
her to process. It is my job as a parent to protect her and teach her
about life. My vote is no youth under 16 and even that comes with
parental supervision and full monitoring access.”

“I believe most parents would like to think they have complete access
to most of their children's online activities but from time to time I
will comment on something I have seen on one of their pages and the next
second it has been erased,” said Shelly DeHaven of Corriganville. “I
think as long as a child understands the incredible responsibility a
Facebook or MySpace account can carry and the parent takes the
responsibility to check up on them, they should be just fine. Let’s face
it, its not going away anytime soon.”

It's a question many of today's parents will face: "Mom, can I have a Facebook
account?"
Some adults struggle with what to do when their 12- or 13-year-old wants
to join the digital world to show off pictures of sleepovers and list
their favorite bands, TV shows and groups.
Unfortunately, there are no clear-cut guidelines for when a child can
join a social network, experts and parents say. Ultimately, it's up to
the parents to know whether their child can handle it and, if so, to
monitor closely how they use it.
"There's a lot of responsibility in having a Facebook page," said Maria
Riley, a Lake Mary mother of a 13-year-old with her own page. "You are
talking about a mode of communication that can literally go out into the
entire world. You are putting that in the hands of your child. It's
really important for children to understand responsibility and
understand their actions."
Facebook has become another coming-of-age marker along with attending
the first boy-girl dance and staying home alone.
The official age requirement on Facebook, the world's most popular
networking site, with 400 million users, is 13 years old. But it's not
strictly enforced.
"It's less an age-related issue than knowing your child," said Dr.
Michael Rich, director of the Center on Media and Child Health in
Boston. "There are 11- and 12-year-olds who can handle it. There are
others who can't handle it until they are out of high school."
But don't bother trying to shy from social networking, experts say.
"This is part of parenting today," said Liz Perle, editor-in-chief of
Common Sense Media, a national child-advocacy and educational
organization. "There are enough resources out there [to learn about
Facebook.]"
Carol Dierksen, an Orlando mother of three, said the key to allowing
children on Facebook is keeping tabs on what they are doing. All three
of her kids, ages 12, 16 and 18, have Facebook pages.
She doesn't have official rules, other than no foul language or
"inappropriate" pictures. She does, however, monitor her kids' pages
constantly.
Her daughter, Anna, 16, rolled her eyes when she talked about her mother
commenting on her friends' Facebook pages if they use curse words.
"It's embarrassing," she said. "I'm like, 'Mom, what are you doing?' "
Anna, a Boone High junior with 779 Facebook friends, joined the site two
years ago. She started out with MySpace,
an earlier social-networking site, but quickly dumped that for Facebook
because it's "way better."
Her friends include cousins, classmates and scuba-diving-camp pals. She
has joined a number of groups, including one created recently called
"Boone's crazy last day."
"Everyone has one," she said. "I talk to my friends and look at
pictures."
She knows her mother is constantly checking her page, so "I'm not going
to do anything dumb," Anna said.
Her younger sister, Bri, 12, who has 189 friends, has gone through
phases with her page. She used to join lots of groups, but her relatives
got annoyed with the constant updates, so she has scaled back on that.
Now, she mainly uses it to chat with friends and to find out what's
happening. For example, someone will create an events page about going
to a movie later.
For years, stories emerged about creepy men lurking in social-media
shadows, waiting to lure children away to meet in strange hotels.
Riley, the Lake Mary mom, said she often shared those types of reports
with her daughter to warn her about the dangers.
"I think I scared her too much," she said, adding her daughter initially
shied from Facebook.
Riley eventually encouraged her 13-year-old to go on the site a few
months ago because she was missing out on things.
"Almost all of her friends were on Facebook," Riley said. "They would
talk about a birthday party and get on there and make comments and post
pictures. It was like an extension of whatever event that happened. … I
felt like Jordan was only part of a portion of it and left behind
because she didn't have her Facebook page.
The two went over the privacy settings. Riley also knows her daughter's
password and user name.
"I do worry about bullying," Riley said.
Anna experienced that several months ago. A handful of boys posted jokes
about the
Holocaust and referred to Anna, who is Jewish, on several of their
friends' Facebook pages.
She shrugged them off, saying it didn't bother her. A friend reported
the comments to the school, and the boys got in trouble, including one
who was suspended.
That is the downside to Facebook, Anna said.
"You can say whatever you want on Facebook," she said.
But most kids don't know how to filter themselves, Perle said, andthat's
where parents must help.
"[Parents] need to tell their children about the world they are living
in and [that] consequences can be very public and permanent," Perle
said. "If they don't want someone to see it on the hallway of their
school, they don't want to put it out there."
And parents must monitor, set boundaries and enforce them, she said.
Riley agrees, saying she told her daughter that she shouldn't post
anything she wouldn't say to someone's face.
To make sure her daughter is following her advice, she, too, is a
regular visitor to her daughter's page.
"I don't want to invade her world, but I do want to stand on the outside
and look in and understand what her world is like," Riley said.

WASHINGTON — When Chelsea King’s body
was discovered in a shallow grave in March, just days after she
disappeared while jogging in Rancho
Bernardo Community Park, Michelle Wintersteen began
spreading a message to her peers.

“It’s dangerous out there,” she said. If it happened to Chelsea, she
warned, it could happen to you.

But as Michelle, 17, on Wednesday wrapped up three days at the fifth
annual Cox Teen Summit on Internet Safety in Washington, the Mt. Carmel
High School senior is broadening her warning. The danger is no longer
just “out there,” Michelle said. In the age of Facebook,
MySpace and other online social networking sites, threats to young
people’s safety are as close as their cell phone or family computer.

“You put yourself out there for a sexual predator to contact you on
the Internet,” she said. Safety is “something I’m passionate about,
definitely, and pushing for the kids to realize that, too. You’re not as
safe as you think you are.”

Three-quarters of American teens now have cell phones; 9 out of 10
have access to e-mail, a new survey shows. Seventy-two percent of teens
are now posting personal information and photos of themselves online for
all the world to see. Nearly 40 percent admit having shared that
information with people they’ve never met, according to the study done
by Cox Communications and the National Center for Missing and Exploited
Children.

Teens and their parents are just now coming to appreciate how
dangerous cyberspace can be. Chelsea’s killer, John Albert Gardner III,
picked her out at a park. But authorities later learned that Gardner had
also been using MySpace under a false name to meet other people.

The key to safety, Michelle and conference organizers said, is for
parents to set boundaries on Internet use and for children to understand
why.

“Kids — they’ll get it. If you give them the guidelines from the
get-go, they’ll stay within the boundaries,” she said. “If they
understand it from the beginning or from a peer-to-peer basis, they
might understand better.”

Ceanne Guerra of Cox Communications said it’s up to parents, who are
often less tech-savvy, to institute and enforce those boundaries.

“It’s just a new set of rules that you have to teach your kids, just
like you taught them to look both ways when crossing the street, about
not talking to strangers and to lock your door,” Guerra said.

Michelle didn’t know Chelsea, but she felt an immediate connection.
Like Chelsea, Michelle is the oldest child in her family and
well-rounded academically and athletically.

After Chelsea’s disappearance, Michelle’s mother, Susan, created and
ran a website that kept the community informed about the search for the
girl and ways to help. That site is now the Chelsea’s Light memorial on
Facebook, with 88,000 followers. Michelle said she, too, plans to use
the Internet, particularly the social networking sites, to “mobilize a
teenage force” focused on youth safety.

Michelle has grown close to Chelsea’s parents, Brent and Kelly King,
who nominated her to represent the San
Diego area at the Washington conference.

Her mission, Michelle said between visits to California
lawmakers on Capitol Hill, is the kind of thing that Chelsea
would have done.

“I hope that now her peers can be her voice,” she said. “She doesn’t
have a voice anymore. Her life was taken from her, but now we are her
delegates, so to speak, and we’re Kelly and Brent’s children and we are
supporting her through our efforts to change the world in her honor.”

Scammers, spammers, purveyors of porn, hate mongers, and cyber
predators -- it's no wonder parents are paranoid about what their kids are
doing online.
Most software solutions focus on shielding your child from the Net's seamy dark
underbelly -- filtering out porn, blocking certain keyword or image
searches, and preventing them from sharing certain information (like
their home address) in email or IMs.


(For my money, the cloud-based Norton Online Family is as good as these things get
-- not perfect, but pretty good -- and it's totally free, though I have
to imagine that won't last forever.)
The problem? None of these content filters do much about what
information your kids are putting out there about themselves, or who can
see it. As search engines turn into reputation engines, what your kids
say and do online will affect what happens to them down the road.
For example, roughly one out of four college admissions offices say they
Google applicants before deciding whether to accept them; one out of
five look at their social networking profiles. And in nearly 40
percent of the cases, the information colleges find has a negative impact on the applicant's chances.
What your kids are saying on Twitter or MySpace or posting to
Facebook and Flickr could impact their futures, and not necessarily in a
good way. That's where SafetyWeb steps in.
SafetyWeb's premise is simple: Enter your child's email address,
and it will scour the most popular sites and services, let you know if
your child has accounts on them, and if so how private they are or
aren't. That service is free.For example, searching on one of my email addresses produces a quick
report that notes that I am "Public" on MySpace, Friendster, and
Twitter; "Private" on Facebook, Flickr, and Bebo; and "exposed" on
Flixster and Linked in. (By "exposed," I'm assuming they mean all of my
profile details are public.) Click on the screen shot to see the setup.
But if you want to see what your kids are actually posting to these
sites, or add new email addresses or new sites to the dozen or so
SafetyWeb automatically checks, it will cost you $10 a month. Whether
that's worth it depends on how clued in you are to your kids' social
media activities, as well as how sneaky they are.
In my brief experience with the product, I found it a little
inconsistent. Some of the data is old or outdated. For example, I
changed my Twitter handle more than a year ago, but SafetyWeb still
reports on my old one. It lists my Facebook profile as "private" when
it's really more than half public. It found a Twitter account for my son
that belonged to someone else entirely (though it also found one I
didn't know about). It told me my son had an Amazon account, but
(because it's private) gave me no way to find out what he's using it
for.
In short, SafetyWeb is not a total solution. It's only as good as
the databases it uses to cross check these sites, and some of them
clearly need to be updated more often.
Still, I can see some good uses. It offers a quick, one-stop glance
at your kids' social activities online -- a lot easier than schlepping
between MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, etc. How effective that
is depends on how open your kids are about what services they belong to
and what email addresses they use.
My not-quite-14-year-old son, for example, is a devious little
bastard who uses multiple email addresses online, some of which he
refuses to reveal, and is militantly opposed to sharing his online life
with his parents. So SafetyWeb is a bad choice for kids like him,
because it could give parents a false sense of security. (Not us -- we
have no sense of security.) Also, at $10 a month per kid, it can get
very pricey for large families. SafetyWeb co-founder Geoffrey Arone says
the company plans to offer family pricing discounts at some point in
the near future.
Hey, when you're raising a digital native, parents need all the
help they can get. Tools like SafetyWeb are another helpful weapon to
add to your arsenal. Your kids may not appreciate it now, but they'll
thank you later. Maybe.
Author Dan Tynan has no online reputation left to protect, and it's
his own damned fault. Check out one of the reasons why at eSarcasm (Geek Humor
Gone Wild) and follow him on Twitter: @tynan_on_tech
(another reason).

Beware These Social Networking Pitfalls For Kids
Oliver Chiang, 09.01.10,
3:30 PM ETSAN FRANCISCO - Quick: What's the legal age required for someone to create a Facebook account?
It's 13, says Facebook, which followed guidelines set by the
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 2000. Unfortunately,
it's not common knowledge, like the legal ages for drinking, driving
and voting. But it should be.
In fact, you may know some kids on Facebook who aren't 13 yet. That's
no surprise: A study last year, for instance, found that one in four
U.K. Internet users aged 8 to 12 had profiles on Facebook, Bebo or
MySpace.
In an age when Facebook and other sites are becoming a part of
everyday life, it's hard to imagine keeping Web-savvy kids off social
networks entirely. But a couple of startups have recently tackled the
problem of how to provide a training-wheels version of social
networking.

"Kids model their parents' behavior, and if kids see mom and dad at
home on Facebook, smiling when they read their friends' updates, sharing
picture albums with their friends and family, and watching funny videos
and commenting on them, you'd be hard pressed to get a kid to say they
don't want to do that," says Mandeep Dhillon. Dhillon is chief executive
of a startup called Togetherville
of Menlo Park, Calif.--a Facebook for the under-13 crowd. Just like on
other social networks, kids on Togetherville can interact with online
friends, write messages, play social games, watch videos and draw
pictures, albeit in a much more limited way.
Togetherville is COPPA-compliant because it makes available to
parents all the personal data about your child that it stores on the
site. A parent's email address is required to open a new account, and
activities are moderated by parents, who receive e-mail alerts about
their kids' activities, as well as by the site's staff. Parents also
select from their own group of Facebook friends the people that their
children will be able to connect to in Togetherville, so they know who
their children are interacting with.
Another new social network aimed at kids is ScuttlePad
of Orem, Utah. Like Togetherville, ScuttlePad requires parental
approval and moderation, and heavily limits on-site activities. For
instance, children on the site can only create messages and status
updates using pre-approved word lists. ScuttlePad's CEO Chad Perry also
believes it's important to have a social network training ground for
kids.
"Social networks have become so pervasive," says Perry. "Just like we
would teach a kid how to cross the street or ride the bike, we need an
environment to teach them the fundamentals of social networking."

Facebook is very likely watching such startups with interest. It
needs an alternative site for the hordes of underage children joining
its ranks every day so it can avoid potential legal headaches and
negative press. Facebook is also certain to see the value in a site that
can prepare the next generation of social network users.
Meanwhile, the recurring theme for parents is that they need to be
engaged and involved in their children's social networking activity,
just as they would be in teaching other important life skills. This
applies when your child is legally able to join Facebook as well. Says
Dhillon: "I love taking my kids to New York City, but I wouldn't take
them there and walk away. It's the same on the Internet."
Here are a few guidelines on pitfalls to avoid and how to help your kids interact safely on Facebook:
- Don't have a Facebook account yet? Get on and learn. Find out what
types of information you can share through social networks, the privacy
settings and the norms and expectations so that you can help your kids
do the same later. Also check out Facebook's Safety Center and SurfNetKids.com.
- Know what to share and teach your kids. Use common sense, i.e.,
don't share your Social Security number on Facebook. You probably don't
want to post your mailing address or phone number, either. Other things
are less obvious. You and your children may not want to post on a social
network that the family is going away on vacation for a few
weeks--leaving your house unoccupied. The privacy rules on social
networks like Facebook often change, so as a general rule, err on the
side of caution when sharing.
- You wouldn't teach your children to be dishonest in real life.
Don't teach them to do so online. Teach your kids not to lie about their
age to join Facebook or to view an online video. In addition, encourage
them not to use aliases or be anonymous on social networks. Anonymity
online tends to bring out trolls and bullies. You don't want to be the
parent who has to guess who your child is talking to when he messages
"flowergurl25."
In Pictures: Keeping Kids Safe On Facebook
Follow Oliver Chiang on Twitter or e-mail him at ochiang@forbes.com.
See Also:
Keeping Kids Safe On Cellphones

Facebook is filled with pleas for help in finding missing children

It used to be that if a child went missing, his or her image would be posted on telephone poles, neighborhood gathering places and parking lots.

But now, people are using Facebook — the social-networking website that connects millions through photos and commentary — as a tool in the search for their missing loved ones.

"One of six children is located because someone recognizes them in a photograph," said John Shehan of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) in Virginia. "But with more than 500 million active users on Facebook, that statistic is greatly enhanced when someone creates a page for a missing child."

Tara Yunker disappeared from her New Smyrna Beach home Sept. 3, and Melbourne police found her days later after friends launched a Facebook page for the 16-year-old.

Nadia Bloom, the 11-year-old who disappeared into an alligator-infested area of Winter Springs in April, also was recovered a few days after her family created a Facebook page for the little girl.

Friends of 16-year-old Kristen Brown set up a Facebook page for the missing Groveland girl Sept. 17. It contains pictures of the teen, as well as her description and tips on her whereabouts. Lake County Sheriff's Office deputies said she went missing Sept. 6 and has not been found.

"We look at that information here at the center, but we also know that law-enforcement gleans what they can from those pages for their investigations," Shehan said. "If parents are managing the Facebook site, it also gives them comfort that they are actively involved."

Lt. Bob Kelley of the Volusia County Sheriff's Office said Facebook is "something we use in our missing-children cases, as well as cybercrimes." The Sheriff's Office handled the Yunker case. "It certainly gives missing cases much more exposure."

The NCMEC has taken 3,464 active cases of missing children since Jan. 1, 1990. Social-service agencies in Florida have reported 384 cases to the organization, and 26 of those — about 6 percent — are from Metro Orlando.

Officials at Facebook did not return calls from the Orlando Sentinel for this story, so it is unclear how many pages for missing or exploited children are on the site; however, a search for "missing children" shows thousands of hits.

One of the first Facebook pages created for a missing person was in 2007 for Orlando's Jennifer Kesse. She disappeared from her condo near the Mall at Millenia in January 2006 when she was 24.

The case garnered national media attention, and nearly 3,000 Facebook users identify themselves as friends of the "Help Find Missing Jennifer Kesse" page, which contains several pictures and a description of her.

"It absolutely helps," said Drew Kesse, her father. "If we can get another eye to look at that website, then it means another person now knows her face and can help in the search. It's total awareness that reaches a network of millions of people."

The family of Haleigh Cummings, the missing 5-year-old Satsuma girl, also created a Facebook page for the child in 2009. Haleigh has not been found, and Putnam County Sheriff's Office investigators think the child is dead.

Jessica Russell, who posts comments on the "Help Find Haleigh Cummings" Facebook page, said she has added pictures of the missing girl to her own page and her friends have done the same with the hope of finding the child.

"It think that when you have something that is so good at connecting friends who have not seen each other or family who are separated by thousands of miles, why not use it to find missing children?" Russell said.

Your children are probably spending more time on Facebook than you are. Here's how to protect them from predators, their peers, and themselves.


Leah Yamshon, PCWorld Sep 30, 2010 9:00 pm




Boasting 500 million users worldwide and still growing, Facebook is now ubiquitous. Because of its popularity, minors have jumped onto the social media bandwagon, too, and they use networking the same way adults do--to share pictures, connect with friends, organize events, and play social games. And that can be a problem. For the most part, Facebook provides a fun and safe way for users of all ages to communicate with their pals. But because kids and teens are, well, kids and teens, they're the ones most at risk of falling victim to the dangers of Facebook. With a bit of strategic parental guidance, you can educate your kids about the potential hazards of social media and give them the tools they need to protect themselves from online predators, guard their personal information, preserve their online reputation, and avoid suspicious downloads that could harm your PC. Facebook and Kids

An iStrategyLabs study documents the growth rates of Facebook profiles in the United States based on age, gender, location, education level, and interests. The study shows that from January 2009 to January 2010, the 13-to-17-year-old age group grew about 88 percent in the U.S., jumping from about 5.7 million teenage Facebook users to almost 10.7 million. Those figures, of course, don't include minors who lied about their age upon creating their profile.
Despite a legal requirement that kids must be 13 or older to sign up for Facebook, many younger children are using the service. Because no perfect age-verification system exists, younger kids are able to slip by unnoticed through falsifying their age. (For instance, I have one friend whose 12-year-old daughter listed her birth year as 1991 on Facebook, thereby claiming that she was 19 years old.) The safety and public-policy teams at Facebook are aware of their young audience, and the site has rolled out privacy settings specifically for the under-18 set. Users between the ages of 13 and 17 get what Facebook's privacy policy calls a “slightly different experience.” Minors do not have public search listings created for them when they sign up for Facebook, meaning their accounts cannot be found on general search engines outside of Facebook. The “Everyone” setting is not quite as open for minors as it is for adults. If a minor's privacy settings are set to “Everyone,” that includes only friends, friends of friends, and people within the child's verified school or work network. However, the “Everyone” setting still allows adults to search for minors by name and send them friend requests (and vice versa), unless the account owner manually changes that. Also, only people within a minor's “Friends of Friends” network can message them. Facebook recently premiered a new location-based service called Places, which has some restrictions for minors as well. Minors can share their location through Places only with people on their Friends lists, even if their privacy settings are set to “Everyone.” As for the teens who lie about how old they are, Facebook does have a way of verifying age. If, for instance, a 19-year-old is mostly friends with 13- and 14-year-olds, and they seem to be taking lots of photos together, then Facebook might suspect that the user is actually 12 or 13--and then it may flag the user's page for removal or give the user a warning.

The Basics: Protecting Personal Information

Even with Facebook's privacy policy for minors, a child's personal information is still widely on display. A young person's Facebook account is just the beginning of their online footprint, and they need to take that fact seriously, since it can affect their reputation today and potentially come into play later in life when they're applying for college and for jobs.
Facebook public-policy representative Nicky Jackson Colaco advises parents to sit down with their kids and talk about the importance of protecting one's online identity. Maintaining open communication with your children is the key to understanding exactly how they're using Facebook. “I'd never send my son onto the football field without pads and knowledge of the game,” Colaco says, “and it's exactly the same with Facebook.” If you have a Facebook profile, consider sending your child a friend request--not necessarily as a spying tool, but to remind your child of your own online presence. If you don't have a Facebook account, ask your child to show you their profile. It helps to familiarize yourself as much as possible with the site's privacy controls and other settings, because the more you know about Facebook, the better equipped you can be if something serious ever arises. It's also a good idea to take a look at your child's photos and wall posts to make sure they are age appropriate. Remind your child that the Internet in general, but especially Facebook, is not a kids-only zone, and that adults can see what's on their profile as well. Maintaining an appropriate online presence as a teenager will help your child build a respectable online footprint. Remember: The Internet never forgets. If your kid really has something to hide, they might make a Facebook profile behind your back, or have one account that's parent-friendly and a separate account for their friends. If they show you a profile that seems skimpy on content, that could be a red flag. That's where PC and Web-monitoring tools could come into play (see the "Monitoring Behavior" section on the next page). Finally, go over Facebook's privacy settings with your child, and show them how to activate the highest level of security. Emphasize that Facebook is a place for friends and not strangers, and then change their profile to “friends only.” Again, remind your child to be wary of what they post in their status updates, since oversharing online can lead to consequences in the real world. “As the site gets bigger, it's important to have everyone working together--us, parents, kids, our safety advisory board--to make sure the site remains a safe place,” Colaco says. Cyberbullying

The suicides of 13-year-old Megan Meier and 15-year-old Phoebe Prince have brought media attention to the potentially devastating effects of cyberbullying. A study performed as part of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, a division of the Pew Research center, reports that “32 percent of online teens have experienced some sort of harassment via the Internet,” including private material being forwarded without permission, threatening messages, and embarrassing photos posted without their consent.
Research performed at the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center shows that, while adults are inclined to moderate their online behavior, children and teens are “significantly more willing to 'go further' and to type very shocking things that they would never say in person… Kids believe that online statements simply 'don't count' because they’re not being said to someone's face.” Because young people tend to believe that they aren’t accountable for their online actions, Facebook becomes a convenient place to target victims for bullying. Although you can't do much to prevent your child from being bullied online, you can help them end the harassment if it starts. The MARC Center has several guides offering tips on how to handle cyberbullying, and all of them start with communicating directly with your child--don't be afraid to get involved. If you think your child is being bullied, advise your child to spend less time on the site in question, or flag the bully by notifying the Website. If the behavior is also happening at school, notify the school's administrators so that they, too, can get involved. Facebook also makes it easy to report harassment issues, and encourages users to do so. But what if you find out that your child is the one doing the bullying? Both scenarios are possible, and both should be dealt with. In a New York Times Q&A session on cyberbullying, expert Elizabeth K. Englander of the MARC Center addresses an approach that parents should take if they discover that their child is the bully. She first recommends that you discuss with your child why cyberbullying is hurtful, and bring up some of the tragic cases of teen suicide related to online harassment. Try to understand that your child could be reacting to pressure from friends, or that your child may be retaliating against someone who hurt their feelings in a similar manner. Although such circumstances don’t excuse the behavior, learning about them could bring a larger issue to your attention. Finally, establish a set of rules for your teen to follow when using Facebook and other social networking sites, and monitor your child’s usage, perhaps even placing a daily time limit.

Stranger Danger

Earlier this year, 33-year-old Peter Chapman was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping, raping, and murdering a 17-year-old girl he met through Facebook. Chapman, a registered sex offender, had created a fake profile and pretended to be 17 years old to gain the victim’s trust.
If you or your child encounters a known sex offender on Facebook, report that person right away. Facebook has a special form for this. Despite Facebook's valiant efforts to rid its site of online predators, the system isn't foolproof. The site has banned convicted sex offenders from joining, and in 2008 all of the known sex offenders already on the site were removed. However, considering the case of Peter Chapman, predators are still finding ways to cheat the system. As mentioned earlier, you can limit privacy settings so that your child is directly interacting only with people they know--and more important, you can hide information such as your child's age, school, and full name from people who are not direct friends. Stress to your child the importance of avoiding people they do not know in real life. Even if the stranger's profile says that they are the same age as your child and that they go to a nearby school, the profile could be a decoy. Your child can report to Facebook any stranger who tries to contact them or engage in inappropriate activity. Third-Party Applications

Many third-party applications on Facebook are aimed directly at teens--often they involve games, establishing crushes, or sprucing up profiles. But many kids don't quite grasp that these Facebook components are not actually created by Facebook, and that therefore they have different terms of service.

Be sure to explain to your kids that apps can't use their profile without permission, and make sure they know what they're allowing. Even worse, some of these external downloads could contain malware. Sunbelt Software has reported several suspicious Facebook scams, from a Texas Hold’em poker app containing adware to various phishing scams under similar disguises. Make sure you have an up-to-date antivirus program and ad-blocking software that could catch these threats. Talk to your kids about skimming through the terms of service and privacy policies for applications before they accept the download. Also advise them never to open a link posted on their wall from someone they don't know--it could point to a malicious site. Monitoring Behavior

If you want to keep a more watchful eye on your kids' online behavior, you can use any of several effective tools. SafetyWeb is an online service geared toward parents who wish to keep tabs on what their kids are doing online. It checks across 45 different social networking sites to see if your child has a registered public profile, and it monitors those accounts for any potentially threatening activities. Monitored platforms include Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, Twitter, and YouTube. It also recognizes LiveJournal as a social network and will monitor that site, but it has yet to include other blogging platforms such as Tumblr.
SafetyWeb monitors your child's online activity for you, so you're not in the dark about their accounts and activities. The service will notify you, the parent, if your child has posted anything potentially unsafe or inappropriate, within categories related to drugs and alcohol, sex, depression, profanity, and cyberbullying. That way, you can check your child's public activity without having to join every site or read every post they make. McGruff Safeguard software takes online monitoring a step further: It can record every move your child makes on the Internet, covering everything from instant-message logs to search terms on Google. Parents can keep a close eye on their children and discuss any behavior found to be dangerous or inappropriate. Whether you use a software monitoring tool or not, experts agree that having regular conversations with your children about their online usage is the most important element to keeping them safe and aware of the dangers of the Web.

For some parents just having passwords isn’t enough. They want to be their kid’s “friend” too.
A new study on social networking trends and practice found that 16
percent of teens say friending their parents was a precondition for
joining the social networking site.
From the AJC:

” ‘Facebook continues to be the new frontier in the
ever-evolving relationship between parent and child,’ said Kristen
Campbell of Kaplan Test Prep, which conducted the study.”
“Although roughly two-thirds of U.S. teenagers feel at ease having
their parents friend them on Facebook, for many teens getting friended
by their parents is like, OMG, sharing a tender moment with them in
public.”
“Andrea Shelton has personal experience with this when she posted “Spencer, you’re the man,” recently on his wall.”
“ ‘I thought it was cute,’ said Shelton, a resident of Buckhead. ‘He was mortified and I learned a lesson: lay low, mama.’…
“Shelton, who admittedly was late coming to the site, said that
friending children was some of the best advice she’d gotten.”“ ‘As much
as I’d like to withdraw from this cyberworld, we’ve been thrust into
it,’ she said.”
“As it were, Shelton and other parents said they’ve taken a more
proactive stance and counseled against engaging in course talk or
bulling, for instance, and warned that ‘whatever you put out there a
future employer can use it against you.’ ”
“ ‘So far so good,’ Shelton said. ‘My big worry is what if he has another cyber- life I don’t know about.’ ”

“Then in another breath she said that in a few years,
‘Facebook is going to seem like nothing compared to driving. I
understand my prayer life will increase at that moment.’ “

While Friending may seem like an easy solution, my resident Facebook
expert – Michael—says that through privacy settings and lists you can
keep certain people from seeing certain status updates or photos. He
says you can save the setting to click on hide from the same people
every time.
The AJC story reports:

“The study found that 65 percent of teens “are not hiding
and that is positive,” said Campbell, an executive director at the
company that develops college prep programs.”
“A separate survey of 973 high school students reported that of teens
who said their parents were on Facebook, 56 percent provided their
parents with full profile access — status updates, party photos and all
— than with no access at all. Only 9 percent of teens gave their
parents limited access. (The survey was conducted by e-mail of 2,313
Kaplan Test Prep students who took the SAT and/or ACT between June 2010 and December 2010”….

I recently Friended my favorite babysitter who went off to college
this year. I didn’t ask her at the beginning of the year because I
didn’t want her thinking the creepy 38-year-old lady is being a busy
body. But she called me over Christmas break to check in and we had a
lovely hour-long talk, and I wanted to show her photos of the “baby” so I
just Friended her and she accepted. It is nice to be able to talk with
her and for her to see my photos of the kids. I am helping her with some
career contacts so Facebook makes that easier. I do like looking at her
photos from college. They make me wistful. Nothing bad going on at all –
she’s such a good girl.
I am also on Facebook with a 20-year-old friend who is a nanny for
some kids at our school. (She texts me a lot so I am learning about
texting from her.) Her posts and photos are all benign but what I have
noticed is that none of her friends have any protection on their pages. I
can look at all their photos. They need to change their privacy
settings.
So have you required your kids to be your “friend” on
Facebook? Why or why not? Do you comment on things? (Even at my age it’s
funny when moms comment on their kids’ pages. They always say crazy
things. I have one friend from high school whose mom is constantly
harassing him to call her. It makes me laugh. I am also Friends with a
lot of my friends’ moms on Facebook. I enjoy keeping in touch with the
moms I grew up around. I especially enjoy one of my college roommate’s
moms. She is always working on interesting things.)
http://blogs.ajc.com/momania/2011/02/07/do-your-kids-have-to-friend-you-on-facebook/?cxntfid=blogs_momania

Sex offenders fight for right to use Facebook, LinkedIn
Legal battles pit public outrage over sex crimes against guarantees of individual freedom

By Charles Wilson


updated 5/30/2012 5:02:19 PM ET

INDIANAPOLIS — Registered sex offenders who have been banned from social networking websites are fighting back in the nation's courts, successfully challenging many of the restrictions as infringements on free speech and their right to participate in common online discussions.

The legal battles pit public outrage over sex crimes against cherished guarantees of individual freedom and the far-reaching communication changes brought by Facebook, LinkedIn and dozens of other sites.

"It's going to be really, really hard, I think, to write something that will achieve the state's purpose in protecting children online but not be restrictive enough to be unconstitutional," said Carolyn Atwell-Davis, director of legislative affairs at the Virginia-based National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Courts have long allowed states to place restrictions on convicted sex offenders who have completed their sentences, controlling where many of them live and work and requiring them to register with police. But the increasing use of social networks for everyday communication raises new, untested issues. The bans generally forbid offenders to join social networks or chat rooms or use instant-messaging programs — just a few of the online tools that civil liberties advocates say have become virtually indispensable to free speech.

After hearing challenges, federal judges in two states threw out laws or parts of laws that they deemed too stringent. In Nebraska, the decision allowed sex offenders to join social networks. And in Louisiana, a new law lets offenders use the Internet for shopping, reading news and exchanging email. A case filed against Indiana's law is under review.

Authorities insist the bans address a real problem: the need to protect children from pedophiles who prowl online hangouts visited by kids.

"It's hard to come up with an example of a sexual predator who doesn't use some form of social networking anymore," said Steve DeBrota, an assistant U.S. attorney in Indianapolis who prosecutes child sex crimes.

Ruthann Robson, a professor of constitutional law at the City University of New York, said the bans could eventually be taken up by the Supreme Court if the justices decide there's a constitutional question.

"If we think that the government can curtail sex offenders' rights without any connection to the actual crime, then it could become a blanket prohibition against anyone who is accused of a crime, no matter what the crime is," Robson said.

Supporters of the bans say they target repeat offenders such as a Maryland man charged with extorting a 16-year-old girl Indiana girl to perform sexual acts during video chats. He was free on bond when he was accused of doing the same thing to more underage girls.

Trevor J. Shea, 21, of Mechanicsburg, Md., was sentenced to 33 years in federal prison in January after pleading guilty to seven counts of production of child pornography.

Xavier Von Erck, founder of Perverted Justice Inc., a group devoted to exposing online sexual predators, said it doesn't make sense for judges to let pedophiles troll the Web for more victims but revoke the voting rights of people convicted of lesser crimes. He called that "judicial hypocrisy."

The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana, which is challenging Indiana's 2008 law, argues that it's unconstitutional to bar sex offenders who are no longer in prison or on probation from using basic online services.

"To broadly prohibit such a large group of persons from ever using these modern forms of communication is just something the First Amendment cannot tolerate," said Ken Falk, legal director of Indiana's ACLU chapter.

The case is scheduled for a court hearing Thursday. The main plaintiff, referred to in the suit only as "John Doe," was convicted on two counts of child exploitation in 2000 and released from prison in 2003, according to federal court documents.

The man cannot send questions to televised debates or comment on news stories on local websites because doing so requires a Facebook account, the ACLU contends. Neither can he communicate with his out-of-state family members using the social network or post his business profile on LinkedIn.

The plaintiff is also forbidden to supervise his teenage son's Internet use or investigate questionable friend requests sent to his child, the ACLU claims.

Prosecutors argue that social networking sites aren't the only forms of communication.

"The fact is that telephones still work. People including registered sex offenders may still congregate, discuss, debate and even demonstrate," Indiana Deputy Attorney General David Arthur wrote in a brief.

Television and radio are still widespread and offer numerous call-in shows. Newspapers still accept letters to the editor, he added.

The ACLU says precedent is on its side. The lawsuit cites a February ruling in Louisiana in which U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson found that the state's prohibition was too broad and "unreasonably restricts many ordinary activities that have become important to everyday life."

Louisiana lawmakers passed a new law this month that more narrowly defines what sites are prohibited. News and government sites, email services and online shopping are excluded from the new rules, as are photo-sharing and instant-messaging systems. The measure takes effect Aug. 1.

But courts continue to wrestle with the issue in Indiana and Nebraska, where a federal judge in 2009 blocked part of a law that included a social networking ban. A second legal challenge by an Omaha-area sex offender is set for trial in July.

"I think policymakers are struggling to come up with the right policy that makes sense," Atwell-Davis said. "There's no silver bullet."


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/47619383/ns/technology_and_science-security/