Facebook, under pressure from child safety advocate groups, has updated
and improved their "Safety Center." The center now divides safety
issues into five categories: General Safety, Safety for Parents, Safety
for Educators, Safety for Teens, Safety for Law Enforcers.
The focus of this new safety information is for parents and educators
to be better informed on how to handle cyberbullying, which has become a
great concern for those who have, or work with teens . For teens much
of the information on the site is the same as it is for the parents,
with the addition of how to handle suicide threats ( use the hotlines
they provide ) or how to deal with unwanted posted photos (the advice
is to block "your friend.") It is a start, but not all that helpful in
dealing with the complicated issue of teen suicide. Also, for a
humiliated teen, the explanation that photos posted without their
permission are not likely to be removed if they do not violate the
terms of the site, will hardly feel like a safety plan.
The difficulty for younger users is the lack of awareness of the risks
and consequences of "sharing personal information" in a public forum.
Many teens trust their friends without careful scrutiny and there is
status in having many "friends." Part of being an adolescent is
discovering and learning about building trusting relationships Social
media can be a fun way for teens to connect when everyone is getting
along, but can quickly become a source of harassment when someone is no
longer "in."
Bullying is not a new phenomenon, but sites such a Facebook can
unfortunately make it easier for young impulsive teens to use it against
one another. Joe Sullivan, Facebook’s Chief Security Officer, in
a blog post today said, " We've quadrupled the safety content
available, and we've created cleaner, more navigable interfaces to help
you find answers to safety questions fast. This portal—which we've been
testing during the past few weeks—draws multimedia content from Facebook
and from independent organizations specializing in safety and security
online."
Hopefully Sullivan and others in similar positions, can catch up with
the unintended use of their sites and begin to find better ways to
protect the privacy and personal rights of their users. In the meantime,
parents and educators might want to better educate themselves on the
risks involved and support their teens in deciding whether or not those
are risks they are willing to take.
For another article on this topic go to Sarah Perez of Read Write Web there are some
interesting comments that follow it.
