This following link is a film that shows how kids/teenagers are easy to fall into internet traps, scams and so on, specially with chat rooms and social networks.
It's worth to watch!
http://www.novamov.com/video/cxh2fh1ffrjy6
This is the trailer of the movie:
This is a small film that shows what happens when your online life comes to your real life...
Creapy and scary isn't it???
SOME NEWS AND ARTICLES FOR MY RESEARCH
Underground Internet cafes will be targeted in a four-month crackdown designed to stop teenagers accessing harmful and violent content.
Internet bars located in rural areas, joint rural-urban areas, and locations surrounding middle and primary schools are the main targets of the campaign.
"Illegal Internet bars are harming left-behind rural teenagers that lack parental care because their parents are away trying to make a living in cities," Zhou Yongping, deputy director of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, said in a national teleconference yesterday.
"There is also a trend of more illegal Internet bars appearing in urban-rural joint areas and city communities."
The campaign will run from June 1 until Sept 30, with the participation of the administration, the ministries of public security, culture, and industry and information technology, as well as the civilization office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
Zhou said local authorities would confiscate facilities and equipment belonging to illegal businesses, instead of simply punishing violators with fines. Those found violating laws would also face criminal punishment.
Tao Ran, a medical expert on Internet addiction at Beijing's Military General Hospital, said illegal cafes lured many pupils and middle school students away from their studies.
They could access unhealthy content, including obscene and violent images and even information about gun sales and weapons, he said.
Tao welcomed the campaign but worried that it would only have an impact in the short term.
As part of the campaign, authorities will appeal for information from the public to help them find the illegal Internet bars, which are often hidden and are difficult to identify.
Phone numbers and e-mail addresses which people can contact with tip-offs would be published in middle and primary schools, city communities and shops in the countryside from next month.
"The overall general public will be mobilized to participate in the campaign," Zhou said.
Tao compared Internet bars that allow students to access harmful content to the recruiting of teenagers into prostitution and drug trafficking.
"It is an infringement on their spiritual world, and we have to give enough attention to bad influences on youngsters," he said.
"Legislation should stipulate heavier criminal punishment for those offering unhealthy online services," Tao said.
"Simply confiscating their earnings won't solve the problem as there are huge profits involved."
Rise in demand for outlets
The number of illegal Internet cafes is growing because of demand, the limited number of legal outlets, limited access to the Web and a lack of enforcement, Tao said.
Nanfang Daily newspaper reported yesterday that children were watching porn in a number of illegal Internet cafes in a local village in Longgang district of Shenzhen.
Local government agencies occasionally raid the premises and order all computers to be confiscated, but illegal operators often bribe authorities and ask for computers to be returned so the business can continue, said the report.
Longgang is a huge industrial area with more than 3 million migrant workers, and Internet bars are their main entertainment venues.
Official data show that the area has 256 legal Internet cafes with far fewer in remote industrial areas, the newspaper reported.
Illegal Internet bars make large profits because they have much lower costs compared to registered outlets.
Underground Internet bars also have poor quality computers, so even if they have many terminals the businesses are still cheaper to operate.
A national regulation released in 2004 requires the owners of registered Internet cafes to have a minimum of 1 million in the bank, 200 computers and an operating area of more than 300 sq m.
Should Illinois sex offenders be kicked off the Net?
If you believe its sponsors, a new Illinois law will keep sex offenders from recruiting children on the Internet.
"If the predator is supposed to be a registered sex offender, they should keep their Internet distance as well as their physical distance," said sponsor Bill Brady, a Republican state senator, according to the Chicago Tribune. "The object is to protect innocent individuals on the Internet from sex offenders."
If that were its effect, this would be a laudable piece of legislation. But in reality, the state law is written so broadly, it would effectively prohibit registered sex offenders from using the Internet.
It says "social-networking Web sites" are off limits, and defines those as "an Internet Web site containing profile Web pages of the members of the Web site that include the names or nicknames of such members," or photographs, or any other personal information. Offenders must "refrain from accessing or using" such Web sites.
Unfortunately, the Illinois state legislature didn't seem to recognize that many popular Web sites--perhaps even the majority of the large ones--fall into those categories.
Google.com features user profiles, including name, photos and personal information. So do Yahoo.com, Amazon.com, geek site Slashdot.org, and aggregator site Digg.com.
Sites like Hulu.com, Netflix, and Pandora do, too, as do TV.com, MP3.com, and CNET.com. This overly broad scope makes the law vulnerable to a First Amendment challenge. (Those last three are our sister sites and are owned by CNET News publisher CBS Interactive.)
(It is surely coincidence that Bill Brady is a candidate for governor of Illinois, whose campaign biography says: "He fought for and passed legislation to protect children from sexual predators.")
Now, perhaps Brady's intent truly was to ban sex offenders from the Internet, although if that's true you wouldn't know it from the former developer and real estate agent public statements on the topic. Nor was it probably apparent to his colleagues in the state capitol, where the legislation was unanimously approved by both chambers--or to Gov. Pat Quinn, who signed it into law this week.
Like it or not, using Google, Yahoo, TV.com, and so on is part of modern life, and it's reasonable to hope that even sex offenders could be reintegrated into society rather than cordoned off from it and therefore more likely to relapse. One Justice Department release says that 5.3 percent of male sex offenders were rearrested within three years after their release from state prison.
Brady's legislation also does not distinguish between violent criminals who have served prison time for rape--and adults who are registered sex offenders because of youthful hijinks.
The Economist published two stories on this topic last week. One, called "America's Unjust Sex Laws," says: "Janet Allison was found guilty of being 'party to the crime of child molestation' because she let her 15-year-old daughter have sex with a boyfriend. The young couple later married. But Ms. Allison will spend the rest of her life publicly branded as a sex offender."
A second article tells the story of Wendy Whitaker, a 17-year-old high school student in Georgia, who preformed oral sex on a boy in her class. "Her classmate was three weeks shy of his 16th birthday. That made Ms. Whitaker a criminal. She was arrested and charged with sodomy, which in Georgia can refer to oral sex. She met her court-appointed lawyer five minutes before the hearing. He told her to plead guilty. She did not really understand what was going on, so she did as she was told," the magazine reported.
No wonder a Human Rights Watch report recommends a rethinking of U.S. laws in this area.
It would be one thing if Illinois' new law said "sex offenders shall not use the Internet to harm or seduce a minor," or language to that effect. Unfortunately, the man who would be governor of that state seems to be more interested in taking credit for enacting a law rather than ensuring the right law is enacted.
CNET Blog Network member Larry Magid has also weighed in on this case.
PR Campaign Devoted to Keeping Kids Safe Online
Published: 01.02.2011 12:53
February 1 marked the beginning of a two-week campaign called Be Smart Online, which focuses on raising awareness among children aged 8 to 14 about the potential hazards lurking on social media and virtual entertainment worlds.
"Young people are socially inquisitive and it is only good if they can convey information about themselves and get information in return from the world," Malle Hallimäe, the coordinator of the campaign and a director at the Union for Child Welfare, said on ETV. "But of course it is important to know how to avoid putting yourself in a dangerous situation or violating the rights of others."
Ilvi Pere, the training and publicity director for the campaign, said a survey has shown that Estonian children are among the most wired in Europe and thus more susceptible. Pere, who deals with information security at the Tiger Leap Foundation, said that the rate of cyberbullying is twice above the EU average among Estonian and Romanian children.
Hallimäe said the project will encourage parents and children to talk more about the internet's dangers. Prohibitions are generally not as effective as illustrating the risks, she said.
A particular and surprising aspect in the case of younger Estonians, says media teacher Maria Murumaa - who defended a master's thesis on internet use among adolescents at the University of Tartu - is that they often do not think of other Estonians representing a potential threat, only foreigners.
Sites with ads on the topic:
Children Can Learn Many Things on the Internet...Eek Naked Stuffed Animals! (3 Pictures Total)
Make the Internet a Safe Place by iG Parental Control
What I love most about this ad campaign, by iG Parental Control, is that it's cute, funny and a little wrong at the same time. I'll never look at my teddy bear the same way again.
Advertising Agency: Neogama/BBH, São Paulo, Brazil
VICTIM SUPPORT
FIND YOUR STRENGTH
Victims’ pain: You can read it in their faces This excellent print campaign from the UK, launched last year, last month added a branded mini-flashmob in Manchester to demonstrate the lasting emotional trauma carried by crime victims
Show the world your real face.
On Sept. 18th, turn off your mobile device and get some real facetime
The Offlining, Inc. (www.offlininginc.com) initiative highlights America's ever-growing addiction to technology. Since its Father's Day launch, well over 10,000 people have taken the Offlining pledge to have No Device Dinners with their families. The co-founders — dynamic marketing duo,Mark DiMassimo and Eric Yaverbaum, who took a stance on "Lying in Advertising" for their Tappening campaign (to make tap water cool) — are now fearlessly treading into the territory of… "Religion in Advertising".
Download a single sexual image of a minor or sexually entice a minor online, and you have committed a federal crime. The decisions you make online have consequences which will last a lifetime. Investigators and police officers across the country are online 24 hours a day, seven days a week, searching for people who use the Internet to abuse children.
You may think the Internet gives you anonymity. You may think that if you never come in physical contact with a child you met online, you have done nothing illegal. You are wrong.
Exploiting a minor is a major offense, whether you “meant” to do it or not. You will ruin your life, the lives of the ones you love, and the life of an innocent, young stranger.
This website has been created in conjunction with the United States Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood (PSC) initiative and its PSC Internet safety partners INOBTR, iKeepSafe and the Hispanic Communications Network to put an end to the dangers facing children online by explaining the crimes and consequences that pertain to Internet Predators. This site also provides links to resources for predators and potential predators to discuss their individual situations and find the help they need to stop the abuse.
Not great but worth a look to spark ideas:
Say it to my face campaign
More and more campaigns are arising on kid friendly websites so that the message gets out to keep school and the Internet a safe environment. Many websites also have live chats with mentors for kids who need to talk to someone.
The foot prints we leave there,it's forever imprinted in the internet...it's worth thinking about how this effects kids in the long run.
I'm also thinking how kids are getting younger in using the internet...my youngest cousin who is 6 years old can search on Google all by himself...he is watched over by his parents, but what if kids are not been guarded...
The web is open for anyone to post material on it and that means sometimes there are things that you’ll see, which you wish you hadn’t.
If you see something that you just don’t like, just close the screen on your laptop or turn off the monitor and go and an adult you trust. If there’s no one around, close the site using the cross at the top of the browser. If you think the content might be illegal, like racist hate sites or pictures of children being abused you can report it directly to an organisation called the internet watch foundation: www.iwf.org.uk. If the thing you don’t like is a person – so for example, someone exposing themselves on webcam or sending you indecent pictures – you can report that to CEOP and we will help. Use ‘CEOP report’
Unfortunately, as well as great people, there are some really strange people who use the internet - people who aren’t friendly or who have bad intentions. If someone is being nasty to you online or on your mobile or if someone is being inappropriate; saying sexual things or asking you to do things that you feel are wrong, start by saving the conversation, blocking them and then report it to CEOP using ‘CEOP report’ Sometimes, people can seem really friendly and then do things which make you question the friendship and make you feel weird.
People who are looking to abuse young people online will often manipulate relationships and pressure you into doing things you feel uncomfortable with. Examples of this can include talking in a way that you don’t like, asking you to do things on webcam or with your camera that feel wrong or uncomfortable or making you feel anxious or trapped in a romantic or sexual relationship.
The first thing to realise about this kind of relationship is that it is wrong. Adults who pressure young people into doing anything that they don’t feel comfortable with should be reported using ‘CEOP report’ and blocked. They can be very clever and make you feel as though you have to do something because you owe them, or because otherwise they will get you in trouble.
This is wrong and you should report them.
You need to know that you won’t be in trouble, whatever you have done. These adults are sometimes very skilful at making those they abuse or try to build a relationship with, feel guilty about what has happened. They do this to try and make the young person keep quiet about what has happened. It can make you feel unsafe and dirty. If someone does this to you, the responsibility for what happened is theirs, not yours and you can talk it through with a number of different people.
Mobiles:
Mobiles are a great way to stay in touch with family and friends, but phones have loads of other functions.
Chatting, texting, online access, picture, video messaging, listening to music and sharing stuff for free through bluetooth are all really cool ways of using mobiles. You can even access your social networking site like BEBO or Myspace and watch television.
GPS tracking technology can now be used on your mobiles. So if you’re lost in town somewhere, you can use your phone to show you where you are on a map and give you directions to where you need to be. Social networking sites have teamed up with this technology and through some apps, you can now also see where your contacts are on a map too.
Although it’s great to have mobile access to most things we used to have to do on our PC at home, there are some risks that it’s worth considering to make sure you’re as safe as you can be.
It's a good idea to only give your number out to friends who you know in the real world. If your mobile number is given to people that you don’t know, they may hassle you. This is why it’s also best not to put your number on your profile of your social networking site (like Bebo, MySpace and Facebook).
Whilst having a camera phone is cool and really useful, be careful if you share your photos with others. Pictures can be changed or shared around, so think about what the image is and who you are sending it to, before you press send. Once it’s out there it’s out there forever!
Bluetoothing is a quick and easy way of sharing stuff like photos, files and music. It’s important to be aware that unless you lock your Bluetooth, anyone in the area can access things in your phone, like your contacts. If you don’t want to share this information with strangers (why would you?!), then make sure you lock your Bluetooth.
It’s also a good idea to change your password from the default setting of 0000 so people can’t guess it. Locking your Bluetooth can help reduce the risk of getting viruses or spam to your mobile.
If you are receiving unwanted or insulting texts, you can contact your service provider.
The worrying thing about the social networking using GPS technology, is that your contacts will be on a map, showing exactly where they are. If you can see them, your contacts can also see where you are too. Quite scary if you have contacts on your profile that you don’t know or don’t trust. If you do want to use these sort of apps, you need to remember to use your privacy settings and remove anyone you don’t know or don’t trust, from your contacts. Sharing Files:
Sharing files can be a brilliant way to swap music, films and even homework. But be careful on peer to peer (P2P) sites, as you don't want to download more than you bargain for.
On some P2P sites, the files can be mislabelled, so you might think you’re downloading Lady Ga Ga’s latest video, but end up with a rubbish tune! Or even worse- a pornographic or violent film. You need to be especially careful since you could also be breaking the law.
A lot of files on unregulated file sharing sites aren’t good quality, so it’s worth paying for your music or videos, to ensure you can actually hear and see them properly.
Swapping files can also mean you end up swapping viruses or spy-ware, which can really damage your computer, and even lead to more pop-ups and SPAM. So it’s a good idea to pay for your downloads; this will help protect yourself and your computer from dodgy stuff or viruses.
When podcasting – be careful about what you watch or listen to. It can be easy to download something inappropriate, so always make sure that you go to reputable sites.
Benefits for Learners
What are the potential formal or informal educational benefits to individual users of using social networking services?
Young people as social participants and active citizens
Social networking services can provide an accessible and powerful toolkit for highlighting and acting on issues and causes that affect and interest young people. Social networking services can be used for organising activities, events, or groups to showcase issues and opinions and make a wider audience aware of them. information
Young people developing a voice and building trust
Social networking services could be used to hone debating and discussion skills in a local, national or international context. This helps users develop public ways of presenting themselves. Personal skills are very important in this context: to make, develop and keep friendships, and to be regarded as a trusted connection within a network.
Social networking services can provide young people with opportunities to learn how to function successfully in a community, navigating a public social space and developing social norms and skills as participants in peer groups.
Young people as content creators, managers and distributors
Social networking services rely on active participation: users take part in activities and discussions on a site, and upload, modify or create content. This supports creativity and can support discussion about ownership of content and data management.
Young people who use social networking services to showcase content – music, film, photography or writing – need to know what permissions they are giving the host service, so that they can make informed decisions about how and what they place on the site.
Users might also want to explore additional licensing options that may be available to them within services – for example Creative Commons licensing – to allow them to share their work with other people in a range of ways.
Young people as collaborators and team players
Young people as collaborators and team players Social networking services are designed to support users working, thinking and acting together. They also require listening and compromising skills. Young people may need to ask others for help and advice in using services, or understand how platforms work by observing others, particularly in complex gaming or virtual environments. Once users have developed confidence in a new environment, they will also have gained the experience to help others.
Young people becoming independent and building resilience
Online spaces are social spaces, and social networking services offer similar opportunities to those of offline social spaces: places for young people to be with friends or to explore alone, building independence and developing the skills they need to recognise and manage risk, to learn to judge and evaluate situations, and to deal effectively with a world that can sometimes be dangerous or hostile. However, such skills can't be built in isolation, and are more likely to develop if supported. Going to a social networking service for the first time as a young person alone can be compared to a young person's first solo trip to a city centre, and thus is important for a young person to know how to stay safe in this new environment.
Young people developing key and real-world skills
Managing an online presence and being able to interact effectively online is becoming an increasingly important skill in the workplace. Being able to quickly adapt to new technologies, services and environments is already regarded as a highly valuable skill by employers, and can facilitate both formal and informal learning. Most services are text based, which encourages literacy skills, including interpretation, evaluation and contextualisation.
What are some of the potential uses of social networking services for schools and educators?
Developing e-portfolios
E-portfolios are an online space where learners can record their achievements and collect examples of their work. E-portfolios don't have to be restricted to institutional provision. Learners can be encouraged to think about setting up “professional personal” sites for exploring and promoting their talents and interests. Or they might want to save or export social networking services activity as evidence of their skills; for example, a forum thread which demonstrates their negotiation skills, or a personal site or post which acts as a great example of their self-motivation and passion.
Literacy and communication skills
Using sites to communicate, collaborate and create means learners use and can develop a wide range of literacy skills.
Collaboration and group work
Young people already use a host of technologies – for instance, instant messaging programs such as MSN – to work together on an anytime, anywhere basis. By using social networking services' collaborative tools or setting up groups, young people can semi-formalise their efforts and document discussions and milestones as they go.
Learning about data protection and copyright issues
Data protection is an important issue for anyone who creates, uploads or downloads content online. Young people should consider who has permission to use online content. Considering the benefits of making it easier for others to use or reuse content, looking at the commercial implications of licensing, and understanding what kinds of permissions service providers request, is a compelling way to start investigating differences in licensing agreements (for example, Creative Commons licensing) and the terms of service agreements. Equipping young people to fully understand what permissions they can choose or agree to is an important digital literacy skill which can help develop creative, social or entrepreneurial skills.
Learning about self-representation and presentation – thinking about how you might be viewed across different contexts
An important part of digital literacy is understanding how distributed activity – the things that we do across a wide range of different websites – affects the impression we make on other people. Managing our web presence – understanding how to use permissions to keep information private or share it with specific individuals – is essential for getting the most out of communications platforms and for keeping control of any personal information that we choose to share. Thinking through personal rules for sharing or making information public is a useful strategy.
Learning about e-safety issues
E-safety covers a range of online issues but ties in firmly to the real world: staying safe, keeping personal information safe, protecting yourself and your belongings. Making sure that we don't participate in bullying or other anti-social behaviour, and helping out other people who might affected by these issues, is a key part of digital citizenship.
Producing public showcases for work, events or organisations
Social networking services can be a great way to quickly create websites to advertise or showcase events or groups, or to present work.
Forming communities of practice
Educators have long recognised the value of using blogs as a way of creating, making visible and fostering networks around particular topics or interests. More recently, educators have been exploring the range of Web 2.0 tools: wikis, virtual worlds and social networking services, including video- and photo-management sites. Educators and other professionals are increasingly using social networking services to form communities and connect to others who share their interests. Ning in Education and Second Life Grid are examples of umbrella groups that support educators using or wanting to use Web 2.0 tools for education.
Organising and scheduling work (time management)
Most social networking services have calendar tools that learners can use to schedule their personal and educational timetables. Some can export or import events from other web-based calendars, or third-party applications may exist that can help with this. Working publicly or in groups where others share your calendar or events can be a great motivator.
Being where learners are
In addition to providing a whole community with useful information about a school, college, organisation or event, a profile on a social network sends a clear message to learners that you are aware of the types of spaces they enjoy online. This is a good reminder that these spaces are public and inhabited by people who may not necessarily be within their friendship networks, encouraging them to look at issues around permissions and sharing personal information. During Childnet's research into cyberbullying, children and young people said that one of the reasons they wouldn't tell their teachers about being bullied online was that they didn't think staff understood the types of services they used. Asserting a presence online sends a clear message that you know what services that are popular with your learners and understand the usefulness of these services to them, and that you would understand if they had a problem and wanted to come and talk to you about it.
Negative views of social networking services
Parents and educators alike are understandably concerned about illegal and anti-social behaviour online. Recent media coverage of social networking services has tended to focus on the negative aspects of services, for example the presence of predatory adults who want to use services to contact and groom young people . Illegal and inappropriate behaviour is an unfortunate fact of human societies, whether it takes place online or offline. However, over-emphasising these types of activity is not useful in supporting young people to recognise, manage and negotiate risk for themselves. Just as in the real world, we need to approach risk in an even-handed and realistic way in order to best manage it. Most responsible social networking services employ people to post-moderate anti-social activity, although it should be noted that the amount of information published means that services are reliant on users making reports.
This year the British monarchy launched its own YouTube channel, and the Queen broadcast her Christmas message online , which might suggest that social networking services are regarded by the establishment as a legitimate and effective way to reach a national and international audience, as television was when the Queen's speech was first broadcast in 1957.
Misunderstanding the nature of the environment
Many users believe that they are writing for a closed group of friends, unaware that the information they have posted may be publicly available and able to be searched for and read by a much wider audience. Acquisti & Gross (2006) characterise social networking services as “imagined communities” in recognition of the gap between users' perceptions of a private, closed network and the reality of who can access their information.
Additionally, it may not occur to young people that their public arguments or “flame wars”, their overly enthusiastic critiques of their teachers, or the risqué pictures of themselves that seemed quite funny at the time may still be around in a few years when they are applying for a job or trying to get into university, for example.
We don't yet know the full consequences for a generation that has grown up online, or the future implications of new types of search, for example social searches, which aggregate information from across a range of social networking sites by your name or email address, or of the development of facial-recognition search software
A CHANGING LANDSCAPE!!!
“...technology has not only mediated communication in countless ways, but ... the very ways we communicate – and even the ways we talk and think about communication – are changing as a result.”
Social networking services are changing the ways in which people use and engage with the Internet and with each other. Young people, particularly, are quick to use the new technology in ways that increasingly blur the boundaries between online and offline activities.
Social networking services are also developing rapidly as technology changes with new mobile dimensions and features. Children and young people within the UK, who have grown up taking the Internet and mobile technologies for granted, make up a significant segment of the “beta generation” – the first to exploit the positive opportunities and benefits of new and emerging services, but also the first to have to negotiate appropriate behaviours within the new communities, and to have to identify and manage risk.
Social networking services are on the rise globally, and this change is also evident in increased UK engagement with sites. Ofcom's recent International Communications Market 07 report found evidence that more adults use social networking sites in the UK than in any other of the European countries included in the survey. ComScore data from August 2007 suggest that UK Internet users clock up an average of 23 visits and 5.3 hours on social networking sites each month. Ofcom reported that 39% of all UK Internet users use social networking services, while the ComScore figures show 24.9 million individual social networking service visitors in August 2007.
According to recent Hitwise figures, the most popular dedicated social networking sites in the UK are MySpace, Facebook and Bebo . These types of social networking services are profile focused – activity centres around web pages that contain information about the activities, interests and likes (and dislikes) of each member.
While the number of visitors to social networking sites is increasing, so too are the numbers of new services being launched, along with the number of longstanding (within the relatively brief lifespan of the Internet) websites that are adding, developing or refining social networking service features or tools.
The ways in which we connect to social networking services are expanding too. Games-based and mobile-phone-based social networking services that interact with existing web-based platforms or new mobile-focused communities are rapidly developing areas.
DEFENITIONS
“Social networking services” refers here to a wide-range of rapidly developing services tools and practices. Social networking services can be broadly defined as Internet- or mobile-device-based social spaces designed to facilitate communication, collaboration and content sharing across networks of contacts.
Social networking services allow users to manage, build and represent their social networks online. Services usually (but not always) include other individuals; they might also include the profiles of events, companies, even political parties. They may let you add anyone in the network as your friend or contact, or they might ask both parties to agree all connections.
Social networking services typically support the public display of networks, although they may offer privacy restrictions or facilitate closed communities. Permissions are a very important feature of most social networking services. They allow members and groups to control who can access their profiles, information, connections and spaces, as well as determining degrees of access. The level of granularity and control varies from service to service, but typically settings allow you to:
keep your information private (i.e. be seen by only those to whom you give permission) or
restrict the visibility of your information to:
signed-in service members only
people on your contacts list
particular groups of service users
make your information public so that even people who are not members or are not signed in as members of the service can see it.
Through these combinations of privacy settings, users can manage a range of different relationships online, as well as manage their online presence – how they appear to friends, acquaintances or the general public.
Managing relationships online and managing your online presence are key to having fun with and using social networks safely. However, the speed of the development of social networking services may mean that young people are more likely to have developed personal strategies or learnt from peers than from formal instruction and support from adults.
Social networking sites vary in the types of tools and functionality they provide (Boyd & Ellison define social networking sites as having three common elements: a member profile (in their definition this is always a web page), the ability to add other members to a contact list, and supported interaction between members of contact lists (interaction varies greatly, and there will typically be some degree of interaction facilitated between people who are not on each other's contacts lists).
Social networking sites are often perceived by their users as closed environments, where members talk to other members . This impression of social networking services as providing a private space is likely to account for behaviour, language and postings that do not translate well outside their intended closed context. While it is important that children and young people understand the public nature of much of their activity within social networking services (and can use permissions and privacy controls to manage personal information and communications), we also need to ensure that online activity is understood holistically – i.e. as the sum of activity of all the online sites and networks that an individual belongs to.
WHAT DO PEOPLE DO
ON SOCIAL NETWORKING SERVICES?
People use social networking services for countless activities. Among the most common uses, however, are:
Connecting with existing networks, making and developing friendships/contacts
Social networking services provide purpose-built spaces for members to create and present an online representation of themselves, either within friendship or wider networks
Represent themselves online and create and develop an online presence
Young people tend to use social networking services to communicate and socialise with their contacts and consolidate their existing friendship networks. However, in the same way that some children and young people collect trading cards or kinds of toy, some young people use social networks to collect contacts to display their popularity.
Viewing content and/or finding information
As well as keeping up to date with what other people are doing, you can use social networking services to generate recommendations based on likes and activities. Social networking services are awash with content – pictures, music, video, as well as event, organisation and topic information.
Creating and customising profiles
There are many different kinds of profiles, although they typically consist of a web page supported by a range of tools. Profile pages are not just lists of information – they allow members to develop and present an image of themselves to the world, and to establish and project their online identities. Displays of preferences (favourite music, books and films, for example) allow members to share information about themselves.
Most social networking sites also allow members to customise the look and feel of their pages to a greater or lesser extent, through page templates or content, including video, widgets, music and images.
Authoring and uploading your own content
Content might be in the form of messages or blog posts – it might also be photos, video or music.
Adding and sharing third-party content
Third-party content might be in the form of links or embedded content hosted somewhere else – for example, a video hosted at YouTube or another video-hosting service, but playable on a member's profile page.
Content may be added in widget form – widgets can be simple badges (pictures with links back to other sites) or dynamic content, for example, a slide show or the last songs catalogued by a last.fm account. This type of dynamic content makes it easy to move information, content and links from one social networking service to another.
Quizzes and polls are also very popular. Some services allow you to create quizzes or compare yourself with other people on your contacts list who have also answered questions or added a particular application.
Posting messages – public and private
Many services support public and private messaging through message boards or in-service email. MySpace and Facebook offer members an instant messaging system.
Collaborating with other people
By using service tools to create groups, users can, for example, collectively create profiles, hold discussions, and store, share and comment on objects. In-service messaging can be a rich source of informal collaboration.
Young people and social networking services
By using service tools to create groups, users can, for example, collectively create profiles, hold discussions, and store, share and comment on objects. In-service messaging can be a rich source of informal collaboration.
YOUNG PEOPLE AND SOCIAL NETWORKING SERVICES?
Many mainstream social networking services are aimed at teenagers and young adults. Most services have a minimum membership age of 13 or 14, and many explicitly state that they are designed for over-18s. There may be safety restrictions on the accounts of 14- to 17-year-olds; for example, regarding whether their profiles appear in public or off-site searches.
Some sites are specifically designed for young people; for example, both Teen Second Life and Habbo Hotel are aimed at teens. Imbee.com is primarily a blogging service for tweens (children aged 9–13), requiring a parent's permission to sign up. Both Disney and Nick.Com have dedicated services for children – Disney acquired ClubPenguin, a virtual world social networking service aimed at 6- to14-year-olds, in August 2007. Children and tweens can create penguin avatars, for which they can “buy” (with virtual money earned in in-world games) clothes, accessories, pets, homes, furniture, etc.
Services aimed at younger children typically have stricter privacy settings, greater levels of moderation and more limited user interactions. Some require parental permissions – for example, sign up, usually with a credit card – and set preferences, such as the level of in-world communication allowed. As opportunities for contact are limited by safety settings, such child-focused sites may be less suitable for collaborative educational practices and projects than mainstream sites, which make collaboration and contact far easier – factors which bring their own challenges.
The National School Boards Association (in the USA) recently released research findings of an exploration into the online behaviours of 9- to 17-year-olds in the USA . The sample included 2,300 children, young people and parents. Nine- to 17-year-olds reported spending almost as much time on social networking sites and other websites as they do watching television – around nine hours online, compared with 10 hours of TV. Ninety-six per cent of the young people surveyed reported using some form of social networking technology; the findings indicate that education-related topics are the most commonly discussed, with 60% talking about education-related topics and 50% discussing their school work.
It is clear that young people regard social networking services as just another part of their social and often school-related activities.
Educators, parents and carers increasingly recognise the importance of understanding the appeal and use of social networking services among young people. This may be to prevent or respond to a negative incident: cyberbullying or inappropriate content or activities. However, adults should also recognise the benefits of young people's use of technology to support their media literacy skills and social participation, and explore the potential educational benefits of social networking services.
SOCIAL NETWORKING EVALUATION CHART
The following guide is designed to accompany the social networking services evaluation chart, which can be downloaded from Childnet's Digizen website
There are many social networking services. New sites appear daily and existing sites update their services all the time in what is still a rapidly developing area. Most services are profile or content focused, and although they may seem to offer similar services, there are significant differences between sites, tools and services.
This checklist is designed to help you review sites to see whether they meet your needs as an educator (perhaps with a specific learning and teaching aim or project in mind), parent, or even as a potential site member. Currently, most UK school networks block access to many social networking services. However, there are many reasons why educators may explore social networking sites.
The comparison chart looks at several existing services: Bebo, EducatorCentral, Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, Ning, TakingITGlobal and YouTube. These services were chosen to illustrate a reasonable range of the different types of service available.
Bebo, Facebook and MySpace are among the most popular social networking sites in the UK.
The internet has the potential to offer children and young people a wide range of opportunities – to learn, to develop new skills, to keep in touch with friends and make new ones and to have fun. However there are concerns about both inequalities of access to the technology and the possible threats to children’s safety that can exist online.
Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP)
Use the CEOP website to find a number of ways to receive help and advice as well as the option to report any instance of sexual contact or harmful material to CEOP.
Use the Think you know website to download resources on child internet safety for use by children, parents/carers and teachers/trainers.
Threats to children's safety
Threats can arise in the following ways:
Children and young people inadvertently or deliberately accessing either illegal or inappropriate sexual or violent material – illegal material could involve children or adults.
Targeting and grooming of children by predatory adults through chat rooms, possibly adults posing as children
The abuse of children, in some cases in real time using web cams, in order to provide material for paedophile news groups
The use of email, instant messaging etc to bully and harass other – this may be more likely to occur between children and young people
When somebody is discovered to have placed child pornography on the internet or accessed child pornography the police would normally consider whether the individual might also be involved in the active abuse of children. In particular, the individual’s access to children should be established within the family and employment contexts and in other settings (e.g. work with children as a volunteer). If there are particular concerns about one or more specific children, there may be a need to carry out child protection enquiries in respect of these children.
Whilst specialist services may be more likely to come across children and young people who have been involved in either the production or use of pornography, all services have a role to play in enabling children and young people to use the internet safely, fro example by providing information.
Guidelines for internet use by children and young people
Place computers in public places where everyone can see what is being viewed
Take an interest in internet use; talk to young people about what they've seen.
Monitor time spent online to ensure it does not become excessive
Educate young people to use the resource sensibly
Help young people to become critical users; "...is this information true?"
Warn young people about unsavoury sites and discuss the issues involved
Contact the Internet Watch Foundation (www.iwf.org.uk) if anyone finds any material you believe to be illegal
Compile lists of safe sites and chat rooms
Access chat rooms by checking if it is moderated and by whom and finding out if the chat room has a clear terms and conditions policy? Does it have appropriate access control and password verification? Does it remind users of safety issues? Does the chat room give young people genuine opportunities to interact and shape the chat?
Emails/chatrooms
To keep children and young people safe online ensure they are aware of safety tips or rules like the following. These tips will also need to be communicated in a way that does not scare children, but encourages them to take responsibility.
Never tell anyone you meet on the internet your name, address, telephone numbers, or any other information, such as information about your family, where you live or the school you go to.
Do not send anyone your picture, credit card or bank details without checking with a responsible adult.
Never give out your password to anyone, even your best friends.
Do not stay in a chat room if anyone says anything that makes you feel uncomfortable or worried and tell a parent/carer if you see such material.
Always tell an adult if you receive a message that is scary, threatening or rude, do not respond and log off.
If you wish to meet someone you have met in cyberspace, ask a parent/carer's permission and then only when they can be present.
Always be yourself and do not pretend to be anyone or anything you are not.
Never open attachments to emails which come from people or sources you do not know. They may contain viruses and damage your computer.
Learn your 'netiquette' widely accepted rules of behaviour include some of the following. Typing in CAPITAL LETTERS looks like you are shouting so use asterisks for emphasis.
Be aware that people online may no be what they seem, adults can pretend to be children with similar interests to yourself.
Be polite when entering a chat room, check out what people are talking about before participating. Be careful not to use bad language, providers will terminate your account!
Finally enjoy your time on the internet but do not forget about all the other things you can do:
- share time with your family
- read a good book
- play with your friends
- participate in sport
Not only internet is a problem... Everything you do that exposes your life and yourself to much is a problem! Think twice before you do something that you might regret!
Yep, you have to protect yourself when you're in the internet, in social networks.
