DeepThought

Social Networking

If there was a competition for internet buzzword of the year, then this year’s winner would probably be ‘social networking’. Briefly social networking (SN) is about using a variety of tools to connect to other individuals or groups. Recently SN sites have concentrated on ‘rich media’ tools by encouraging users to share their own content online, including blogs, photos, videos, music, and other digital files. This raises worries about the dangers associated with sharing personal information and online safety issues. Internet based SN sites are not new, but there has been an unprecedented response to them in the last year, with current figures for popular sites such as MySpace (93,800,857 registered members) and Bebo (22,000,000 registered members) rising daily. Alongside that increase have been several high-profile incidents relating to the safety of popular social networking sites. For example, a 14-year old girl is currently suing MySpace, alleging that she was sexually abused as the result of another user lying about his true identity. These incidents have raised questions regarding the measures that social networking sites take to protect users, specifically those who are under the age of 18. According to children's charity NCH, a third of children use blogs and social networking sites (reported on BBC Online ).

Jessi Hempel writes in BusinessWeek Online. July 14, 2006:

"Friendster's Patent Possibilities
When Friendster gets a patent on social networking ( No. 7,069,308 ), it's a sign it has gone completely establishment […] How can one patent personal connections and contacts?"

anti-social networks legislation

Congressman Fitzpatrick proposed new legislation in the US Congress to amend the Communications Act 1934.

"to require recipients of universal service support for schools and libraries to protect minors from commercial social networking websites and chat rooms.

33 Places to Hangout in the Social Networking Era

“Social networks have had giant growth spurts over the past couple of years, and it seems there's one for everyone: from dogs to moms to book-worms to shoppers. Social networks, I think, more than anything give people a place to belong and to hang out. Because of the drastic growth, popularity and craze these days, I created a list for people who have their odd MySpace or Bebo profiles but would like to seek further and discover new ones

Safety Tips for Social Networks

• InternetSafetyZone ISZ is exploring several avenues including: a series of summer workshops aimed at identifying how children and young people aged 13-19 yrs make risk assessments about the disclosure of personal information based on their knowledge, use and understanding of web-based SN sites; a series of summer training days aimed at local and national educators/trainers; and a fact-finding exercise with leading industry, charity and government online safety practitioners


• BBC NEWS -- July 4 -- The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) will run a series of workshops in UK for parents, children and teachers. Ceop said it was concerned that children were posting personal details and said one in 12 children met up with someone encountered first online.

posted by Denise Carter @ 8:34 AM