Imagine a place where you realize your importance within the world, providing a sense of identity to live out your wildest dreams. That is the image that social networking sites want you to believe if you sign up. "It's a world where everything moves fast and changes all the time, where relationships are quickly disposed at the click of a mouse, where you can delete your profile if you don't like it and swap an unacceptable identity in the blink of an eye for one that is more acceptable." said Dr. Hinanshu Tyagi, a psychiatrist at West London Mental Health Trust. With lightening fast speeds, you can go just about anywhere on line. However, we seem to have forgotten the issue of safety, the way of communication, and just how fake our "friends" really are. When Tom first created Myspace, was it just a place for friends? Or did he not anticipate the largest social networking site?
Point one: Social networking sites are public, whether users realize it or not. The privacy setting are so permeable, and external access to the network is so easy, that the network is effectively an open site. A survey concluded more than 90% of Facebook participants had provided their full name, personal photo, date of birth, gender, and hometown. Just enough for anyone to steal your identity, or a on line predator to find you. Last year Myspace reported discovering the profiles of 29,000 sex offenders. There are about 600,000 convicted sex offenders living in the United States which means at least 5% were on Myspace. A survey of 935 students concluded that when contacted by a stranger, 65% deleted or ignored the contact, 21% of teen responded to get more information, 8% responded to tell the person to leave them alone, but only 3% of students took action such as blocking the individual from further contact.
Point two: Social networking sties are used by teen an average of one hour and 22 minutes every day. According to psychiatrists, the generation of young adults growing up with...