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According to Barry Schnitt, Director of Corporate
Communications and Public Policy at Facebook, only 15 -
20% of FB users have ever changed their privacy settings
before. Privacy advocates believe this is because most
people have assumed
they have privacy when signing up for an account. This
means that with FB's recent privacy changes in December,
80 - 85% of users are sharing ALL of their information
with everyone on the web!
1.
A
security researcher demonstrated how easy it was to to
manipulate Facebook's security and privacy mechanisms
and perpetrate a simulated attack on
users.
2. Could a rubber duck steal your identity
on Facebook?
3. Facebook unveils privacy
changes.
4. Ten
Privacy Groups File FTC Complaint Against Facebook for
Recent Privacy
Changes.
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How
Internet-savvy are
7th
graders?
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Recently a group of 7th graders
completed a unit on Internet scams and fraudulent
marketing practices. To evaluate their Internet-savvy
skills they were given a quiz and asked to review seven
Internet websites/services/software and determine which
were good/legitimate and which were scams/fraud/malware
designed to take advantage of Internet users.
Overall, the 7th graders were able to use Google and
their own search skills to correctly identify the
scams/malware/fraud 89% of the time! However, some
questions were more difficult than others. 18% of
them mistakenly identified Spybot, Search and Destroy as
spyware or a scam when, in fact, it is a good anti-spam
product. 30% thought that VLC was a piece of spyware as
well. It is an open source software used to play
various video formats. Also, only a few students could,
after reading through Gamevance's privacy policy, identify
statements that should concern users.
Conclusion from
this exercise? Even with education specifically
focused on these issues, not all 13-year-olds can
correctly evaluate online threats from safe sites and
software all of the
time.
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Book for
Parents:
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About Children
Online
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Children Online offers
innovative and comprehensive workshops on Internet
safety and online education to students, parents,
faculty and administrators. Our approach,
unique in the field of Internet safety, combines a
thorough understanding of Internet technologies, child
development and counseling, to focus on the impact of
the internet on the social, emotional and language
development of young people.
Doug Fodeman and Marje
Monroe, experts in technology, counseling and education,
work together to provide invaluable research and tools
for parents and schools with practical real-life
solutions to the issues faced by young people
online. Since 1997, Marje and Doug have spoken to
thousands of students, teachers and parents.
They have several publications in the area of Internet
safety and offer a free online newsletter. More
detailed information can be found at
ChildrenOnline.org.
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© Children Online 2010
Doug
Fodeman & Marje Monroe.
For permission to reprint
please contact
DougF@ChildrenOnline.org
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33rd
Edition of the Children Online Newsletter.
If you've been one
of those parents or teachers who's been keeping their
fingers crossed and hoping that your younger teen or
child hasn't discovered Facebook, or some other social
network, it is time to face the reality that we are
out-gunned and out-maneuvered. We all must now
personally evaluate the risks and issues inherent with
these sites, decide what is healthy and appropriate for
our own children, and set strict rules and
guidelines.
On February ninth Google announced
that it had launched a new social network called 'Buzz'
and everyone with a Gmail account was already opted
in! Google has since taken a great deal of heat
over the loss of Gmail privacy that occurred when Gmail
users were suddenly able to see a Gmail account-holder's
email list as 'Buzz friends'. Their launch
essentially exposed everyone's list of personal emails
to everyone on the list.
In this month's issue of
our newsletter we, once again, focus our attention on
Facebook and the social networks.
As
always, we welcome your comments and suggestions. Our
telephone number for Children Online is
413-214-1225.
Best wishes,
Marje Monroe and Doug
Fodeman
Contact Marje or Doug via
email at marjem@childrenonline.org or
dougf@childrenonline.org for information about our
programs or consulting services.
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Facebook or
Not?
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Talking to a group of parents recently, a parent
asked the question why there was so much controversy and
variety of reactions to Facebook. It was a good
question. Since its inception Facebook has been a
lightening rod for strong feelings for and against its
use by teens of all ages. What complicates a
parents' perspective is that parents are eager to have
their children keep up with technological advances and
also view Facebook as a tool to keep their children
socially engaged. What, however, should be the
limits for its use? Children as young as 9 and 10 now
have accounts on Facebook. In fact, when dealing with
children and teens about Facebook, it is easy to
understand the issues and boundaries that parents need
to consider. View
a graphic from one of our recent Powerpoint
presentations to parents that summarizes the key
difficulties for young teens and children when using
Facebook and other social networks. (Note: Though we
focus on Facebook in this newsletter because of its
popularity amongst teens, we are also speaking more
broadly about social networks.)
Here are a few
Facebook facts to provide some clarity and
understanding.
- Facebook is an amazing social networking tool.
It is revolutionizing the way people connect and
communicate with one another.
- Facebook began as a communication tool for Harvard
University students but today is opened up to include
anyone age 13 and over.
- Facebook is a commercial venture with profit as
the guiding force. Estimated profits from Facebook in
2008 were 300 million.
- Facebook's increasing popularity, similar to other
sites such as YouTube, has created a tremendous
opportunity for unscrupulous marketing tricks, scams
and links to infectious malware all over the
site.
Here are
a few facts for understanding the social and emotional
development of tweens and adolescents:
- Tweens and teens tend to have difficulty
understanding the value of privacy online and the
implications of losing that privacy.
- Children and teens tend to be impulsive and often
act without thinking especially when in front of a
screen and free from immediate social consequences.
- Teens and especially younger tweens tend to be
trustworthy and naive when online. A quote that sums
this up: "Kids often believe what is written to
them online even when they easily and often lie
themselves."
- With frontal lobe development still in progress
for children and teens, decision-making skills are not
strongly developed yet and this fact often leaves them
vulnerable to risky behavior.
Putting it all together:
Facebook is an outstanding tool
that allows networking, communication and sharing like
never before. When used well, Facebook transforms
both social and professional relationships.
However, like anything else on the Internet without
strong regulation, and in many cases virtually no
regulation, Facebook contains risks including a place
for bullying, harassment and humiliation. Facebook
estimates that its average user only checks their
privacy settings once and therefore unknowingly allows
the public to have entry to their "private site".
With rapidly changing Facebook rules and settings, users
risk being defaulted to "public" (meaning 'everyone')
after each change to the terms of service. With
the combination of impulsivity, naivety and poor
decision-making skills, children and teens are most at
risk for falling prey to the many scams, harassment, or
to posting/viewing humiliating, harassing and
inappropriate material on the site.
Many
web sites set user age limits, such as age 13 on
YouTube. It is important to remember that these
guidelines are made by the site owners for
commercial purposes and are not necessarily in the best
interests of children. Facebook, which started as
a site for 18 year olds and older, and now open to the
public at age 13, is really most appropriate for the
development and social reality of teen's age 16 and
over.
When in front of a screen,
research has shown us that even the most thoughtful and
caring kids often act without thinking, and in some
cases, with meanness and bullying. The anonymity
of the screen acts as a buffer to thinking ethically and
thoughtfully. This can be seen by the often
competitive nature of Facebook where collecting
"friends" is a currency and creating provocative pages
considered cool. In today's world kids often seek
revenge on another teen through Facebook. A recent
example in the news concerned three teens in
Newburyport, Massachusetts who created a fake Facebook
page of another teen that was humiliating, rude and
extremely hurtful. [Newburyport News Article] [WHDH
TV]
Facebook is a wonderful tool that
helps bring people together like never before.
Used with thought and care, it can transform the way
people communicate. The key is that it should be
used with thought and care. Understanding this,
parents should make the best decisions for their own
kids. As a guideline, we recommend age 16 and if
used at a younger age, parents should have any-time
access to a child's account AND visit their child's
account regularly.
One eleven year old recently
told his mom that he would be jeopardizing his future
without Facebook. The mom panicked and asked us
how she should respond. We said:
Be clear and be firm. Love
your son and tell him about the risks and benefits of
Facebook. Tell him he may join when he is older
and you feel he is ready. He will be ok and you will be
there for him when he feels left out or ignored because
he doesn't have a Facebook account. Oh Yeah, we
also told her to ignore the eye rolling and door
slamming that might follow her
announcement.
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INTERNET
SAFETY CURRICULUM
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Safe Practices for
Life Online
Children Online has a
curriculum on Internet Safety that includes nearly 100
student exercises and lots of information on many topics
including social networks, instant messaging,
cyberbullying, online marketing, scams directed at kids,
protecting privacy online, avoiding identity theft and
impersonation, creating strong passwords and
more.
 There is also a student
edition which includes cartoons and "Did you know"
sections of interesting facts for students.
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