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Facebook Friends or Sex Offenders?
Filed under: Opinions
MySpace made news after revealing that 90,000 registered sex offenders have been kicked off its site in the past two years. Bravo! But where did all of those sex offenders go? Experts are saying they've snuck over to Facebook. Facebook has become a "safe haven" for pervs, according to John Cardillo, CEO of Sentinel, a Miami-based security tech firm which helps Bebo and other social networks identify sex offenders. And he should know -- he found thousands of them right after he kicked them off MySpace.
Facebook is aware of the problem, but they still seem to have a bone to pick with Sentinel, saying that both companies could have worked to solve this problem together. "For a company that has a mission to keep kids safe, we find it irresponsible that they wouldn't share this with us," said a Facebook spokesperson. "We still don't have the information on who they are."
That's creepy. And there's more.
Facebook should have developed their own software for checking state offender registries. But I'm not sure this is very fair to them. At the very least, users can make their profiles private -- which is something you can't do on MySpace ("A Place for Friends').
It wont' be easy erasing FaceBook from your tween's bookmark, but why not suggest these social networking sites, as recommended by MomLogic:
Stardoll: Combines cyberfriendships, celebrities like Zac Efron and online gaming for girls ages 10-17. Stardoll also notifies parents if kids are on the the site for an extended period of time.
Whyville: Perfect for budding citizen journalists. Kids need parental permission and have to pass a "chat license test" before using.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
2-05-2009 @ 9:02AM
BabyLove77 said...Of course you can set your profile to private on Myspace. It's very
easy to do. There are also security measures that you can use to
restrict who is capable of becoming your "friend", i. e. you have to
enter personal info abou that user in order to even send a friend
request. If you don'thave the info than you can't become that persons "friend"!
Reply
2-05-2009 @ 3:38PM
Ellen from MindBites.com said...I think the problem of avoiding sex offenders can be handled with appropriate communication between parents and tweens. When a person (either child, tween or adult) first signs up for Facebook, there is a compulsion to add and accept as many friends as possible because in our minds we feel the amount of friends that we have is tied to our popularity or likeability.
I personally think the best policy is to only accept friend requests from people that you absolutely know. A common error is to add people on Facebook because they have something in common like school, organization or home town, even though the person is not recognized. People feel guilty not accepting a friendship because they do not want to appear rude for not remembering the person.
I believe that child predators know this and develop profiles that make them appear to be "like" their targets and they understand the psychology of how people become friends on Facebook.
I would communicate these things with your children and point out specific examples of the types of friends that they should and should not add. Another safe practice is to have your tweens periodically go through their friend lists and clean house; delete people that they might have accepted in error.
http://www.MindBites.com
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2-05-2009 @ 11:40AM
MSLGWCEO said..."Net threat to minors less than feared"
- A long awaited report from the Internet Safety Technical Task Force concludes that children and teens are less vulnerable to sexual predation than many have feared.
The report also questions the efficacy and necessity of some commonly prescribed remedies designed to protect young people.
FULL REPORT pdf:
The task force was formed as a result of a joint agreement between MySpace and 49 state attorneys general.
http://cfcoklahoma.org/New_Site/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=0&func=view&id=628&catid=21#628
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