- With most social networks, the user is also the product. Social networking sites make money by selling advertising which targets your demographic, based on your member profile and your patterns of use.
In exchange, they provide a free or very cheap way to keep up with family and friends, to network, and to distract yourself with games and memes.
Another side effect of social networking is the increased vulnerability of the user.
- When it comes down to it, you have no way of knowing who is really on the other side of that network connection. Is it Susan, or Susan's brother? Is it a handsome techie from Toledo or the cranky older guy that lives a few apartments down from yours?
Kids and teenagers make up a large percentage of social networking users. To protect kids under 13 from inappropriate data collection and marketing, the Feds came up with COPPA. As a result of COPPA, most social networking sites don't 'allow' children under 13 to join.
There is no way, of course, that those sites can effectively stop children from joining. So we have the added side-effect of many children online, and vulnerable to the manipulation of online predators. Without a profound policy shift amongst most social networking organizations, this will continue to be a problem, although it has improved as parents have increasingly prioritized internet safety.
Protecting your kids on the internet is simple.
- Don't send them online alone. Install parental controls [like OneCare] that allow you to restrict internet access when an adult is not in the house, and provide a record of each person they come in contact with online, and each site they visit. This will also allow you to provide access to some sites while restricting others.
- Get comfortable with the internet: POS means parent over shoulder; TTYL means talk to you later. Learn to determine when it's safe to enter ID or banking information, and teach your children. Teach them about phishing scams, ID theft, and fraud. The more they know, and you know, the more they will be empowered against risk.
- Keep the computers in a central location; don't allow your kids to surf the internet from their bedrooms, or while they're alone in the house. It's important to provide them with oversight and boundaries.
- Children should not communicate with anyone online that YOU have not met in real life. Their email contacts should include a parent's name and phone number. You should know all the passwords to all of their accounts. Track the parental control reports to ensure that you know all sites they regularly visit and where they could be meeting people.
- Let your kids know they must NEVER arrange to meet with anyone they know from the internet, or share information about their location with people they know from the internet.
- Everything that happens online has consequences in the real world. It's difficult to remember for many adults, and very challenging for most children. Boundaries and discussion are invaluable as your child, and you, explore the internet.
Against my own inclination, I created a CAP group at My Space. My thinking is that we can maintain a beacon of internet safety over there, and my gut says, "Bad idea." I entered the information, posted some internet safety guidelines, and saved the data. The profile page presented itself, and in great, huge, bright blue letters across the middle of the screen? An incredibly inappropriate advertising banner. I won't repeat the slogan, but it was laughably ironic.
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