Not just your space
By JENNIFER KELLEY
Cherry Hill Sun
7/2/2007

Online experts warn of dangers of social networking sites, which aren’t private places

The students proudly clutching bottles of liquor or chugging beers in the photos were clearly underage. Shot after shot depicted the inebriated teens making provocative or lewd gestures toward the camera while showcasing their hordes of alcoholic beverages at various house parties.

These pictures were probably not meant for their parents’ eyes.

But in Haddonfield, during a two-month-long series of public meetings on underage drinking, parents did see the pictures. And so did hundreds of other residents, including school and church officials, police officers and local business owners.

The pictures were copied from Haddonfield Memorial High School students’ Facebook sites and dropped off anonymously to Haddonfield Mayor Tish Colombi. While she was “shocked” by the crude collection of photos, Colombi said she was more astounded by the idea that the students posted them on the Internet for everyone to see.

Teenagers becoming exhibitionists through their MySpace, Facebook, Xanga or other social networking sites is not restricted to Haddonfield, however. About 75 percent of U.S. teens have a social networking profile of one kind or another, and 40 percent have more than one, according to New Jersey-based cyber lawyer Parry Aftab, who runs WiredSafety.org, the world’s largest Internet safety and help group.

“A lot of kids have up to five profiles – some are abandoned when they choose to start a new one, some are for their parents to see, some are just for their friends to see, and some are where they take on an alter ego,” Aftab told The Sun. “Most parents need to accept that if they have Internet access in their home, their teen has a profile somewhere online.”

For the uninitiated, MySpace.com, Facebook.com and a number of other similar Web sites allow people to create a Web page with their personal photos, thoughts, Web logs (or “blogs”) and links to their friends’ pages. A typical profile is part diary, part personal ad.

The Web sites are designed to allow people to share their creativity, pictures and information with others, but teens also use their profiles to show off – chronicling hard-drinking weekend parties or other illicit activities.

“What kids don’t seem to realize is that they shouldn’t post anything that their parents, the police or school authorities should not see,” Aftab said.

It’s also critical that teens don’t post things on their site that they wouldn’t want potential employers, college admissions officials, sports coaches, scouts or even a future mother-in-law to see, she added.

“I tell teenagers, ‘You build your reputation now. What you put online becomes your permanent record – even if you put something questionable up for only a short period of time. Anybody who sees something on your profile can download the image or writing to their hard drive and have it forever.’”

Aftab noted that many Fortune-500 companies now employ interns whose sole job is to root through MySpace or Facebook sites for prospective employees’ profiles. She said a recent survey of U.S. businesses indicated that 50 percent to 60 percent of them now – at the minimum – search the names of potential new hires before bringing them in for an interview.

“This is happening on a national scale,” said Patrick Wallace, director of student involvement at Rutgers University. “Companies are looking for additional ways to hedge their investment when preparing to trust their brand name or reputation with a new employee. If that means peering into someone’s private world, they can easily do that now – and most companies do.”

Wallace gives a presentation to incoming freshman or transfer students and their parents on the repercussions of careless posts on social networking sites.

“There seems to be a false sense among our youth that these sites are private and personal,” he said. “But, in reality, when you post something on the Internet, it becomes public domain.”

He encourages parents to learn abut these sites and recommends – much to many a teen’s horror – that they start their own profile so they can stay in tune with what their child is posting online.

“With the age and cultural gap between parents and their kids, many think they shouldn’t be on the (social networking) sites, that, in a sense, they are spying on their child and it doesn’t feel right. But it’s important for parents to use the same Web sites their kids are using – it’s the hardest thing to get through to them during my presentation,” Wallace said. “And, in fact, these sites are actually great tools for staying constantly connected with a son or daughter away at college.”

Wallace noted he’s surprised that out of the 50 to 60 parents who attend a typical presentation, there’s usually only two or three of them that have a profile on the same social networking site as their teen.

“It’s a parent’s role to serve as a mentor – they should be aware of what their child is doing online and be able to tell them immediately what they should not be posting,” he added.

One thing people should not be posting is evidence of their involvement in illegal activity, Aftab said. “Law enforcement has caught onto the fact that MySpace and Facebook sites are excellent investigative tools – they don’t need a search warrant to view or obtain information or pictures on people’s profiles.”

Aftab would know – she wrote MySpace.com’s law enforcement guide.

“Any and all information that that the millions of users put on that Web site and other ones like it is collected and stored for 90 days after it’s posted,” she said. “Even if the user takes the post down after a short period of time. At any point during those 90 days, if police need information on something or someone, MySpace is obliged to turn that information over to them.”

Aftab contends that nothing is anonymous on the Internet – “all computers have an IP (Internet protocol) address which traces any online activity back to the computer it originated from. Kids need to understand that there is no privacy in cyberspace,” she emphasized.

Despite nearly a decade of promoting online safety, Aftab said she is greatly concerned that parents simply “aren’t getting it,” as far as staying in tune with what their kids are posting on the Internet. As such, she is preparing to launch a new online initiative called WiredMoms.com – a MySpace-type Web site for parents. The pilot programs for the site will be in Ohio, New Brunswick, Canada, and Aftab’s home state of New Jersey.

“Not only will moms across the state be able to connect with one another and complain about their husbands or trade recipes or talk about their kids, but they will learn exactly how to get around a social networking site. It’ll be a fun, useful way to learn a technology that is foreign to many parents,” she said.

Aftab plans to launch the program this summer by reaching out to women’s groups, such as book and rotary clubs, church organizations and PTAs, and get parents to learn how the Web site works, join it and create a profile. By fall, she hopes the initial members will have reached out to all the parents they know, bringing them on board as well.

“It’ll be a very hands-on learning experience – parents will learn the art of the IM, how to search for their child’s profile, etc.,” Aftab said. “By October, I hope to have a cyber army of moms out there – the only group that can get this problem under control.”

Software companies are also catching onto the trend of helping parents get involved in their child’s online life and stay informed of their activities. Many now offer undetectable monitoring systems that parents can install on their home computers. Spectorsoft (www.SafeComputerKids.com), for instance, just released the Spector Pro 6.0, which features email, instant message (IM), screen shot and keystroke recording, as well as the ability to record activity on social-networking sites, such as MySpace.

Parents not familiar with navigating the Internet can take online courses via Aftab’s Web site, www.WiredSafety.org, or see if area community centers and libraries offer adult classes on basic Internet usage.

“In the end,” Aftab said, “these social networking sites are a great technology. They can be used to easily communicate, share ideas, promote awareness of various issues – all kinds of valuable things. But used carelessly, they can also ruin your life.

It’s very important that parents wake up and learn how to utilize the same powerful technological tools that their children have at their disposal, because, as many recent news stories attest to, kids aren’t aware of or don’t care about the real risks they are taking when posting things online.