Is Facebook dangerous?

[Lace Neil Singer]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...her-death.html

http://kiwicommons.com/2009/11/teen-...ough-facebook/

A lot of people are systematically blaming Facebook for these deaths, but I don't agree. Before the internet, predators used newspaper advertisments and lonely hearts columns; and no-one went off hysterically proclaiming that newspapers were dangerous. All a person can do is try to be internet savvy; and parents need to monitor their children's activities online as best as they can.

[Hobbs]

It's a lot easier, though, to use Facebook or Myspace. I could probably go online right now and find the contact info of at least four underage girls (I've noticed my sister's friends do this).

[Greenday]

Facebook is not dangerous. People who don't use common sense are dangers to themselves. It's been well known that meeting strangers is a bad idea. Especially over the internet. This kind of stuff has been happening before facebook was invented.

[McDreidel09]

Lace, I agree with you, especially about parents monitoring their children. Facebook itself is not dangerous. Some people using it are.

[Lace Neil Singer]

With a lot of these cases, the parents happily let their kids go off and meet these strangers. O_o My parents wouldn't be too happy if I went off to meet someone I'd met online... and I'm thirty years old! They'd insist I took one of them along, or at least took my boyf with me.

[Red Panda]

Facebook is only dangerous in the hands of dumb people.

[draggar]

Facebook is not dangerous. People who don't use common sense are dangers to themselves. It's been well known that meeting strangers is a bad idea. Especially over the internet. This kind of stuff has been happening before facebook was invented.

.. but after AOL.

I remember "the net" before the days of AOL and the internet community was far more mature than it is today. Back then i could post my contact information on a forum and the only people who would take it (and use it) were the people it was intended for (or someone deciding to mail me a gag gift).

But yes, the most dangerous part is people not using common sense. My cousin's daughter posts some rather "mature" things (she's 12) and I seriously hope she has her privacy set to the maximum on FB - but even that isn't 100%.

[LexiaFira]

as has been previously mentioned people who do not use common sense are a danger unto themselves as facebook, myspace and other such sites give the user the option of total privacy, or varying degrees thereof. OR let everyone see EVERYTHING you have up there.
I will use myself as an example as...well so far its worked. and I cannot think of anyone else.
For the longest time I have gone under two alias' this one and an older one. Specifically two or three e-mails as well but each one had the name that shows up as that specific name. IE Lexia fira is the email name AND the name that shows up as the name for me. Any time I tag a photo it shows my user name rarely MY name. Only a few of my drawings on deviant art have my signature but the cursive is so ...well cursive unless you are an expert at it its very difficult to read but it DOES have the copyright insignia and date on there. So anyone that knows me and knows my real name doesn't call me by my real name except either on the phone or in real life. My pics are old enough or different apart enough that my hair style clothing or accessories cannot distinguish me. My contact info is vague enough that you cannot find me easily at all or at least not without shelling out ALOT to a private detective.

SO if for example someone were to try and find me and they do, go ahead. I am well guarded enough that I can take down someone dumb enough to try,

The point being is that I was taught well enough to keep some things of my life OFF the internet because if someone can see everything on my profile then they can see ALL MY INFO. So its not so much that these sites are wrong but that alot of people don't take responsibility over this ESPECIALLY when someone gets hurt or dies. oh no its not THEIR FAULT its the site because I or some other person didn't think to not show everything about me.

Don't get me wrong it is very upsetting when a death happens, its just now a different setting and more easy to point the finger of blame. (I still feel it leads back to parents not being active parents. or that when something does happen to the child said parent honestly cares about grief takes over and its easier to blame someone else than take that crushing realization to oneself and realize that maybe it was my fault. fault or not to be had.

But I also feel that the commercials about sexting, internet privacy awareness and so on do not emphasize enough about hot many people can hurt you. Not the whole hey everyone can see all about me but who or when will someone take that next step and kidnap me and worse?


rant over

[insertNameHere]

Im a very private person, and my google-fu is very strong, I make sure only things I want to appear under my real name or know usernames appear. hence why I made up a random name for this website so my rants aren't read by some employer who is looking into me.

I think that people really put to much information on the internet. Or have a habit of using the same username over and over. Kind of funny if you use the same e-mail for your resume as some kinky sex site and the HR person gogoles you.

Which that brings up another debate, should employers be able to look up whatever they want before they even meet you, or base who you are on a rant you posted 5 years ago?

[LexiaFira]

has five different e-mails one is specifically work only so that of i am tracked its not on facebook or myspace

[Lace Neil Singer]

My username looks like a name, so I've had people try to act as tho they know who I am and call me "Lace" as tho it's my real name. Nice try, buster, I never use my real name online or put my address out.

[insertNameHere]

My username looks like a name, so I've had people try to act as tho they know who I am and call me "Lace" as tho it's my real name. Nice try, buster, I never use my real name online or put my address out.

yes but some people are that stupid.

My favorite news thing on 20/20 or a show like it was this guy who went to online and wasn't even trying to actively pick up girls, just friend requesting and seeing what they posted and luckily turned out to be under cover detective who then showed up and talked to the parents and introduced himself as "Hi im detective whatever, your daughter knows me from the internet as middleSchoolSux, can you confirm that this is her cell # and she is at the mall right now? Oh and I only used the information available on her myspace page to track her that any pedophiles on the site could have access to", look of complete shock on parents face. Pretty sure she got a nice talking to from the parents.

I guess there is a fine line between creepy stalking and google-fu. I randomly look up people I know, see if any of my ex's gotten arrested or accidents. Yes, there is nothing better than stumbling onto court records. It is just shocking the amount of information that is available. My landlord in college was amazed and annoyed that I looked up how much he paid for his house on the auditors website.

Fun site: check out yourself on www.pipl.com, free search engine that beats google in looking someone up.

[tropicsgoddess]

Facebook is not dangerous. People who don't use common sense are dangers to themselves. It's been well known that meeting strangers is a bad idea. Especially over the internet. This kind of stuff has been happening before facebook was invented.

Thank you! I agree it's all common sense and being internet savvy is what keeps people from falling into those dangerous traps. Shoot, even before social networking sites were made, it was chats, personal ads on print that were the thing to lure people to their doom. Parents need to teach their kids about how to keep themselves safe online from predators and the like. InsertNameHere, I just tested out that pipl.com site you posted and Holy crap can you get some dirt on people there that site definitely makes Google's searches on people look like nothing!

[Evil Red Briggs]

Sorry for rezzing a thread first time in, but Facebook and internet privacy is a really big issue. I recently committed "Facebook Suicide" because working in the IT field I have found so many reasons not to.

First and foremost being harassment. Not anything mean, but through my job, my name is on my business cards. I have had so many people who I have done work for do a friend request with a question regarding their computer. I have done a search for my name on FB and found that there are less than 5 people with the same name. Out of all people on FB. It was easy for these people to think they could skirt my system and try to get free advice because they think I want FB friends. Anyways, I was easy for strangers to track down with all the options available.

And the thing is, when you have to put up with constant questions day in and day out through a job, why do you want to deal with it on a website during your free time.

I could have done a different name altogether, but I think it's not fair to have to have an alias on a website like that. Because there are legitimate people who you know and want to be in contact with. So, I went back to email for my keeping in contact. I got a few angry ones from my family and friends on how they were "inconvenienced" but I told them to lay off cause they don't have to deal with the problems I had on that infernal website.

Internet privacy is a major hot button these days, but with a little common sense and some good "google-fu", btw, I really like that one first time I heard it, you can take steps to protect your privacy. I know after a couple of nights of research, I have found some really interesting methods to keep my stuff private.

The most important advice I give everyone in my job is be vague on these websites, because the privacy concerns with FB are going to get worse before they get better.

[jackfaire]

My real name is the exact same as a character on a very popular TV show so anyone doing a search for me will most likely never find me under the mountain of results that pop up related to the show.