Thursday, April 16, 2009
The Dangers of Social Networking Sites
Socializing on the Internet has become commonplace. Many of the sites ask you to post profiles and photo's and exchange messages. This can create a variety of problems. For one, if you don't know the person, you never really know if what your being told or shown is truthful. If you are a teenager girl you risk attracting sexual predators, terrible rumors being spread beyond your community, and cyberbulling. If you are a lonely heart and vulnerable to sweet talkers you may be taken by a con person for money or much more. Something in your Private life can be revealed to the wrong person. At the very least you could be sucked away into hours of voyeurism and chatting to much about non consequential bullshit. You may think that only your friends can see your pictures or what you are messaging, but in actuality you are much more vulnerable then you may know. We have been hearing for years now about the tragic mishaps that are born from the social networking world. It is imperative that we educate our children and ourselves to use the Internet wisely and take precautions in bringing people we meet online into our lives.
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3 comments:
You suggest that there are potential problems, but you are not asking me to do anything about it. This is a problem because there is, so far, nothing to argue with. If you were to suggest, on the other hand, that parents need to restrict the access of their kids to social networking sites, then I might be able to come up with a compelling reason to argue.
I really think that it is up to us as parents to explain the world wide web and what it really taps into. The entire "world" is at our fingertips. Our kids don't know a time before computers and social networking is a part of their reality, do we keep them away from it completely, or do we create a group like MADD, except it is MASN? Seriously, it takes a village to raise our kids, we have to start with the Community and educate everyone and make it commonplace for people to beware of the creeps...
Though I do agree that social networks are getting more and more untrustworthy, I do believe that some of your arguments could be consequences in face to face interaction.
Like the risk of teenage girls to sexual predators; a guy can walk down a street, see a cute teenage girl, become obsessed with her because of her looks, and begin to stalk her until he has got her. It's not an unusual idea, plus there are people that aren't right in the head.
Guys can con rich old ladies and girls can con rich old men into thinking they are in love with them to get to their money or identity. Its hard to trust people now days.
What can we do stop more and more social networks from starting up and then being so popular. Everybody knows the dangers, some just to choose to ignore them.
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