Some social networking sites have became more popular than others, for example MySpace has grown rapidly and it is most popular amongst young children. It has grown with good promotion and it has also been found to have a dangerous dark side for the young users. The thought that social networks are not only being used to get people connected, but to provide a door way for sexual predators to connect with children has risen many questions on how safe the net truly is for people to use. For example in New Jersey a young girl, Judy has was murder after her friend reported that she met a young man in his 20s through MySpace, reported by CBS News Sandra Hughes, reports have shown that many teens at times go to these sites and befriend strangers that might put them in danger this has made it easier for older people that are attracted to young teens to be closer and in contact with them.

This has became the latest problem for many parents, it might be the fact that they are not educating their children on the dangers once one uses the internet, in an article called Looking Good in Print by Reid Goldsborough states “Maybe recent changes in culture in general and in info-culture in particular make it genuinely risky to give teens unfettered access to technology without guidance from us oldsters.” This makes clear that our older generations are not ready to take the internet and have not set guide line to the children of this generation to help them how to work with bullies-worse-on something that they are not completely sure how is used and how it can be manipulated for good or for bad intentions.

In the article The Net: A circuit of safety concerns, David Finkelhor, the director of the Crime Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire states “One of the misunderstandings that we think is widespread is that what sex offenders are doing is picking out kids (online) and stalking them and deceiving them and abducting them and raping them.” This is thought to be the way that sexual predators get their victims, but the way that the new media has contributed to connect the predators to the children that are not aware of the danger of these social networking sites. The easy access to these social networking sites that are available to everyone has made it extremely dangerous for under age children that are making profiles and working around the age requirement.

The different networks that offer these services have been trying to make their sites safer and making them clear from sexual predators by going through the profiles and deleting people that are in the sexual predators list. The 8e6 labs, which are programs that are set up to secure the users of certain networks that are secure by them, the labs has been working on programs that will detect under age users and sex offenders from having access to the site. This is a difficult job that they are tackling on but they are determined to create a way that the cyberspace can be safe for all to use. Schools have been blocking social networking site from being accessed on their computers, this has been a way that they try to protect children from the dangers that are possible while they are surfing the net.

Many things have been tried to maintain the order in the way that people use the internet and the ways that information is used in the internet, but no matter how many different programs are placed they always seem to be a way to obtain the information. There have even been some bills that have been tried to be past to stop and maintain the dangers predators from being able to access these sites that are also access by teens that are not aware of the danger that are in the net. P.A.P.A. stands for Parents Against Predators Act, this is a proposed legislation that is made with the purpose to have a safer environment for the teens that frequent the networking sites. This is being reviewed by Members of Congress, the purpose for this is to have sites check the age of the users and strictly enforce that people that are in the sex offender list are not able to access these sites. Each  day the number of site with children being used for pornography and the people that are managing these sites are receiving the profits I find out rages. In the net there are good things that are provided, but also a dark side to it.

In one case, according to MSNBC news, an Austin, Texas woman called in sick from work on a Thursday and Friday, then proceeded to upload photos of her fun weekend of that Thursday-Sunday in Las Vegas on Facebook.  Co-workers on her Facebook friends list then reported the woman, and she was fired for “lying to her workplace,” and skipping out on work.  In this case, the woman won and settled for an undisclosed severance package, proving that she was clinically depressed and her doctor recommended taking a weekend off to “have fun.”

In another case, an English woman who is also friends with her boss on Facebook caused controversy in her workplace with a status update on the website, which is a short description of a member’s current status.  Her update reads, “OMG.  I hate my job!!  My boss is a pervy wanker.  Always making me do shit stuff just to piss me off.  WANKER.”  The next day, the woman was let go from her company for questioning her boss’ character and thus spreading malicious lies of a sexual nature around the workplace.  The company’s defense for the woman’s termination was that if she was going to describe and criticize her boss publicly with sexual accusations, a sexual harassment claim should have been filed on her behalf beforehand.  Damage had been done to her boss’ reputation and the woman was reprimanded as a result.  More about the English woman’s case can be found here:

Though these cases are negative aspects of social networking in the workplace, there are other positive attributes of integrating social networking with work.  Many companies sign up for social networking sites to promote their companies.  Signing up for twitter, facebook and other social networking sites allow companies to reach the eyes of potential customers that might not have heard  of their services otherwise.

The biggest integration is the use of video linking sites, most commonly Skype, which is a web cam website that enables video phone calls over the internet, linking employees in multiple places at once.  Most famously, Oprah Winfrey endorsed the website on her daytime show and used Skype to connect with celebrities, authors, and other interviewees.  In doing so, she raised awareness of the now popular website and inspired other companies to follow suit and utilize other social networking integrations in their own companies.

While some companies embrace the use of social networking sites, such as Twitter and Skype, most companies use a filter service that blocks the sites entirely from being used in the company by employees.  This is due to a multitude of problems that can occur as a result of visiting and using these sites.  The two main potential pitfalls of social networking in the workplace include company computer vulnerability to viruses and other malware that are typically coupled with popular websites.  Employee productivity is the other problem company’s view at hazardous to the workplace.  Other problems include company liability exposure, which covers employee behavior on social networking sites during work hours.

All in all, social networking integration with the workplace has it’s proverbial ‘ups and downs,’ when used.  However, it is unlikely that the use of these sites at work will decrease. With the creation of more social networking sites, it becomes more and more likely that companies will either figure out how to use the websites and their services to their own advantage or attempt to prevent their employees from becoming distracted.  If one thing is sure, whether positive or negative, it’s that social networking has most definitely made its impact on the workplace.

While researching for this blog I found that many educators have taken to online forums to figure out how to use social media and social networking in their classrooms. There are websites devoted to interviews and forum discussion with people giving different suggestions on how to use sites like Twitter, Facebook, and even Skype.

One program that seemed to have a good following was Classroom 2.0. This was founded by Steve Hargadon, who after seeing the benefits of Web 2.0 is trying to figure out a beneficial way to bring it into the classroom. The website has forums discussions, interviews with researchers on the social networking in the future and links to other websites that are using social networking in networking …

One website that I found after clicking around on Classroom 2.0 was Epals. This is an educational networking website that currently hosts over 13 million members.  They have a general rubric for classrooms all over the globe to use. There are set lesson plans, for example they have a black history lesson they you can customize for your grade (the website is for k-12) The cool thing about this is that it is all online. Once a teacher sets up a classroom online each student sets up an account and they can do lessons, tests, and projects online. Its possible to friend classmates and other students in the program across the globe. It is also beneficial to teachers because Epals makes it possible to connect with another classroom to go through lessons plans together. What better way to learn than to do it with a partner?

As I was looking around the discussion boards for teachers on Epals, I saw that many educators were trying to connect with other classrooms across the states and even across the globe. There were teachers from France and Portugal trying to find an American class to use Skype with to help their students improve their English speaking skills, as well as American classrooms using Skype to learn about other cultures.

Facebook is also starting to take advantage of how its site is used with the Courses on Facebook application. This application is for high school and college aged students and teachers and host similarities to Blackboard. Once a student gets the app they can register the classes they are taking and then they can have class discussions. It’s possible for teachers to post the syllabus, activities and links to other websites. This application is a great example of “bringing the mountain to Moses” so to speak. What better way to get students to keep up with work than to put it on something that they are already apart of.

But is all this transformation to social networking going to be good for students? Will it make things harder on teachers? What will we need to do to modify regulations if kids as young as Kindergarten are going to know some specifics of social networking?

Social networking has become so integrated in our culture that it is changing the way we communicate. It seems already that many, if not most, college age students know how to use the basics in computers and will know how to use email and web messaging to communicate. We however were lucky enough to grow up with skills in personal communication as well. While doing projects online and letting children learn about computers that way is great, after a while will they ever learn to get off the computer? It’s already hard enough to pull the 4^th graders I teach of the computer because of the educational social networking site we use, KIdBiz3000. How good are these kids personal skills going to be when they get older if what most of what they are learning is online. It seems like this could take a wrong turn and we could be raising a generation of anti-social “mole people”. I know that may seem a little extreme but with how technology is advancing this could be our future.

One of largest and most talked about concerns regarding social networking is the deterrence of children under a certain age using these networking sites without some form of parental supervision (Stone 2009). Almost all social networks have a minimum age limit so that children can’t make profiles. In studies of social networking sites such as Bebo, Facebook, and MySpace it shows that over a quarter of children aged eight to eleven are able to bypass the online age restrictions set by these websites. This allows them access to adult content.  Of Teenagers between the ages of fifteen to sixteen who use the internets social networks– twenty-one percent of girls and twenty-eight percent of boys put themselves at risk from pedophiles by meeting their “cyber friends” in person. The internet has become a public playground among children. 1 in every 10 teenagers has posted a semi nude or nude pic on their profile.As we live in a digital age access to the internet is apparent, parents and children need to be aware of stalkers and pedophiles that scour these social networking sites everyday. In the past two years, the social networking site MySpace identified and barred over 90,000 sexual predators from using their websites

Secondly, among the many dangers of social networking, people often feel that when they have an account with a secret question on it, that the account is safeguarded against someone trying to hijack their account. The truth of the matter is that the answers to those secret questions aren’t all that secret. Research from Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University show that such security questions are usually insecure. The least secure questions are simple ones whose answers can be guessed with no existing knowledge of the subject. For example the answers to the questions, “What is your favorite town?” and “What is your favorite sports team?” were easy for participants to guess. Roughly 30 percent and 57 percent of correct answers appeared in the top five list of guesses. Most security questions are answered truthfully, and can be easily guessed.  Questions Therefore the following questions; what schools have you attended? And what is your pet’s name? Are questions that are often in public record or on a profile page for anyone to see.

Social networking sites such as Twitter have been targeted by hackers around the world. An 18 year old hacker calling himself GMZ hacked into 33 Twitter accounts including Barack Obama’s, Britney Spears, and FOX news (Miller, Stone 15).  He did this by gaining access to an account of an employee of the San Francisco based Twitter Inc(Miller, Stone 15). This hacker used a “dictionary attack” program, which is an automated program that attempts to find login passwords (Miller, Stone 15). The employee’s password was “happiness (Miller, Stone 15).” All of this trouble was caused because the password was too generic. This incident is similar to the case involving former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin (Weizhen 2008). In September 2008, hackers used the name of the location where Palin and her husband met to gain access to her Yahoo e-mail account via the “secret question” password-recovery mechanism (Weizhen 2008).

Hackers have become a very real problem for the millions of social networking users.  Besides the fact that hackers can use people’s passwords to gain access to private accounts. They are also hacking into accounts on social networking cites such as Facebook, to defraud money from the account users friends and family. In an investigative report by KATV Channel 2 News, on the dangers of social networking, their news correspondent is on Facebook and is messaged by a hacker masquerading as his former teacher (Internet Marketing Services 2010). This hacker proceeds to make small talk with the reporter (Internet Marketing Services 2010). After a few messages the hacker then tries to ask him to send money to London, because she is in trouble and needs his help.

One of the most dangerous aspects of social networking are the people that are using social networks such as MySpace, Twitter, and blogs to display information  that claims to be real or well researched, but is actually made up. The worst part of the fact is that most people will believe it.

For example internet entrepreneur- Jason Calacanis, sparked a debate about media credibility when prior to the iPad release, he posted information on Twitter, announcing his experiences with the iPad, and the various “cutting edge” specifications of the product. Notable media companies like CNN, the Wall street Journal and new age media sources like Tech Crunch, were quick to report his information that the iPad included; a fingerprint reader, wireless charging, facial recognition software, and Wireless internet through Verizon and AT&T, among a list of 20 other advanced accessories. All of these claims are obviously false. But because of Calacanis’s status in the world of technology, several on and offline outlets accepted his information as valid, and published what he said in their articles/blogs, without actually researching into his obviously made up claims.

In conclusion in this generation it is imperative for men, women, and children to be more aware of who they are speaking to online. To rethink the questions and answers they use for their different online accounts, and to research a statement or fact that is written or blogged about by reliable source or magazine before believing it.

Social networking, is the use of a website to connect with people who share common interests, whether personal or professional. Consequently, social networks can potentially affect all aspects of life including economics. The economic consequences of social networking are multifaceted because cyberspace is not bound by the conventional geographical boundaries that confine today’s organic economies. The absence of such boundaries allows people to interact with other individuals and groups who might physically be many miles away. Five ways social media is changing our daily lives is an article on social media guide. Social networking has changed where we get our news, how we start and do business, how we meet and stay in touch with people, what we can reveal and what we can influence.

The era of social relationships began in the mid 1990’s when people began to sign up for online profiles and connect with others to exchange information. By late 2009, the lines between networks and traditional sites began to cross over.  In a video talking about the effects of social networking it states 1 out of 8 people last year in the U.S. met via social media. The worlds largest social network, Facebook has reached 100 million users in nine months, that is unheard of no other traditional media or social network. It goes without saying that social networks and blogs are now more popular than email. Along with Facebook, IPod application downloads reached 1 billion in nine months. If Facebook were it’s own country it would be the 4th largest in the world. These social networks allow a large population of the world Users to be recognized by personal identities while being provided a customized experience. This new type of experience creates demand for various consumer goods and leads to a great economic opportunity.

With the job market fizzling Americans are now spending much of their time on online entertainment sites. Journalists speculate that as people lose their jobs they look towards cheap entertainment. They also turn to networking sites to search for jobs and keep in touch with friends. Internet gaming and online entertainment have given an intense growth to the economic down turn. However, sites that rely on selling advertising might struggle to sells ads because people are buying less.

Economic opportunity is a byproduct of many social networks because the interest groups who interact in cyberspace have an impact on labor, capital and land resources in the area where the physical products are made, shipped and consumed.  This affects the people who take part in the manufacture, trade, dispersal and utilization of goods and services on both micro and macroeconomic scales.

Economics have become internationalized through a process known as ‘globalization.’ “Developing trends are the growth in information processing occupations, the role of information and knowledge in society, new and more flexible work processes and organizations and changes in the role of national states.” (Lievrouw & Livingstone, 2007) These developments are reflected in economic and social science research and have greatly impacted trade industries.

Social networking affects goods that are produced through interest group websites that can indicate the demand for certain goods through online interaction. Social networking allows manufacturing industries to know what kind of manufactured goods would generate high demand. Electronic and print communications have enabled goods and services to be matched to the demand for them as never before seen in the past centuries. Unfortunately these social networks involve certain risks when delivering content because of the lack of governance.

The existence of national trade and industry policies in the United States are more market oriented driven. Europe’s policies for example are consumer oriented.  Economy cluster dynamics have now become central of economic coordination and government policies. “Clusters work through networks between a variety of business and other appropriate actors who are familiar with each other’s expertise, trustworthiness, reliability and willingness both to share relevant assets.” (Lievrouw & Livingstone, 2007) New business’ now readily have better information available to them about inventive possibilities and market opportunities because of social networks.

One study found five observations on how social networking online has changed social networking offline. The article findings show that social networks like Myspace and Facebook help people in meeting people and aid users to know who people are before they met. Social networks help users pursue people further, and allow people for example to see friends advice on a product, help increase knowledge about friends and contain community calendars helping users become more involved and social.

The effects of social networks on employment, (Granovetter, 1995) found in a survey of residents of a Massachusetts town that over 50 percent of jobs were obtained through social contacts. In this study “the role of social networks as a manner of obtaining information about job opportunities and explore its implications for the dynamics of employment.”

“Do social networking sites change the way we work” is an article that looks at the positives and negatives of on the job social networking. The negatives listed are these sites are addictive and distract people from their jobs, constantly updating their status or checking on what their friends are doing. Putting to much information of oneself can lead to identity theft or unemployment. Sites avoid mentioning privacy to users, because even mentioning privacy positively will cause users to be more cautious about sharing data. As many airline employees have seen posting blogs about complaining customers, they have lost their jobs. The positives effects as the article lists are; sites can be excellent for business networking, quickly distributing information to many and help when job hunting.

Information, communication technologies and services have developed all aspects of a cyberspace economy. Whether it is privacy issues, social network growth, economic benefits through social networks and the pros and cons of social networks.

Social Networking Privacy

Into today’s high tech world more and more people are going to the Internet to find friendships, love and jobs. Social networking sites are at an all time high because people can find what they are looking for in one spot. Generation Y has been hearing how to be safe on the Internet since they were young but how safe are the social networking sites, do the sites provide privacy polices for what is acceptable and do the policies work and is there really privacy on the sites people are using to network, to find friends, love and jobs?
Privacy on the net or at least on the social networking sites is based on trust. When an individual creates a page on Myspace, Facebook or Twitter it is for the whole world to see. If the individual puts their page on private as a security measure, the individual has used one of the privacy settings the site offers. But when the individual goes looking for a job the manager will be looking at these sites. Businesses have agreements with social networking sites to see what the individual has put on the sites for the world to see and hiring the individual are in the best interest of the company. There is no such thing as privacy on the networking sites because people can try to hide their information from the world but it will come out eventually. This is why social networking sites record every transaction one individual makes to another while online because offline there is no trace of any interaction. (Dwyer, Hiltz, Passterini, 2007) That’s why these sites need explicit policies and data protection mechanisms in order to deliver the same level of social privacy found offline. (Dwyer, Hiltz, Passterini, 2007) That’s the only way one can have privacy one online in a social networking site.
Social networking sites present a privacy policy stating what is acceptable and what is done with the information given to them by the masses that use the site. For instance, Facebook has an eight section privacy policy in the introduction they state they are a certified licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Seal Program. Truste is an independent organization that reviews privacy policies that networking sites and retail companies use to protect the information the client gives the site. Then there are other networking sites that are not certified by truste such as Myspace, Myspace’s privacy policy does not say how they protect the contents of the clients information but rather the client has voluntarily given the information to the site but will ask the clients permission before giving the information to a third-party. Myspace is one of the unsafe social networking sites. Twitter’s privacy policy is unrealistic because it doesn’t protect their clients. Twitter states in their policy they may share or disclose your information with your consent with a third-party client when accessing your twitter account from a third-party. For the most part privacy policies work off of trust with the individual and site because if an individual is to benefit from entering information into a social networking site they will do so without questioning the site. This is because the individual wants to connect with others and find something more than friendship.
Safety on the Internet in social networking sites is hard to tell but no one is safe. There are always people out their willing to prey on young unexpected individuals. In the past we have all heard about the sexual predators on Myspace and how the site is a sexual predators heaven because of all the young girls and boys that think it is safe. In a study about sexual predators on Myspace by Dr. Larry d. Rosen explains who is likely to be contacted from those are will not be contacted in study one shows females were approached more than males, those who started on MySpace more than a year ago were approached more than, those who joined more recently and those who spend more hours on MySpace were contacted more than those who spent less time.(Rosen , 2006) This is not the only unsafe thing about social networking sites. Young individuals can be used in commercials without consent, just like Alison Chang from Texas. Her friend uploaded a photo to a social networking site and Virgin Mobile in Australia used her photo in their ad. The photos people put up on online are always going to be on the Internet because the Internet is a public domain even if the page the individual is using is private. There will always be hackers that pride themselves on hacking into a site and taking what is not theirs. Facebook users are more with the information they have provided on their pages compared to those on Myspace.(Dwyer, Hiltz, Passterini, 2007) The Internet will never truly be a safe place but there are ways to make sure the information individuals put on will be secure. One way is to look for Truste symbols. This company gives tips about on to keep your information safe and if a web site that is Truste certified is not responding to emails from a user how to file a complaint with Truste using the watch dog form on the truste site.

Social networking sites have become popular over the years and the willingness of individuals about what they put on the Internet has changed. The sites have tired to keep up with the new fad with the privacy policies being updated to adhere to the changing dynamics of the individuals using the sites for a number of different things. Privacy policies on sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter will always be based on trust between the individual and the site. The Internet is a dangerous place and no one and nothing is safe even for the individual creating the page that they can only see it is a public domain no matter what the sites say.