FC NOW: The Fast Company Weblog
April 19, 2007
MySafety: Teen Privacy on MySpace
In the era of social networks, many media outlets have focused on issues of privacy and it is not uncommon to hear older adults aghast at what kids or younger adults like myself make available as public information. Kids are putting there sexual orientation out there for anyone to see, posting every up and down in their relationships, and showcasing pictures of drunken nights in places like MySpace and Facebook.
I have been a member of Facebook since 2004 and recently caved to some friendly peer-pressure and joined the MySpace revolution. As someone who is so visible online I sometimes feel that the whole world can follow my every move. I often worry about what a potential employer might think or if some creepy person is checking me out without my knowledge. It makes me feel safer to know that these sites have given me the resources to only let certain people become part of my cyber life. (Although I find Facebook's privacy settings a little more secure than MySpace). While I do put a lot of personal information on these sites, I think I've been careful not to post anything I wouldn't feel comfortable with my mom viewing (the ultimate test of decency in my eyes).
The Pew Research Center has been concerned about the same issues and released a study this week from the Pew Internet and American Life Project that focuses on what teens are doing to protect their privacy in the Internet world and if they even consider things like privacy as they pimp out pages on MySpace with the latest design or widget.
The study shows that while teens are more transparent than previous generations have been about their personal lives in the public arena, they are (for the most part) taking some precautions to shield themselves from the dangers that can lurk on the world wide web.
According to Pew, 55% of online teens have a profile on a social network and 82% of those kids have put their first name in their profile. First names tell so little about a person, but a picture is worth a thousand words and 79% of online teens are including pictures on their profiles. Teens are being careful and there aren't very many of them who put their personal contact info out there for the world. Most kids, it seems, are wise enough to keep their online worlds, exactly that, online, with little or no way to reach them in the real world. Not many teens have included personal indicators like last names (29%), cell phone numbers (2%), or emails addresses (29%).
"Our survey suggests that there are a wide range of views among teens about privacy and disclosure of personal information. Whether in an online or offline context, teenagers do not fall neatly into clear-cut groups when it comes to their willingness to disclose information or the ways they restrict access to the information that they do share. For most teens, decisions about privacy and disclosure depend on the nature of the encounter and their own personal circumstances. . .Many, but not all, teens are aware of the risks of putting information online in a public and durable environment. Many, but certainly not all, teens make thoughtful choices about what to share in what context."
So it seems, the adults of this world have raised us right, MySpacers are enjoying the full benefits of the online social scene and keeping in mind their parents' advice that the world can sometimes be a dangerous place, even if that world is confined to a computer screen.
Posted by Lisa LaMotta at April 19, 2007 11:24 AM | Category: culture |
4 Comments
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My kids are on myspace and fall into this profile. Their picture is on, but no real name, address, etc. When they IM they're very careful with what they put out...but you still have to watch over them..every now and then i'll recognize a scam coming up and let them know...The problem though is that they put the town they live on so others in the town can search for them. We're in a small rural area so it would be easy to find anyone. But I bet there were psychos around long before myspace. We just didn't hear about so much cause there wasn't internet!
Knowledge is power. Teach your kids the safety rules and teach them the scams. They're more intelligent than you think.
Here's a good test to test your teens (haven't tried it yet but thought about it): have a friend, relative pretend he/she is a "hot" (as they would put it) girl/boy and try and hit on the teen. See how they react and whether you can get a meeting or a date.
It's not just predators. Think about this. Do you want the pictures of you, drunk as a monkey at a party, or winning strings of beads at Mardi Gras to be visible to a prospective employer?
The flip side of the dangers of allowing potential predators easy access to personal information is that parents tend to take unnecessary liberties with regard to their children’s right to privacy, under the guise of concern for their safety.
Don’t get me wrong- I’m not for one second suggesting that the internet isn’t a hazardous place or that it would be acceptable to expect a parent to allow her child to roam free amongst the porn sites, chat rooms or sex shops that pepper cyberspace.
I am however saying that many parents go over and beyond the call of duty, using the internet to stalk their own children to an extent that stretches well beyond necessity.
I don’t believe parents should read their children’s diaries or listen to their phone conversations or go through the contents of the bedside tables. I was raised in a manner that encouraged open communication- from both sides. I knew that my parents didn’t want me having sex or go drinking when I was 16 and the fact that they always communicated (and enforced) this in manner that was not threatening ensured that for the most part, I never felt the need to disobey them.
As someone who has just graduated, I can tell you that many teenagers who go to college and are living away from home for the first time, have been so repressed by their families that they end up doing everything their overly cautious parents worked so hard to ensure they wouldn’t do.
It’s the whole forbidden fruit concept- the more you tell someone they absolutely CANNOT do something, the more likely it is that they’ll be tempted to do it… Parents need to change their tactics and instead of reading their kids’ aim conversations or pretending to be a “hot” boy or girl to ‘test’ their kids- like the author of a previous comment suggests- they must learn to communicate more effectively and less threateningly.
It is better to establish mutual trust through actually talking to one’s child and then letting her know that you trust her enough to respect your request. In turn when she realizes that you, unlike other parents, would never read her email or facebook profile behind her back, she is far more likely to voluntarily obey your requests.
Not only is spying on your child a band-aid solution, in all likelihood, voyeuristic parents are self destructively hacking away at the possibility of ever establishing a solid parent child relationship.
i want it 2 be like dat