MySpace, Facebook a danger to our children?

Stan Beer
Sunday, 09 December 2007 06:58

Opinion and Analysis

Recently parents at an Australian private school received a notice from the principal advising them that incidents of cyber bullying at the school had been discovered. The letter went on to warn parents that they should closely monitor the online activities of their children and stop them from joining social networks such as MySpace and Facebook. Is this sound advice or unnecessarily alarmist?

The outdated scenario depicting Bart Simpson making prank phone calls to Moe's Bar may resonate with Baby Boomers and Gen Xers. However, these days many teenagers and even pre-teens spend more time chatting to each other online than they do on the telephone.

Web 2.0 social networking sites, such as MySpace, Facebook, Orkut, YouTube and others have captured the imagination of tens and even hundreds of millions of registered users around the world. However, a dark side of the popularity of these sites has been the growing number of reported and unreported incidences of cyber bullying, cyber stalking and cyber tragedies involving children and young people.

The recent publicity surrounding the tragic suicide in the US of 13 year old MySpace user Megan Meier highlights some of the worst aspects of Web 2.0 social networking. The incident has devastated one family and resulted in irreparable damage to the reputation of another. What's more, because of the way Web 2.0 works, publicity and emotions surrounding the incident have been virally perpetuated and heightened, making the healing process more difficult for all concerned.

The intensified experience of being an online personality communicating with another online personality, coupled with the powerful multimedia capabilities made available through Web 2.0 social networking, adds whole new dimensions to the potential for human interaction. On the positive side, many find that they can express themselves better and more completely through online chats than simple voice conversations on the phone. On the more sinister side, it's so much easier to be anonymous, create a bogus personality and make contact with strangers when you're communicating online.

It is unfortunately the combination of the shadier aspects of social networking that presents a danger to young people. The registration process of social networks can only go so far in verifying the true identity and credentials of members as good human beings. Making a new "friend" on MySpace or one of the other social networks can therefore be a potentially dicey exercise for anyone, particularly children.