The Digital Risk Zone

CEBU, Philippines — It is common knowledge how everybody goes crazy about social media. There have since come up various social networking sites providing users with a venue to express themselves, connect with like-minded people, discover new things, and communicate with others. It’s an oddball these days who doesn’t have at least one social media account.

On social media, users are also able to express their creativity, to network, to rate their favorite video clips etc. Some sites allow users to post and share photos and family videos. Considering its vast popularity, social media is big business – and for sure the sites are continuously thinking up ways to get users continuously hooked.

True, social media has a lot of good things to offer. Unfortunately, it also has its bad side. For example, child molesters, sexual predators, and scam artists also use social media to find victims. Tony Bradley, in an article at www.lifewire.com, cites that there have been numerous instances of sexual predators and child molesters posing as children to network with young victims on Facebook.

Bradley also explains the scenario of supposedly ‘exclusive’ posts getting peeked in by outsiders: “Photo sharing sites are used by thousands of families to post and share family photos. It is possible to restrict access and only let users that you identify to view the pictures. But many users are proud of their kids and their photographic skills, and allow the general public to view the photos as well.”

Child molesters and sexual deviants scouring through websites may come across the posts and bookmark their favorite photos of young boys and girls. There is, indeed, need to be extra careful when using social networking sites in order to avoid becoming a victim. Tony Bradley suggests steps to take:

Be skeptical. At least be cautious. The point of social networking is to find people who share your interests and establish a network of friends, but don’t let down your defenses too easily. Just because someone claims to like the same music as you, or share a passion for scrapbooking, doesn’t mean it is true or that their intentions are good. These new ‘friends’ are virtual and faceless and you can’t completely trust that they are what they say they are.

Be diligent. Knowing that the potential exists for scam artists or sexual predators to be lurking about, keep an eye on your profile and be diligent about who you allow connecting with your profile. For photo sharing sites like Flickr, check out the users who are marking your photos as their ‘Favorites’. If some stranger is marking all of the pictures of your seven-year old son as “Favorites,” it seems a little creepy and may be a cause for concern.

Report suspicious behavior. If you have reason to believe that someone is a sexual predator or scam artist, report it to the site. If you look at the profile of the user marking your son’s photos as “Favorites,” you might find that the person has marked hundreds of other young boys’ photos the same way. Flickr, and other such sites, should take action against this sort of suspicious behavior. If they do not, report it by contacting your local office of the National Bureau of Investigation.

Communicate. If you are a parent with children that surf the Web and use social networking sites, communicate with your children. Make sure your children are aware of the threat, and that they are educated about how to use the Web safely. Make sure that they understand the risks and that they know they can talk with you about any suspicious or malicious activity they encounter.

Monitor. If you want additional peace of mind, or you don’t fully trust that your children will stay within the guidelines you have laid out, install some monitoring software to watch their online behavior. Softwares are available to allow you to monitor and record all activity on a given computer and keep an eye on your children.