PUBLIC FORUM DEBATE
December 2008
Dr. John F. Schunk, Editor
“Resolved: That, on balance, social networking websites have a positive
impact on the United States.”
PRO
P01. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ARE WIDESPREAD
P02. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES BENEFIT TEENAGERS
P03. THEY ENHANCE COLLEGE & JOB DECISION-MAKING
P04. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES BENEFIT EDUCATION
P05. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES BENEFIT BUSINESS
P06. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES BENEFIT SCIENTISTS
P07. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES BENEFIT MEDICINE
P08. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES BENEFIT POLITICS
P09. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES BENEFIT JOURNALISM
P10. PRIVACY CAN BE PROTECTED
P11. FEARS OF SEXUAL PREDATORS ARE EXAGGERATED
P12. FEARS OF CYBERBULLYING ARE EXAGGERATED
P13. FEARS OF SECURITY LEAKS ARE EXAGGERATED
CON
C01. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ARE TRANSITORY
C02. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ARE A SHAM
C03. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ARE VULNERABLE TO FRAUD
C04. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES HARM TEENAGERS
C05. THEY HARM PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS
C06. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES DON’T BENEFIT EDUCATION
C07. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES DON’T BENEFIT BUSINESS
C08. THEY DON’T BENEFIT MEDICINE OR JOURNALISM
C09. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES CAN’T PROTECT PRIVACY
C10. SEXUAL PREDATORS DO HORRIFIC DAMAGE
C11. CYBERBULLYING DOES ENORMOUS DAMAGE
C12. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES INCREASE SUICIDE
C13. NATIONAL SECURITY LEAKS THREATEN LIVES
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SK/P01. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ARE WIDESPREAD
1. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES BUILD ON-LINE COMMUNITIES
SK/P01.01) Heather L. Carter [Clinical Asst. Professor of Teacher Education
& Leadership, Arizona State U.] et al., PHI DELTA KAPPAN, May 2008, p. 681,
Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Social
networking sites are interactive websites designed to build online communities for
individuals who have something in common--an interest in a hobby, a topic, or an
organization--and a simple desire to communicate across physical boundaries with
other interested people. These sites are not unlike the old-fashioned "party line"
telephones, but they leave a more permanent record of the conversations. Most
social networking sites include the ability to conduct live chats, send e-mails, upload
videos, maintain a blog or discussion group, and share files. Users can also post
links to pictures, music, and video, all of which have the potential to create a virtual
identity.
2. MYSPACE & FACEBOOK ARE THE MOST PROMINENT WEBSITES
SK/P01.02) Khristopher J. Brooks, THE QUILL, January-February 2008, p.
24, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. In August
2003, Thomas Anderson and Chris DeWolfe helped create MySpace. com, which
has become the largest online social network in America, boasting more than 200
million users worldwide. MySpace allows users with a working e-mail address to
post pictures, video and intimate information about their lives--including hobbies,
political affiliation, marital status and even annual income--on their MySpace page.
About a year after MySpace began, Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris
Hughes created Facebook and launched it from their Harvard University dorm
room. Facebook was originally intended for the university crowd because potential
users needed a college-administered e-mail address to register. But the creators
opened Facebook to anyone with a valid e-mail account in September 2006. By that
time, MySpace had captured 106 million users and been bought by News Corp. the
year before for a reported $580 million.
3. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ARE GROWING RAPIDLY
SK/P01.03) Rachel Mehlhaff, THE CHRISTIAN CENTURY, August 12,
2008, p. 13, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP.
Indeed, social-networking sites are the new coffeehouses and community centers of
cyberspace. Facebook, Friendster and MySpace are places where people can stay
connected--in some cases, almost constantly--with friends, family and colleagues.
People use their online profile pages to post pictures, send messages, create events
and invite people to them, and provide updates to show what is going on in their
lives. Facebook--currently the largest such site--has approximately 80 million active
members and is adding hundreds more every day.
SK/P01.04) Bryant Urstadt, TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, July-August 2008,
p. 36, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Social
networking is the fastest-growing activity on Web 2.0--the shorthand term for the
new user-centered Internet, where everyone publicly modifies everyone else's work,
whether it's an encyclopedia entry or a photo album. The growth of social
networking is astonishing, and it has spread to sites of all sizes, which are
increasingly intertwined as platforms open (see "Who Owns Your Friends?" p. 44).
Even small players are soaring.
SK/P01.05) INFORMATIONWEEK, August 13, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The number of new social
networking site users has grown by 25% in the last year, according to a report
released Tuesday. ComScore, an online metrics company, reported that global use
of social networking sites has risen as growth among new North American users has
slowed slightly to 9%. "While the social networking trend first took off in North
America, it is beginning to reach a point of maturity in the region," Jack Flanagan,
ComScore's executive VP, said in a statement. "However, the phenomenon is still
growing rapidly in other regions around the world -- especially as the established
American brands turn their focus to developing markets."
4. THE FUTURE WILL SEE EXCITING NEW DEVELOPMENTS
SK/P01.06) Seth Alpert [Managing Director, AdMedia Partners],
MEDIAWEEK, October 6, 2008, p. 16, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING,
Expanded Academic ASAP. With the success of MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and
LinkedIn, many media companies have launched (or are considering launching)
online social networking sites aimed at B2B marketplaces. According to a recent
eMarketer report, marketers will spend $40 million in the U.S. in 2008 to advertise
to a business audience on online social networks, and that is just the beginning.
Debra Aho Williamson, the senior analyst at eMarketer who wrote the report, said,
"As the number of business users of social networks increases, advertising
expenditures will rise accordingly, reaching an estimated $210 million in 2012." She
also predicts that marketers will spend far more over the next few years to create
and manage their own social networks for business customers, partners, suppliers
and vendors.
SK/P01.07) Paula J. Hane, INFORMATION TODAY, September 2008, p.
7, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. For me,
social networking and collaboration are the "new black" in the online arena.
Microsoft Research launched SearchTogether for collaborative searching. The beta
version of SearchTogether lets users work together on a search process, share the
work, and explore results simultaneously. Greg Notess provided the details in his
NewsBreak on the new browser add-on: "While Google may be working on
something similar, Microsoft Research's SearchTogether is available now and may
well offer a technology preview of what types of future collaborative searching may
start to be incorporated into search and social networking sites."
SK/P01.08) Paula J. Hane, INFORMATION TODAY, September 2008, p.
7, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. 2collab,
the research collaboration platform for scientists from Elsevier (first released in beta
a year ago and officially launched in November 2007), announced the results of a
survey asking researchers about the role of social media in their professional lives. I
found this most interesting: Comments from survey respondents identified several
issues that need to be addressed before the research community accepts it, namely,
the need for specialist tools, higher security, and validation of users. However, these
concerns were not seen as insurmountable obstacles, and many anticipated
"tremendous potential" for social media.
SK/P01.09) Paula J. Hane, INFORMATION TODAY, September 2008, p.
7, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. At the
Enterprise 2.0 Conference last June in Boston, Chris Pratley, general manager of
Microsoft Office Labs, shared some details about TownSquare, Microsoft's internal
social networking project. TownSquare is an enterprise newsfeed that allows users
to receive news about managers, friends at work, and colleagues all in one location.
Its layout is similar to Facebook (in which Microsoft has an investment). The
prototype project provides useful information automatically based on who
employees communicate with and data public within the company. TownSquare
aims to provide information workers with up-to-the-minute information that can
help employees improve productivity and work efficiently. A company
representative says that while the team initially sent out invites to a few colleagues,
the site now has more than 8,000 users.
SK/P01.10) INFORMATIONWEEK, August 1, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. As more mobile phones
become equipped with GPS chips, the market for location-based mobile social
networking will swell to $3.3 billion by 2013, according to new data from ABI
Research. The new study, titled "Location-Based Mobile Social Networking," found
that users are increasingly eager to share geo-tagged user-generated content,
exchange recommendations about places, and identify nearby friends.
SK/P02. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES BENEFIT TEENAGERS
1. THEY FACILITATE YOUTH SELF-EXPRESSION
SK/P02.01) Susan Hanley Duncan [U. of Kentucky Law School],
KENTUCKY LAW JOURNAL, 2007-2008, Online, LEXIS-NEXIS, p. 535. The
Internet generally, and social-networking sites in particular, can be a positive
influence on teens. Social-networking sites provide an outlet for teens to express
themselves in their own unique ways. In addition, they serve both as a meeting place
for teens to interact with other like--minded people and as showplaces for a teen's
artistic and musical abilities.
SK/P02.02) Richard M. Guo [U. of California-Berkeley Law School],
BERKELEY TECHNOLOGY LAW JOURNAL, 2008, Online, LEXIS-NEXIS, p.
624. While the social networking phenomenon is relatively new, interest in this area
of growth has resulted in various studies attempting to understand the effects of
online social networks on their users. With respect to minors, a recent study notes
that far from acting solely as online places to hang out, social networks provide
younger users with valuable opportunities to express themselves and interact with
their peers. These opportunities, in turn, help minors facilitate development of their
identities, and refine their abilities to understand and interact with one another in
healthy ways.
2. THEY HELP YOUTH DEVELOP RELATIONSHIPS
SK/P02.03) Richard M. Guo [U. of California-Berkeley Law School],
BERKELEY TECHNOLOGY LAW JOURNAL, 2008, Online, LEXIS-NEXIS, p.
624. Researcher Danah Boyd, who did not take part in the aforementioned study but
who was cited by its authors, explains that the "process of learning to read social
cues and react accordingly is core to being socialized into a society." Part of this
learning experience is played out by attempting to communicate an impression of
oneself through a performance, getting feedback on that performance from peers,
and then adjusting one's approach accordingly to better relay the desired impression
next time. This process, defined as impression management, is "honed" through
experience. Online social networks provide an additional avenue for youths to
further hone their impression management skills. This is accomplished by
permitting users to craft "digital bodies" through profiles and to display these
"digital bodies" to peers.
SK/P02.04) Kaveri Subrahmanyam [Professor of Psychology, Cal. State U.Los Angeles] & Patricia Greenfield [Professor of Psychology, UCLA], THE
FUTURE OF CHILDREN, Spring 2008, p. 119, Online, GALE CENGAGE
LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. According to a 2001 survey by the Pew
Internet and American Life Project, 48 percent of online teens believe that the
Internet has improved their relationships with friends; the more frequently they use
the Internet, the more strongly they voice this belief. Interestingly, 61 percent feel
that time online does not take away from time spent with friends. One recent study
appears to support adolescents' self-reported beliefs about how the Internet affects
their friendships. A survey study of preadolescent and adolescent youth in the
Netherlands examined the link between online communication and relationship
strength. Eighty percent of those surveyed reported using the Internet to maintain
existing friendship networks. Participants who communicated more often on the
Internet felt closer to existing friends than those who did not, but only if they were
using the Internet to communicate with friends rather than strangers. Participants
who felt that online communication was more effective for self-disclosure also
reported feeling closer to their offline friends than adolescents who did not view
online communication as allowing for more intimate self-disclosure.
3. THEY PROVIDE YOUTH WITH NEEDED SUPPORT GROUPS
SK/P02.05) Susan Hanley Duncan [U. of Kentucky Law School],
KENTUCKY LAW JOURNAL, 2007-2008, Online, LEXIS-NEXIS, p. 536. Socialnetworking sites such as MySpace offer much more than just a repository of teen
profiles. To help users meet other like-minded people social-networking sites
support areas that focus on subjects of interest, such as the issues of "gay, lesbian,
bi," "fashion and style," "literature and arts," and "religion and beliefs." Chat room
discussions occur on an equally diverse number of topics. These more narrow
groups connect teens with similar teens, helping provide a sense of belonging and
support they may not feel in their own communities or schools.
4. ON BALANCE, SOCIAL BENEFITS OFFSET RISKS
SK/P02.06) Kaveri Subrahmanyam [Professor of Psychology, Cal. State U.Los Angeles] & Patricia Greenfield [Professor of Psychology, UCLA], THE
FUTURE OF CHILDREN, Spring 2008, p. 119, Online, GALE CENGAGE
LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Meeting strangers on social networking
sites such as MySpace offers another example. Although such virtual contacts can
endanger adolescents, research has found that interactions with strangers may also
help alleviate the negative effects of social rejection in the physical world.
SK/P03. THEY ENHANCE COLLEGE & JOB DECISION-MAKING
1. THEY HELP STUDENTS MAKE CHOICES ABOUT COLLEGE
SK/P03.01) Susan Hanley Duncan [U. of Kentucky Law School],
KENTUCKY LAW JOURNAL, 2007-2008, Online, LEXIS-NEXIS, p. 535.
Finally, students use these sites as tools to obtain information much like businesses
and colleges use them in evaluating candidates and applicants. For example,
students applying for college visit profiles of that college's students to view pictures
and read blogs to determine whether the college would be a good fit.
SK/P03.02) Richard M. Guo [U. of California-Berkeley Law School],
BERKELEY TECHNOLOGY LAW JOURNAL, 2008, Online, LEXIS-NEXIS, p.
617. As poster children of the recent Web 2.0 movement, social networking services
such as MySpace and Facebook redefine and change the way people - in particular,
teenagers and young adults - interact. For example, many university campus
organizations now advertise by sending invitations on Facebook instead of
distributing paper fliers. Advertising in this manner is quicker and cheaper.
2. THEY HELP COLLEGE STUDENTS OBTAIN FINANCIAL AID
SK/P03.03) Charles Paikert, INVESTMENT NEWS, July 14, 2008, p. 14,
Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. As tuition
bills begin to arrive in mailboxes of college-bound students this month, borrowing
alternatives are emerging for parents and students caught in the credit crunch that
has stifled the student loan market. One website launched last week, GreenNote
Network, will attempt to use the popular social-networking concept to match
students with potential lenders. Students register and create a profile on the site to
request loans from family, friends and others in their network. Potential lenders use
the site's tools to search for students based on criteria such as the school the student
will be attending, age, areas of study, extracurricular activities and other
demographic information. If a match is made, lenders will provide students with a
loan that may be as low as $100, and will receive a fixed return of 6.8% a year,
according to Amie Tyrrel, office manager for Redwood City, Calif.-based
GreenNote Inc. Students can defer payments for up to five years and have a
repayment term of 10 years with no prepayment penalties.
3. THEY FACILITATE JOB-HUNTING
SK/P03.04) THE ECONOMIST (US), September 27, 2008, p. 72EU,
Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Among the
few firms benefiting from the upheaval in the financial markets are professional
social networks--websites that help with business networking and job-hunting. On
LinkedIn, the market leader, members have been updating their profiles in record
numbers in recent weeks, apparently to position themselves in case they lose their
jobs. The two most popular sites, LinkedIn and Xing, have been growing at
breakneck speed and boast 29m and 6.5m members respectively. And, in contrast to
mass-market social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, both firms have
worked out how to make money.
4. THEY ALLOW ASPIRING MUSICIANS TO BE HEARD
SK/P03.05) Antony Bruno, BILLBOARD, August 9, 2008, p. 16, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Gaining particular
momentum in the last year are so-called "performance-based" social networking
services. These sites invite aspiring artists to upload music and videos to a social
network designed to let others view and vote for their favorite submissions. Some,
like the 2-month-old WeMix and soon-to-launch myAWOL, are taking a sort of
label approach--using their network as an internal A&R tool to discover artists and
then promoting them through more traditional channels. Others, like FameCast, City
of Fame and MusicNation, are more straightforward music contests, offering
winners rewards of cash and/or services.
SK/P04. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES BENEFIT EDUCATION
1. THEY ARE BEING WIDELY USED IN SCHOOLS
SK/P04.01) Kathie Felix, MULTIMEDIA & INTERNET@SCHOOLS,
September-October 2008, p. 8, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded
Academic ASAP. The preliminary results from an American Association of School
Librarians (AASL) study indicate that elementary, middle, and high schools are
beginning to treat social networking tools as an essential part of preparing students
for the 21st century. Among the key findings from AASL's second longitudinal
survey on school library media programs are that 53% of elementary, middle, and
high schools use some sort of collaborative tools to aid in instruction; 50% of
schools use an intranet within their school community and more than 41% of
schools use podcasts; 29% of schools use blogs as an instructional platform; some
form of online instruction is used in nearly 20% of schools; social bookmarking is
used in more than 15% of schools; and integrating social networking tools into
instruction is widely accepted by public and private schools alike.
SK/P04.02) Tim Discipio [co-founder, ePals Inc.], MULTIMEDIA &
INTERNET@SCHOOLS, September-October 2008, p. 10, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. From using Twitter to
encourage short story writing to utilizing Delicious to organize professional
development tips and favorite articles, the number of social networking tools and
websites is increasing exponentially. We know educators use these 21st-century
tools with students in all grade levels. The question remains, however, whether and
how these tools might be used to positively affect student understanding and
achievement. The short answer is yes, most definitely, though there are essential
innovations in pedagogy that must accompany them. The long answer is that these
tools, when chosen thoughtfully, implemented appropriately, and combined with
innovative pedagogy through internet-connected communities, can teach students
the skills necessary to thrive in the 21st century and expand their ability to
communicate and collaborate in a global marketplace.
SK/P04.03) Tim Discipio [co-founder, ePals Inc.], MULTIMEDIA &
INTERNET@SCHOOLS, September-October 2008, p. 10, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Demonstrating how a social
network for learning can address a number of the skills recommended by the
Partnership, Martha Barnes from Columbia Elementary School in Annandale, Va.,
has developed an activity for her students called the American Film History Project.
Helping her students to improve their information, media, and technology skills as
well as inspiring creativity and innovation, Barnes plans to launch the program for
the 2008-2009 school year. Bringing together several schools from around the U.S.
to participate, the program will involve high school students helping to teach video
and editing skills to her elementary students.
SK/P04.04) Tim Discipio [co-founder, ePals Inc.], MULTIMEDIA &
INTERNET@SCHOOLS, September-October 2008, p. 10, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Leveraging ePals, Inc.'s free,
online email service for K-12 (see the ePals global community of classrooms at
www.epals.com) and videoconferencing tools, she [Martha Barnes, Columbia
Elementary School, Annandale, VA] is incorporating social networking tools within
a safe and constructive environment to promote mentoring and the use of media
skills to engage her students in learning about history. Giving her students the
opportunity to communicate and collaborate with their peers from other schools, as
well as older students, helps to broaden their points of view and teaches them
different ways to approach and solve problems.
SK/P04.05) John K. Waters, T H E JOURNAL (TECHNOLOGICAL
HORIZONS IN EDUCATION), January 2008, p. 38, Online, GALE CENGAGE
LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. "One of the problems with social
networking sites is, you go there, get all excited, poke around, add your friends, and
then never come back again," Lim says, "unless you have a compelling reason to do
so. The compelling reason on the PCATP site is Read Around the Planet." Read
Around the Planet returns on Feb. 25 and runs through March 4. TWICE provides
the registration tool, matches classrooms with partners, and provides support
documents. Participating classrooms are responsible for their own video connection
and developing their own reading activities for the event. "The Collaborations
Around the Planet network is going to help us to grow our programs even more,"
says Glaser. "We've created this niche of teachers partnering with other teachers to
use the technology to further the educational mission. We've started to build social
relationships among classrooms. We expect those relationships to grow not only in
quantity, but quality."
SK/P04.06) John K. Waters, T H E JOURNAL (TECHNOLOGICAL
HORIZONS IN EDUCATION), January 2008, p. 38, Online, GALE CENGAGE
LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The PCATP network was built into an
existing system called Read Around the Planet, which Polycom and TWICE also
co-sponsor in cooperation with the National Education Association. Read Around
the Planet grew out of the NEA's annual Read Across America event. This 10-yearold celebration of reading is timed each year to coincide with the March 2 birthday
of Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss.
SK/P04.07) Jim Klein [Director of Information Services & Technology,
Saugus Union School District], LEARNING & LEADING WITH TECHNOLOGY,
February 2008, p. 12, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded
Academic ASAP. By building the SUSD Teacher and Student Community sites,
dubbed "learning landscapes," we aimed to provide the tools and resources our
educators and students needed to better communicate, collaborate, learn, share, and
grow not only among themselves, but with the community at large. Throughout this
project, we sought out a way to make all the latest social networking technologies
available to our teachers and students in a cohesive platform.
2. THEY INCREASE RAPPORT BETWEEN TEACHER & STUDENTS
SK/P04.08) Heather L. Carter [Clinical Asst. Professor of Teacher Education
& Leadership, Arizona State U.] et al., PHI DELTA KAPPAN, May 2008, p. 681,
Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Some
teachers view the social networking sites as an avenue to enhance instruction. High
school teacher Alyssa Trzeszkowski-Giese claims that her profile on Facebook has
allowed her to establish deeper relationships with and understandings of her
students because she can communicate with them beyond the four walls of the
classroom. She states that quiet students are sometimes more vocal online because
they feel more comfortable behind the artificial cloak of anonymity offered by the
Internet. Tapping this medium has proved to be a resource for tying classroom
instruction to "real life" for her students.
SK/P04.09) Heather L. Carter [Clinical Asst. Professor of Teacher Education
& Leadership, Arizona State U.] et al., PHI DELTA KAPPAN, May 2008, p. 681,
Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Other school
professionals have created social networking profiles as a means to generate buzz
about school programs. Missouri teachers and club sponsors Phil Overeem and Jami
Thornsberry use Facebook to provide updates on club information. Overeem credits
Facebook with increasing his club's attendance by 50%. High school social studies
teacher Andrew McCarthy from Hickman, Missouri, uses Facebook to remind his
students of upcoming homework deadlines and quizzes.
SK/P04.10) Kandace Harris [Asst. Professor of Communication Arts,
Johnson C. Smith U.], DIVERSE ISSUES IN HIGHER EDUCATION, October 16,
2008, p. 40, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP.
The third factor to consider is the emerging rate of faculty members using SNS
[social networking sites] to interact with their students outside the classroom.
Recent studies have shown that 30 percent of Facebook users and 32 percent of
MySpace users are older than 45. College administrators and faculty are
contributing to this fast-growing group. Building interpersonal relationships among
students, academicians and administrators has the potential to alter perceived power
relationships by making faculty and personnel seem more accessible.
3. THEY ENHANCE STUDENT COLLABORATION
SK/P04.11) Tim Discipio [co-founder, ePals Inc.], MULTIMEDIA &
INTERNET@SCHOOLS, September-October 2008, p. 10, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. On an individual level,
social networking tools can be used in specific assignments, such as using email to
correspond with classmates about a history project or blogging about a science
experiment. Here, students are learning to utilize the technology to accomplish a
particular task. What should be encouraged is the next level of communication-collaboration. Within a social learning network, students can collaborate using tools
such as email, blogs, and wikis to create, invent, and showcase their work in a way
that unlocks intrinsic motivation and advances learning outcomes.
4. THEY INCREASE STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT
SK/P04.12) Jim Klein [Director of Information Services & Technology,
Saugus Union School District], LEARNING & LEADING WITH TECHNOLOGY,
February 2008, p. 12, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded
Academic ASAP. Educators and students can create and host communities where
they collaborate on a project or interest, communicate as a group, and share or
exchange content. And they all have an access-controlled, centralized file store that
allows them to share, store, and retrieve their data from anywhere they happen to be
(with Internet access, of course.) Perhaps most important, no one has to worry about
spam or inappropriate comments or content. We've also realized some early gains
academically. We are still collecting and evaluating data, but have already
discovered that teachers leveraging the tools to bolster science curriculum through
group projects and lesson reviews have seen an average nine-point gain in test
scores and student achievement. We are seeing similar results in writing and
language fluency, and expect the growth to continue. The effects of student
engagement through the use of these technologies are not only measurable, but
striking.
SK/P04.13) Sarah Karlin, EDUCATION DIGEST, December 2007, p. 9.
Despite these concerns, educators believe social networking can have a positive
impact on educational outcomes. “Increasing communication can really help
students,” Langhorst [South Valley Jr. High School, Liberty, MO] said. “It makes
my classroom a better classroom because it’s not just me and my four walls. I mean
literally, I can contact anyone in the world and bring them into my classroom.”
SK/P04.14) Tim Discipio [co-founder, ePals Inc.], MULTIMEDIA &
INTERNET@SCHOOLS, September-October 2008, p. 10, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. In addition to providing
opportunities for collaboration and teaching 21st-century skills, another aspect of a
social learning network is the potential to build global awareness among students.
Educators can choose to utilize Web 2.0 tools and other online programs, some of
which are available at no cost, to match students with other students around the
world. Enhancing social and cross-cultural skills, communicating and collaborating
with their peers on a worldwide level helps to transition students into digital
citizens, ultimately preparing them for working in a global marketplace.
5. THEY IMPROVE SKILLS OF LOW-INCOME STUDENTS
SK/P04.15) Kandace Harris [Asst. Professor of Communication Arts,
Johnson C. Smith U.], DIVERSE ISSUES IN HIGHER EDUCATION, October 16,
2008, p. 40, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP.
A recent study by the University of Minnesota found that low-income students are
just as technologically proficient as their counterparts and credit SNS [social
networking sites] for teaching them technology skills, as well as creativity, and
providing exposure to diverse views. Additionally, a 2007 survey conducted by
marketing firms Noel-Levitz and James Tower, and the National Research Center
for College and University Admissions (NRCCUA) found that Black students
expressed a preference for electronic communication and greater interest in using
social networking to interact with colleges and make enrollment decisions compared
to their White counterparts.
6. THEY ARE ABLE TO REACH NONCONFORMIST STUDENTS
SK/P04.16) Michelle R. Davis, DIGITAL DIRECTIONS, June 9, 2008, p.
18, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Though
there are student Facebook pages devoted to everything from a love of physics to
school anime clubs for Japanese cartoon enthusiasts, teachers and administrators
have been slow to enter the realm. However, social-networking sites may be just the
way to reach students whose potential may be overlooked in a traditional school
setting.
SK/P04.17) Michelle R. Davis, DIGITAL DIRECTIONS, June 9, 2008, p.
18, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. A 2007
report by the National School Boards Association found that social networking
could help schools connect with students the study called nonconformists--those
who push back against online safety and behavior rules. A third of the teens studied
in the report fell into the nonconformist category, and despite extraordinary
technology skills, those students were likely to have lower grades. The report found
that nonconformist students were heavier users of social-networking sites, and it
urged schools to use such conduits to engage those students.
7. ON BALANCE, EDUCATIONAL BENEFITS OUTWEIGH RISKS
SK/P04.18) Carol Brydolf [staff writer, CALIFORNIA SCHOOLS],
EDUCATION DIGEST, October 2007, p. 8. "We need to keep in mind that the
benefits of this interactive technology far outweigh the risks," says Leri
[Information Director, Arcadia Unified School District, California. "When it's used
in a positive way, it can be an extraordinary tool." NSBA [National School Boards
Association] Technology Director Flynn agrees that for all the headaches, digital
Communications provide some exciting opportunities to improve student learning.
“There are plenty of good uses of social networking,” she says. “Students who may
be reluctant to speak up in class are participating in book discussion blogs and
writing for real audiences. There are new Web tools emerging all the time that are
enhancing learning.”
SK/P05. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES BENEFIT BUSINESS
1. THEY ARE BEING USED MORE AND MORE BY BUSINESSES
SK/P05.01) Avinash Supe, INDIAN JOURNAL OF MEDICAL
SCIENCES, March 2008, p. 118, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING,
Expanded Academic ASAP. Social networking is being increasingly used as a tool
of choice for communications and collaborations in business and higher education.
Learning and practice become inseparable when professionals work in communities
of practice that create interpersonal bonds and promote collective learning.
Individual learning that arises from the critical reconstruction of practice, in the
presence of peers and other health professionals, enhances a physician's capability
of clinical judgment and evidence-based practice.
SK/P05.02) Paula J. Hane, INFORMATION TODAY, September 2008, p.
7, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Eightyfour percent of businesses reported that social networking would help with sharing
knowledge and expertise with colleagues across the organization and 68% would
like help with finding relevant specific information. Sixty-nine percent want to
interact with colleagues they don't know.
2. THEY WILL BECOME MUST-HAVES IN THE FUTURE
SK/P05.03) INFORMATIONWEEK, June 5, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. "Over the next 10 years, as
mobile devices like smartphones become the primary channel for viewing content or
accessing the Internet, social networking will move largely into the wireless realm,
providing the type of ubiquitous connection that consumers are demanding," Derek
Lidow, president and CEO at iSuppli, said in an announcement Wednesday. "This
event will accompany the creation of a new generation of applications that will
greatly expand the appeal and utility of social networking, and will finally generate
profits for the social networking industry." Wireless social-networking applications
and products will become must-haves for consumers and businesses, Lidow said.
3. MOST NEW JOBS REQUIRE COLLABORATIVE SKILLS
SK/P05.04) Tim Discipio [co-founder, ePals Inc.], MULTIMEDIA &
INTERNET@SCHOOLS, September-October 2008, p. 10, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. One of the most critical
skills students need to learn prior to graduation is the ability to collaborate.
Traditional pedagogy calls for students to learn on an individual level and be tested
on an individual level. These skills are important and the majority of employers still
consider reading and mathematical competencies as key differentiating factors in
hiring. Yet, research through the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicates as many
as 70% of the new jobs recently created in the U.S. are positions that require
interactions between people and involve judgment, insight, and collaboration.
SK/P06. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES BENEFIT SCIENTISTS
1. THEY ARE BEING USED EXTENSIVELY BY SCIENTISTS
SK/P06.01) JOURNAL OF CLINICAL INVESTIGATION, June 2008, p.
1976, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP.
Although scientists today rely on the World Wide Web to help them with their
research, mainly using it to search for information, newer capabilities such as
blogging, tagging, and social networking are only just beginning to be exploited by
scientists.
SK/P06.02) Paula J. Hane, INFORMATION TODAY, September 2008, p.
7, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP.
GlobalSpec reports that its collaborative online community for engineers, scientists,
technical researchers, and related professionals, launched 2 years ago and dubbed
CR4, now receives some 250,000 unique visitors each month. Members are making
700 to 800 posts per day, sparking deep "problem-solution" conversations.
2. THEY FACILITATE COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH
SK/P06.03) Virginia Gewin, NATURE, February 2008, p. 1024. Compared
with crafting computational expertise or sharpening gene-splicing skills, networking
is one talent many scientists are slow to hone. Luckily, a crop of new websites is
encouraging even the most reclusive researchers to rendezvous with colleagues
without leaving the lab. The success of social-networking websites such as
MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn shows the power of the Internet not only to
cultivate, but to capitalize on, friendships. Although online networks may seem
impersonal, they can do something for scientists that a handshake cannot: highlight
common research interests without leaving the comfort of your desk.
SK/P06.04) Virginia Gewin, NATURE, February 2008, p. 1024. A growing
number of websites, including Nature Network (a product of the Nature Publishing
Group, the parent company of Nature) and Chemical Forums are coming online to
meet more specific needs. Although these sites reach out to a broad spectrum of
disciplines, scientists can create more focused forums, groups or blogs to spark
more specialized discussions. Some of Nature Network’s most popular forums are
devoted to evolution and brain physiology. Chemical Forums enables its 7,000
chemists to segregate into everything from physical chemistry to chemical
engineering. There’s even a Citizen Chemist forum to exchange useful chemistry
experiments or download chemistry games. Scientists with common interests can
connect across long distances and disparate scientific cultures.
3. THEY FACILITATE JOB SEARCH AND FUNDING
SK/P06.05) Virginia Gewin, NATURE, February 2008, p. 1024. To meet the
constant demand for career advice, some scientific associations have harnessed
existing sites to provide a networking option. For example, the American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the American Institute of
Biological Sciences (AIBS) have created networking groups on both Facebook and
Linked1n. There, members search for jobs, seek advice and discuss funding
opportunities.
SK/P07. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES BENEFIT MEDICINE
1. THEY ALLOW PATIENTS TO SHARE INFORMATION
SK/P07.01) Peter Aldhous, NEW SCIENTIST, May 17, 2008, p. 26, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The MySpace
mindset is already meeting medical science on the website PatientsLikeMe. For the
past two years it has enabled people with the degenerative neurological disease
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) to share information about symptoms and
treatments. PatientsLikeMe has also expanded to build communities of people with
other conditions, and has launched a number of projects analysing clinical
information provided by the site's users.
SK/P07.02) Peter Aldhous, NEW SCIENTIST, May 17, 2008, p. 26, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. PatientsLikeMe,
based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has a similar ethos. The site's communities now
include more than 5000 people with multiple sclerosis, 2000 with mood disorders,
2000 with ALS, 700 with HIV and 1600 with Parkinson's. Patients who would
otherwise rely on their doctors for information on treatments can see charts detailing
what drugs other patients are taking, and how their symptoms are progressing. Once
patients are able to share this information, more ambitious research becomes
possible. For instance, 187 members of PatientsLikeMe's ALS community have
joined forces to investigate whether lithium, generally used to treat bipolar disorder
and depression, may slow progression of the disease.
2. THEY FACILITATE MEDICAL RESEARCH
SK/P07.03) Peter Aldhous, NEW SCIENTIST, May 17, 2008, p. 26, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Now online social
networking is moving into genetics research. In a pilot project, personal genomics
firm 23andMe, based in Mountain View, California, is building a site for people
with Parkinson's disease. Using a grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for
Parkinson's Research (MIFF) in New York, the company will scan the genomes of
up to 150 people with Parkinson's for genetic variants associated with susceptibility
to the disease. The patients will also be asked about their symptoms, medication and
factors such as exposure to pesticides and use of alcohol and tobacco via online
questionnaires developed by the Parkinson's Institute in Sunnyvale, California.
These patients have previously been examined in person on behalf of the institute,
so by comparing the two forms of assessment, the study hopes to discover whether
clinical information gained from a web-based patient community can provide a
reliable means of investigating the genetic and environmental factors that can
trigger Parkinson's.
SK/P07.04) Peter Aldhous, NEW SCIENTIST, May 17, 2008, p. 26, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. If the online
approach proves viable, it could overcome two major constraints on scientific
progress in clinical research: gaining access to enough people to obtain reliable
results, and doing so without running up huge costs. "The slowest part of the
research is recruiting the patients," says Todd Sherer, MIFF's vice-president for
research. Many willing volunteers live far away from clinical research centres, and
even if they can make the trip, getting their symptoms assessed by a specialist is
expensive. "One of the fundamental reasons why we started this company was to
accelerate the pace of research," says 23andMe co-founder Anne Wojcicki. By
empowering patients with information about themselves and building an online
community, "we can transform the way research is done", she says.
3. THEY FACILITATE THE FIGHT AGAINST MALARIA
SK/P07.05) JOURNAL OF CLINICAL INVESTIGATION, June 2008, p.
1976, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The
capabilities of Web 2.0 are behind the new, clinically relevant social-networking
website www.MalariaEngage.org, which aims to open a channel between the global
internet community and African scientists who are working to eradicate one of the
biggest health problems on their continent--malaria. The website, which was
launched in time for World Malaria Day on April 25, is a collaboration between
researchers at the University Health Network and the University of Toronto--based
McLaughlin-Rotman Centre (MRC) for Global Health; Impactanation, an
organization dedicated to increasing awareness and inspiring entrepreneurial action
in young people around the themes of environment, health, and social justice; and
the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) in Tanzania.
SK/P07.06) PC MAGAZINE ONLINE, April 21, 2008, pNA, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Tom Hadfield set up
Soccer.net in his bedroom before selling it to U.S. sports network ESPN, but now
hopes the power of sites such as Facebook can curb a disease that kills an estimated
one million people a year, many of them in Africa. "I believe in the power of friends
telling friends telling friends," self-styled part-time student and full-time
entrepreneur Hadfield told Reuters in an interview. "Our dream is tens of thousands
of people will use social networking tools to build a movement that eradicates
malaria."
SK/P07.07) PC MAGAZINE ONLINE, April 21, 2008, pNA, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. But Hadfield sees
MalariaEngage.org as more than a fundraising tool. "MalariaEngage.org increases
the return on investment of donors by connecting them directly with researchers
working on malaria prevention treatment," said Hadfield. "It's about more than
about giving money--it's about creating connections. By encouraging individual
participation and involvement, we will create international communities of common
interest. This is the essence of social networking."
SK/P08. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES BENEFIT POLITICS
1. THEY IMPART INFORMATION TO VOTERS
SK/P08.01) Laura Gordon-Murnane, SEARCHER, October 2008, p. 38,
Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The Pew
Internet & American Life Project recently released the report, "The Internet and the
2008 Election," in which it reported that "a record-breaking 46% of Americans have
used the internet, email or cell phone text messaging to get news about the
campaign, share their views and mobilize others". Furthermore, it reported that
Americans are getting their election news from online political videos or social
networking sites, such as Facebook or MySpace, "to gather information or become
involved." We netizens are trying to learn more about candidates by using the
internet to "access 'unfiltered' campaign materials, which includes videos of
candidate debates, speeches and announcements, as well as position papers and
speech transcripts."
SK/P08.02) Laura Gordon-Murnane, SEARCHER, October 2008, p. 38,
Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The Twitter
debate between representatives from the McCain and Obama campaigns on
technology policy and government reform offers another example of how high-tech
and internet tools have transformed the 2008 political cycle. Twitter is a social
networking and micro-blogging site that allows users to send updates--"Tweets"-limited to 140 characters, "via SMS, instant messaging, email, Twitter's website and
third party applications". These conversations take place right out in the open--not
behind closed doors. Anyone interested can follow the debate as it unfolds. The goal
of the debate is summed up by Micah Sifry, executive director of the Personal
Democracy Forum: "We think this will be a nice, lightweight and innovative way to
showcase how each presidential campaign thinks about issues around technology
policy and government reform ..."
SK/P08.03) Sean Richey [Dept. of Political Science, Georgia State U.],
BRITISH JOURNAL OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, July 2008, p. 527, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. How does political
knowledge in social networks influence voters? Research shows that social
networking has a powerful influence on voters. Those knowledgeable about politics
are likely to be influential, and if so this may help low-information voters choose
candidates wisely. Scholars find that perceived political knowledge in social
networks does influence vote choice.
2. THEY PLACE POWER BACK IN THE HANDS OF THE PEOPLE
SK/P08.04) Laura Gordon-Murnane, SEARCHER, October 2008, p. 38,
Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Andrew
Rasiej, founder of the Personal Democracy Forum, could not have been more
prescient in his comments when he was interviewed by Liane Hansen on NPR's
Weekend Edition Sunday (June 22, 2008). In responding to a question about how
the internet is reshaping American politics, he said, "It's really rebalancing the
power, not into the hands of the special interest and those with money, but into the
hands of citizens who actually now can organize themselves. And, let me just add,
that organized minorities are always more powerful than disorganized majorities".
SK/P08.05) Laura Gordon-Murnane, SEARCHER, October 2008, p. 38,
Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The internet
has changed the dynamics of presidential and congressional campaigns but, more
importantly, it has also changed how Americans can interact with candidates,
incumbents, and the institutions of our democratic government. We need these tools
more now than ever as the problems we face, not only as a nation but as a global
community, are large and growing larger every day. We need tools that support
greater understanding, greater awareness, and better communication between
government and the American public. In particular, we need tools that can help
facilitate transparency and accountability in our government leaders and our
government institutions.
3. THEY ARE USED FOR SOCIAL PROTEST
SK/P08.06) INFORMATIONWEEK, June 23, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Shirky [New York
University professor], author of Here Comes Everybody: The Power Of Organizing
Without Organizations, said his group explains how "political action just got easier."
He pointed to a recent decision by HSBC to honor an agreement college students
pushed for by blasting the bank and organizing on Facebook, and the walkout of
40,000 students in Los Angeles to protest immigration reform. Shirky said that most
protest is designed to stop action, and he argued that grassroots groups could push
beyond lobbying to actually get things done if people spent 1% of the time they
spent on television exchanging ideas and trying to create democratic tools like
Wikipedia.
SK/P08.07) Laura Gordon-Murnane, SEARCHER, October 2008, p. 38,
Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Witness the
reaction of thousands of Barack Obama's supporters when they learned that he had
changed his position on FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978
Amendments Act of 2008 HR 6304. During the Democratic primaries, Obama had
opposed the legislation, but then he endorsed a compromise between the Bush
administration and the Democratic Congressional leadership that expanded the
"government's domestic spying powers while also providing legal protection to the
telecommunication companies that worked with the National Security Agency's
domestic wiretapping program after the Sept. 11 attacks". Obama's own supporters,
some 14,000 and counting, used the campaign's social networking site--MyBarack
Obama--to organize and protest this change in position.
4. THEY EXPOSE DICTATORSHIP AND OPPRESSION
SK/P08.08) INFORMATIONWEEK, June 23, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. But already groups are
demonstrating real-world power generated by their online networks, according to
New York University professor and author Clay Shirky. Shirky was one of several
speakers who addressed technology's growing role in democracy at the Personal
Democracy Forum in New York City on Monday. Flash mobs, which started out as
a recreational activity for bored hipsters in New York, has become a political tool
for youth across the world, Shirky said. Young people in Belarus showed the world
what it is like to live under a dictatorship by using Flash mobs to assemble a group
of people eating ice cream in October Square. People also descended on the square
to smile at each other. In Belarus, smiling and eating ice cream aren't illegal, but
gathering in groups in the largest city's public square is against the law. Flash mobs
allowed the groups to form spontaneously and avoid authorities until their
"demonstrations" were under way. By that time, cameras were rolling and clicking
to document the situation and relay it around the world. "Nothing says dictatorship
like arresting people for eating ice cream," Shirky said.
SK/P09. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES BENEFIT JOURNALISM
1. THEY ARE USED HEAVILY BY JOURNALISTS
SK/P09.01) Kelly Wilson, AMERICAN JOURNALISM REVIEW,
February-March 2008, p. 12, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded
Academic ASAP. "Facebook is now used by journalists for themselves as well as in
their profession," she [Lori Schwab, Executive Director of Online News
Association] says, and it's become a central fact of online life. She's not alone. More
and more, journalists across the age lines are discovering the relevance of social
networking sites to their lives and work. Facebook in particular has pulled in
members of the field far beyond the original target college audience, leaving agerestrictive demographic delineations in the dust.
SK/P09.02) Kelly Wilson, AMERICAN JOURNALISM REVIEW,
February-March 2008, p. 12, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded
Academic ASAP. Across the board, social sites are a way for people to interact as
they never could before (or at least, never could with such ease). For journalists that
means contacting others for ideas and support on tough assignments or connecting
with editors for advice and job opportunities. Many organizations have gone a step
further to create groups only for members of their news outlets' networks. It takes
just a few minutes to set up a Facebook account, and from there "friending" other
members and joining the site's famous groups is a piece of cake. Anyone with an
Internet connection can do it.
2. THEY ARE A GOOD SOURCE FOR FINDING CONTACTS
SK/P09.03) Khristopher J. Brooks, THE QUILL, January-February 2008, p.
24, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. "I like to
equate a MySpace or Facebook page with information from a telephone book, and
you wouldn't use that," Leach Jan [director of the Media Law Center for Ethics and
Access at Kent State University] said. "You should consider it a place to go for
sources and a jumping-off point, but I don't think you should use information
straight off MySpace." Leach suggests using profile information to identify sources,
and then try to contact that person for comment. "I think they're really good tools
that help you find sources, just like documentation at a courthouse," Leach said.
SK/P09.04) Khristopher J. Brooks, THE QUILL, January-February 2008, p.
24, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Much
like MySpace, Facebook lets users create their own profile and decorate it with
facts, photos and other personal information. It's this type of information that allows
journalists to effortlessly find specific sources. "You can easily sort through people
who have a specific interest," Leach [director of the Media Law Center for Ethics
and Access at Kent State University] said. "The benefit is that it's all right there for
you."
SK/P09.05) Khristopher J. Brooks, THE QUILL, January-February 2008, p.
24, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP.
Journalism industry observers have already commented on the impact social
networking Web sites will have on reporting, including New York University's lay
Rosen and Columbia University's Sree Sreenivasan. They describe how the sites
have helped reporters in the past, while also declaring the sites' growing importance
and popularity among the 18-to-24-year-old audience. It would behoove journalists
to embrace online social networking--and fast, they said.
SK/P10. PRIVACY CAN BE PROTECTED
1. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES HAVE PRIVACY PROTECTIONS
SK/P10.01) Kaveri Subrahmanyam [Professor of Psychology, Cal. State U.Los Angeles] & Patricia Greenfield [Professor of Psychology, UCLA], THE
FUTURE OF CHILDREN, Spring 2008, p. 119, Online, GALE CENGAGE
LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. For communication forms such as blogs
and social networking utilities, users have complete control over the extent to which
their entries or profiles are public or private. Blog entries and MySpace profiles, for
instance, can be either freely accessed on the Web by anyone or restricted to friends
of the author. Recently, MySpace has restricted the ability of users over age
eighteen to become friends with younger users. Facebook gives users a variety of
privacy options to control the profile information that others, such as friends and
other people in their network, can see. For example, users can block particular
people from seeing their profile or can allow specific people to see only their limited
profile. Searches on the Facebook network or on search engines reveal only a user's
name, the networks they belong to, and their profile picture thumbnail.
SK/P10.02) Carly Brandenburg [Indiana U. Law School], FEDERAL
COMMUNICATIONS LAW JOURNAL, June 2008, p. 597, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. According to Mark
Zuckerberg, the man who created Facebook in 2004 while a sophomore student at
Harvard University, "[T]he problem Facebook is solving is this one paradox. People
want access to all the information around them, but they also want complete control
over their own information. Those two things are at odds with each other."
Zuckerberg believes that Facebook is able to adequately address this problem
because it lets its users activate privacy settings. Users can attempt to prevent
strangers from viewing the profiles, pictures, and personal information they post on
Facebook by enabling blocking techniques designed to limit outsiders' access to the
information. College students, for example, can choose to block all persons not
affiliated with their college or university. Those who use Facebook could also
enable privacy settings that limit those who can view their profiles to people they
accept as their friends or those connected to them through friends (friends of their
friends).
SK/P10.03) PC MAGAZINE ONLINE, August 21, 2008, pNA, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Facebook launched
new API methods and an FMBL tag as part of the "demographic restrictions"
initiative. If you set your app to be viewed by people in the United States who are
over 21, for example, people who do not fit within those parameters will not see the
app in search results or be able to access it on the site. Developers will also not be
able to send requests or notifications or publish feed stories to restricted users. If
you have a license for a game in the United States and Canada you can restrict
people in other countries from viewing it. Developers can also restrict specific
content within an app while making it generally visible to all. "Our restriction
technology is based on a combination of what information a user has entered and
verified on Facebook as well as IP targeting for location," according to Facebook.
2. TEENAGERS ARE GIVING OUT LITTLE PRIVATE INFORMATION
SK/P10.04) Kaveri Subrahmanyam [Professor of Psychology, Cal. State U.Los Angeles] & Patricia Greenfield [Professor of Psychology, UCLA], THE
FUTURE OF CHILDREN, Spring 2008, p. 119, Online, GALE CENGAGE
LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. These privacy measures have given
adolescent users a great deal of control over who views their profiles, who views the
content that they upload, and with whom they interact on these online forums. And
young users appear to be using these controls. A recent study of approximately
9,000 profiles on MySpace found that users do not disclose personal information as
widely as many fear: 40 percent of profiles were private. In fact only 8.8 percent of
users revealed their name, 4 percent revealed their instant messaging screen name, 1
percent included an e-mail address, and 0.3 percent revealed their telephone
number.
SK/P11. FEARS OF SEXUAL PREDATORS ARE EXAGGERATED
1. ACTIVITY BY SEXUAL PREDATORS HAS DECLINED
SK/P11.01) Kaveri Subrahmanyam [Professor of Psychology, Cal. State U.Los Angeles] & Patricia Greenfield [Professor of Psychology, UCLA], THE
FUTURE OF CHILDREN, Spring 2008, p. 119, Online, GALE CENGAGE
LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Online contact with strangers also puts
adolescents at risk for sexual solicitation and sexual exploitation by predators,
though such risks were far higher in the earlier days of the Internet before the
widespread recognition of the potential dangers inherent to online stranger contact.
Most online communication forms today have privacy controls that, if used, can
greatly reduce the risks for sexual victimization. Indeed, a recent study has found
that over a five-year period, reports of unwanted sexual solicitation and harassment
have declined, a trend that the authors speculate is a result of better education and
more effective law enforcement.
2. MOST SOLICITATION IS NOT THROUGH NETWORKING SITES
SK/P11.02) NURSING STANDARD, April 19, 2008, p. 17, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Broad claims that young
people who use social networking sites are at increased risk of victimisation in the
form of unwanted sexual solicitation or harassment do not seem to be justified.
Reports that social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook are being used
to sexually solicit underage youths have been limited to anecdotal accounts. US
researchers surveyed 1,588 ten- to 15-year-olds who had used the internet at least
once in the preceeding six months. They were asked about unwanted sexual
solicitation and harassment online. Of the respondents, 15 per cent reported an
unwanted sexual solicitation online in the preceeding year; 4 per cent reported an
incident on a social networking site specifically. Among targeted young people,
solicitations were more commonly reported via instant messaging (43 per cent) and
in chat rooms (32 per cent). Harassment was more commonly reported in instant
messaging (55 per cent) than through social networking sites (27 per cent).
3. NETWORKING SITES ARE WORKING WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT
SK/P11.03) INFORMATIONWEEK, May 8, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Facebook on Thursday said
that it has agreed to work with the Attorneys General of 49 states and the District of
Columbia to protect young users of its social networking service. "Building a safe
and trusted online experience has been part of Facebook from its outset," said
Facebook chief privacy officer Chris Kelly in a statement. "We are proud to join 49
states and the District of Columbia in affirming our commitment to these principles
and to continue improving our technology and policy solutions to keep kids safer on
Facebook. The Attorneys General have shown great leadership in helping to address
the critical issue of Internet safety and we commend them for continuing to set high
standards for all players in the online arena."
SK/P11.04) INFORMATIONWEEK, May 8, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. "Social networks that
encourage kids to come to their sites have a responsibility to keep those kids safe,"
said North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper in a statement. "We've now
gotten the two largest social networking sites to agree to take significant steps to
protect children from predators and pornography." The principles to which
Facebook has agreed commit the social networking site to making significant design
and functionality changes that (1) prevent underage users from accessing the site;
(2) protect minors from inappropriate contact; (3) protect minors from
inappropriate content; (4) provide safety tools for all social networking site users.
SK/P11.05) Thomas J. Billitteri, CQ RESEARCHER, May 2, 2008, p. 402.
MySpace agreed last year to hand over to state officials the names, addresses and
online profiles of thousands of known convicted sex offenders with accounts on the
networking site. It also said it had deleted the online profiles of 7,000 convicted
sexual predators. And early this year, in an agreement with attorneys general from
49 states and the District of Columbia, MySpace said it would develop technology
and work with law-enforcement officials to improve children’s protection.
4. ON BALANCE, BENEFITS OF NETWORKING OFFSET THE RISKS
SK/P11.06) INFORMATIONWEEK, May 16, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. "The Internet and the growth
of social networking Web sites have brought immeasurable benefits to our country
and the world," said Nava, who chairs the California Assembly's Joint Committee
on Emergency Services and Homeland Security, in a statement. "However, when the
Internet is used as a tool to spread violent, graphic, and criminal content that
children can access, it is unacceptable and should not be tolerated."
SK/P12. FEARS OF CYBERBULLYING ARE EXAGGERATED
1. EXTENT OF CYBERBULLYING IS EXAGGERATED
SK/P12.01) Geoffrey H. Fletcher, T H E JOURNAL (TECHNOLOGICAL
HORIZONS IN EDUCATION), November 2007, p. 8, Online, GALE CENGAGE
LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. "Students and parents report fewer recent
or current problems, such as cyberstalking, cyberbullying, and unwelcome personal
encounters, than school fears and policies seem to imply," says the report [Grunwald
Associates, in cooperation with the National School Boards Association], which
goes on to offer some tips for districts, including considering using social
networking for staff communications and professional development.
2. MOST BULLYING DOESN’T BOTHER THE RECIPIENT
SK/P12.02) Nancy Willard [Director, Center for Safe & Responsible
Internet Use], DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION, September 2008, p. 53, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. While there is some
survey data on the prevalence of cyberbullying, it's difficult to distinguish how
reliable it is. The National Crime Prevention Council says that surveys show 43
percent of youths have been cyberbullied, but about half of them indicate the
incident or incidents did not bother them.
3. THERE ARE TOOLS TO COUNTER CYBERBULLYING
SK/P12.03) INFORMATIONWEEK, October 1, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. As the school year gets into
full swing, parents have more tools to combat cyberbullying. One such tool, recently
unveiled by Vanden, allows children to instantly notify selected adults when they
are bullied or harassed online. CyberBully Alert also documents the threatening
message by saving a screen shot of the child's computer when the child triggers an
alert. The Web-based solution is compatible with most computers and Web
browsers. It requires a single download and registration. Parents then select which email addresses and phone numbers will receive the alerts. Alerts are sent through email and text message when a child clicks on the CyberBully Alert icon.
4. CAUSALITY TO SUICIDE IS UNPROVED
SK/P12.04) Jo Carlowe, NURSING STANDARD, April 16, 2008, p. 20,
Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Proving a
causal link between the use of such sites and actual incidents of death by suicide is
tricky. Even so, a number of vocal campaigners are lobbying for a change in the law
to ensure that people who promote suicide online can no longer do so with
impunity.
SK/P13. FEARS OF SECURITY LEAKS ARE EXAGGERATED
1. NETWORKING IS A VITAL OUTLET FOR SOLDIERS
SK/P13.01) Ari Melber, THE NATION, September 15, 2008, p. 26. Enlisted
soldiers' blogs provide an organic support network for military communities,
coveted news from the battlefield, unfiltered assessments of the bleak prospects in
Iraq and, sometimes, amplification of the Pentagon's official message.
SK/P13.02) Ari Melber, THE NATION, September 15, 2008, p. 27. Yet isn't
it axiomatic that soldiers are entitled to exercise the freedoms they are willing to die
for? It was that principle, coupled with antiwar activism, that drove America's last
successful popular effort to amend the Constitution, to grant suffrage at the age of
enlistment. Today’s soldiers have much more modest requests. They want to
network with new people, commune with friends and family, and share their stories
with anyone out there who wants to listen. Pentagon leaders should be first in line.
2. MOST LEAKS DO NOT COME FROM SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES
SK/P13.03) Ari Melber, THE NATION, September 15, 2008, p. 26. Even
when the web does expose problematic information about military operations,
however, soldier blogs are not usually the source. According to the Army's audit,
information breaches by blogs were dwarfed by breaches from the Defense
Department's official sites. There were 1,813 breaches on the department's nearly
900 sites in 2006; the roughly 600 soldier blogs accounted for only twenty-eight
breaches that year.
SK/C01. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ARE TRANSITORY
1. THEY ARE NOT SUFFICIENTLY LUCRATIVE
SK/C01.01) Spencer E. Ante, BUSINESS WEEK, August 18, 2008, p. 30,
Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. And the
social-networking business doesn't look as promising as it did 10 months ago.
Growth in the number of U.S. users at Facebook, MySpace, and other sites has
slowed this year. Social networks have also struggled to generate revenue through
advertising at the rates originally expected. Google, which places ads on News
Corp.'s MySpace, has said making money off social networks has proven difficult.
SK/C01.02) Bryant Urstadt, TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, July-August 2008,
p. 36, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Last
year, Microsoft bought a 1.6 percent stake in Facebook for $240 million, giving the
company a dubious valuation of $15 billion. But Facebook is likely to lose $150
million this year, according to a January conference call heard by Kara Swisher of
All Things Digital, a Wall Street Journal-affiliated site devoted to "news, analysis,
and opinion about the digital revolution." That's based on projected earnings-before
interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization--of $50 million and an expected $200
million in capital expenses, including new servers.
SK/C01.03) Bryant Urstadt, TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, July-August 2008,
p. 36, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP.
Revenues for MySpace parent Fox Interactive Media fell $100 million short of
predictions this year, apparently leading to the dismissal of the chief revenue officer.
And Google met with disappointment after paying $900 million in 2006 to get a
piece of MySpace's traffic, buying the right to deliver ads for three years against
keywords entered on the networking site. "I don't think we have the killer best way
to advertise and monetize social networks yet," said Google cofounder Sergey Brin
in a call with investors after Google announced its fourth-quarter 2007 results.
2. THEY ARE A FAD THAT WILL FADE FROM THE SCENE
SK/C01.04) Bryant Urstadt, TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, July-August 2008,
p. 36, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Danah
Boyd, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, studies social
networking as a cultural phenomenon. She describes online hot spots as though they
were popular pubs. "It's supercool when all of your friends go there," she says.
"Then all sorts of other people come in. Even if the pub doesn't start feeling
physically crowded, it starts feeling socially crowded when your ex is at the other
end of the bar talking to some creep who brought his fellow gang members. How
long until you say, 'Enough--I'm outta here'?"
SK/C01.05) Jessi Hempel, FORTUNE, May 26, 2008, p. 37, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Since September 2006,
when Zuckerberg opened Facebook to nonstudents, the site has grown 12-fold,
making it one of the fastest-rising dot-coms in history. Visitors tripled after
Facebook expanded internationally last year, and they continue to spend more time
on the site: 20 billion total minutes in March 2008, vs. 6.4 billion a year prior. But
the number of U.S. visitors has leveled off, fluctuating between 30 million and 35
million, according to comScore. And that's not all. Anecdotal evidence suggests that
many of the adults who signed on last summer to see what the fuss was about are
done with their social-networking experiment. The company also delayed its muchanticipated redesign, originally due in April, in deference to third-party developers
that have complained that Facebook has become a frustrating partner.
SK/C02. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ARE A SHAM
1. THEY DON’T FORM REAL-WORLD COMMUNITIES
SK/C02.01) PC MAGAZINE ONLINE, April 28, 2008, pNA, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. I'm of the opinion
that there is no such thing as a real community online. It's a "pretend" community
that we like to feel we're a part of, but it's composed of users who could jump ship at
any moment, and often do. Thus LiveJournal becomes MySpace, which morphs into
Facebook, which will morph into something else yet again. That's less apparent with
this trio, since they also act as vanity Web sites and serve other noncommunity
purposes. But everyone knows that these systems are flaky and their users fickle. So
their real value is transitory. A social network might have 50 million users, and
those users are worth something, but that 50 million can fall to 10,000 just as easily
as it can zoom to 100 million.
SK/C02.02) PC MAGAZINE ONLINE, April 28, 2008, pNA, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. With this in mind,
how valuable are any of these social networking sites? I can assure you that fragility
is never factored in. And of course this has never been studied, and nobody even
wants to talk about it. A good online community, whether it's Second Life, Twitter,
or something new, is indeed fun to belong to if you have the time or inclination. But
please do not take it seriously, and never believe that you're part of a true
community. Get out of your house, and you'll find the community out there in the
street. That's real.
2. THEY DON’T HELP DEVELOP SOCIAL SKILLS
SK/C02.03) Steven Levy, NEWSWEEK, May 26, 2008, p. 15, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. But such online
linking does have deep social implications, and as one's friend list grows, so do
some problems. People judge each other by whom they list as friends. Inevitably,
human noise finds its way into a collection of friends, because people tend to cave
in and agree to friendship when asked by someone they barely know, or in some
cases don't know at all. In real life, we are spared the explicitness of a bald request
to be a friend, but there's no such luck online--even ignoring someone's friend
request doesn't gloss over the fact that you're rejecting him or her. "It's socially
awkward, and very hard to draw the line," says Danah Boyd, a researcher at the UC
Berkeley School of Information.
3. SO-CALLED “FRIENDS” ARE NOT REALLY FRIENDS
SK/C02.04) Steven Levy, NEWSWEEK, May 26, 2008, p. 15, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Comedian Dane
Cook had 2,372,807 MySpace friends as of last week, and would have a more
successful film career if his friends actually turned out to see his movies. Pearman
says that MySpace has no problem with profiles that aren't even human. The
MySpace exec has even surprised himself by friending a potato. Let me repeat: a
potato. This particular russet, by the way, has 2,965 friends. Maybe by now you're
getting the idea that a friend at Facebook or MySpace is not necessarily the same as
a real friend, the kind who brings you chicken soup when you're sick and posts
multiple favorable reviews about your book on Amazon. In addition to 20 or 30
genuine BFFs, you might have someone you met at a conference, the kid sitting
behind you in Spanish class, someone who wants access to you as a customer or a
guitar player in a local band with whom you will never exchange a word.
SK/C03. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ARE VULNERABLE TO FRAUD
1. THEY ARE HUGE SECURITY RISKS
SK/C03.01) Erica Naone [Asst. Editor], TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, JulyAugust 2008, p. 44, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic
ASAP. Chris Saad, cofounder and chair of the nonprofit DataPortability Project,
notes that many current methods of transferring data expose users to huge security
risks. For example, it's a common practice for social sites to ask users to submit the
usernames and passwords for their Web-based e-mail accounts when they first sign
up; an automated service can then search the network for people listed in their
address books. "The door is open right now for any application that scrapes your
Gmail address book to go ahead and scrape your shopping cart as well, or scrape
your searches, or keep your username and password and pretend to be you," says
Saad.
2. SCAM ARTISTS TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THEM
SK/C03.02) COMPLIANCE REPORTER, June 23, 2008, pNA, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Social networking
Web sites aren't for everyone. Friendster, MySpace and their rivals seem to raise so
many complex social rules that complying with them would make negotiating the
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority and Securities and Exchange Commission
rulebooks seem a breeze. Now, it seems, there may be something other than an
unwelcome college friend to avoid. According to the North American Securities
Administrators, scam artists are targeting sites to lure people to meetings where they
are pitched unsuitable or fraudulent investments.
SK/C03.03) COMPLIANCE REPORTER, June 23, 2008, pNA, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. "Social networking
Web sites create an environment ripe for affinity fraud," said Karen Tyler, NASAA
president. "Fraudsters can take advantage of the fact people freely share information
with both their real and 'virtual' friends by posting it to their profile." The
Association also warned that swindlers are watching scary economic headlines. As
gas prices rockets, for example, dubious offers to invest in the development of new
technologies to extract energy from previously unworkable sources are
mushrooming. The message? Beware anyone whose online profile reads, "Hobbies:
Baseball, cooking, nuclear fusion."
SK/C04. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES HARM TEENAGERS
1. TEENAGERS SPEND MANY HOURS ON NETWORKING SITES
SK/C04.01) Michelle R. Davis, DIGITAL DIRECTIONS, June 9, 2008, p.
15, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Students
are using social-networking sites more than many school officials may realize.
Despite the fact that most schools block access to such sites via school computers,
9- to 17-year-olds spend as much time using the Internet for social activities as they
spend watching television--about nine hours a week, according to a 2007 study by
the Alexandria, Va.-based NSBA. The study of more than 1,200 students found that
96 percent of those with online access had used social-networking technology-including text messaging--and 81 percent said they had visited a social-networking
Web site at least once within the three months before the study was conducted.
2. TEENAGERS ENGAGE IN IMPROPER BEHAVIOR
SK/C04.02) Michelle R. Davis, DIGITAL DIRECTIONS, June 9, 2008, p.
15, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. More and
more, those sites have become places where students engage in public actions or
behaviors they probably don't want their principals or teachers to know about.
Students in New York City's Staten Island borough were unmasked as graffiti artists
earlier this year after posting pictures and video of their "tags" on MySpace and the
video site YouTube. In York, Pa., 18 high school students faced disciplinary action
after Facebook photos surfaced showing students with alcohol. The list of students
nabbed for improper behavior through posts on social-networking sites reaches
across the country.
SK/C04.03) Heather L. Carter [Clinical Asst. Professor of Teacher
Education & Leadership, Arizona State U.] et al., PHI DELTA KAPPAN, May
2008, p. 681, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP.
This story is just one example of the personal information we have seen future
teachers post online. It is common to see content related to alcohol, drugs, and sex
posted on future teachers’ social networking profiles. Both preservice teachers and
many inservice teachers do not seem to understand that the line between their
personal lives and professional lives is not black and white in today's world.
3. THEY ARE UNAWARE OF LONG-TERM CONSEQUENCES
SK/C04.04) Heather L. Carter [Clinical Asst. Professor of Teacher
Education & Leadership, Arizona State U.] et al., PHI DELTA KAPPAN, May
2008, p. 681, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP.
Some individuals who wish to project a particular image on a social networking site
will naturally think through the short- and long-term consequences of their choices.
But others may not fully understand the public nature of the Internet and the
potential impact of their choices to be circumspect about or fully expose their
personal lives.
4. MISBEHAVIOR CAN DAMAGE FUTURE JOB OPPORTUNITIES
SK/C04.05) Carly Brandenburg [Indiana U. Law School], FEDERAL
COMMUNICATIONS LAW JOURNAL, June 2008, p. 597, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. According to a National
Association of Colleges and Employers ("NACE") study, approximately one in ten
employers report they plan to review potential hires' profiles and information posted
on social networks. In addition, employers who admit to reviewing social
networkers' profiles as they screen job applicants say the information available on
these profiles has at least some influence on their hiring decisions.
SK/C04.06) Carly Brandenburg [Indiana U. Law School], FEDERAL
COMMUNICATIONS LAW JOURNAL, June 2008, p. 597, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Friendster, Xanga, and
MySpace--may provide more than the opportunity to share stories and details of a
college student's or graduate's life. To many students and graduates who are
"nurtured in open, collegial situations, blogging and personal Internet postings on
social networking Internet sites such as MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster ... blur
the line between personal and public." Students and graduates today are getting
more than they bargain for as they attempt to enter the workforce and realize their
blogging and social networking ways can come back to bite them.
SK/C04.07) Michelle R. Davis, DIGITAL DIRECTIONS, June 9, 2008, p.
18, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Timothy
J. Magner, the director of the U.S. Department of Education's office of educational
technology, also believes schools need to take the lead in helping to educate
students and show them that a post or a picture that seems harmless or silly today
could keep a student from being accepted to a college or considered for a future job.
"Students don't often have the maturity to recognize that something funny today is
not so funny 10 years from now," he says. "Schools have a key role to play in this
education."
5. TEENAGERS SUFFER PERMANENT DAMAGE
SK/C04.08) Susan Hanley Duncan [U. of Kentucky Law School],
KENTUCKY LAW JOURNAL, 2007-2008, Online, LEXIS-NEXIS, p. 528. As
currently operated, social--networking sites provide a vehicle for adolescents to
engage in beneficial behavior that helps them explore their identity and practice
socialization skills. But these sites also provide a forum for destructive and risky
behaviors leading to harmful and often permanent physical and psychological
damage.
SK/C05. THEY HARM PARENT-CHILD RELATIONSHIPS
1. CHILDREN CONCEAL ACTIVITIES FROM PARENTS
SK/C05.01) Kaveri Subrahmanyam [Professor of Psychology, Cal. State U.Los Angeles] & Patricia Greenfield [Professor of Psychology, UCLA], THE
FUTURE OF CHILDREN, Spring 2008, p. 119, Online, GALE CENGAGE
LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Privacy controls on networking sites also
mean that adolescents can restrict parental access to their pictures, profiles, and
writings. In fact, on Facebook, even if teens give their parents access to their
profiles, they can limit the areas of their profile that their parents can view. We
recently conducted a focus group study that revealed that some teens may go as far
as to have multiple MySpace profiles, some of which their parents can access,
others of which they cannot, and still others that they do not know exist. Monitoring
and controlling youth access to these communication forms is growing ever more
challenging, and it is important for parents to inform themselves about these online
forms so they can have meaningful discussions about them with their adolescents.
2. STUDIES FIND THAT FAMILY LIFE IS IMPAIRED
SK/C05.02) Kaveri Subrahmanyam [Professor of Psychology, Cal. State U.Los Angeles] & Patricia Greenfield [Professor of Psychology, UCLA], THE
FUTURE OF CHILDREN, Spring 2008, p. 119, Online, GALE CENGAGE
LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Larry Rosen points out that the advent of
social networking sites such as MySpace has made most research findings on how
Internet use affects social relations obsolete. In one study Rosen found that nearly
one in three parents felt that the time their teen spent on MySpace interfered with
family life. For parents of teens who spent more than two hours a day on MySpace,
the share rose to one-half. A study by Gustavo Mesch found that family time was
not affected when adolescents used the computer for educational purposes; only
when they used it for social purposes was family interaction negatively affected.
SK/C05.03) Kaveri Subrahmanyam [Professor of Psychology, Cal. State U.Los Angeles] & Patricia Greenfield [Professor of Psychology, UCLA], THE
FUTURE OF CHILDREN, Spring 2008, p. 119, Online, GALE CENGAGE
LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Qualitative evidence is starting to
accumulate that social networking sites such as MySpace are causing serious parentchild conflicts and loss of parental control. Rosen's interviews with parents revealed
several typical problems. For example, a boy who failed to do his homework before
midnight because he was on MySpace reacted to his parents' efforts to curtail his use
of MySpace by sneaking back online. And a girl posted information about her sweet
sixteen party on MySpace, leading so many teens to crash the party and cause so
many problems that her father had to call the police.
SK/C06. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES DON’T BENEFIT EDUCATION
1. NETWORKING SITES ARE SOCIAL, NOT EDUCATIONAL
SK/C06.01) Michelle R. Davis, DIGITAL DIRECTIONS, June 9, 2008, p.
18, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Montana
Miller, an assistant professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University
in Ohio and a Facebook expert, says teachers interacting with students on socialnetworking sites are in the "danger zone." "Facebook is a social-relationship site,
not an educational site," she says.
2. TEACHERS CAN ENGAGE IN IMPROPER BEHAVIOR
SK/C06.02) Michelle R. Davis, DIGITAL DIRECTIONS, June 9, 2008, p.
18, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Teachers
do need to be careful, says Michael D. Simpson, the assistant general counsel to the
National Education Association, the nation's largest teachers' union. He says
teachers have been fired for posting inappropriate content--such as sexually explicit
writing--on their MySpace or Facebook pages. At least two state NEA affiliates-Missouri and Ohio--have issued statements saying teachers shouldn't participate in
social-networking sites even for personal use, he says.
SK/C06.03) Heather L. Carter [Clinical Asst. Professor of Teacher
Education & Leadership, Arizona State U.] et al., PHI DELTA KAPPAN, May
2008, p. 681, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP.
Recent reports in the media have shown teachers being reprimanded for what school
districts consider "inappropriate activity." The content on these questionable pages
includes candid photos, racy or suggestive song lyrics, and references to sex or to
alcohol or drug use. Venting about personal frustrations at work has also caused
problems. While completely banning teachers from having social networking
profiles seems downright draconian, some school districts have taken a range of
disciplinary actions, including dismissal, against what they consider to be
questionable uses of social networking sites by teachers.
SK/C06.04) Kandace Harris [Asst. Professor of Communication Arts,
Johnson C. Smith U.], DIVERSE ISSUES IN HIGHER EDUCATION, October 16,
2008, p. 40, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP.
Though faculty-student interaction on SNS [social networking sites] encourages
relational exchange, issues of self-disclosure and identity management are also of
concern. How much is too much? How much information should a faculty member
or student share with each other? Faculty fear of losing credibility is also germane.
There is the potential violation of student expectations, and university and
administrative expectations of proper behaviors.
3. GOSSIP SITES ARE DESTRUCTIVE TO COLLEGE CAMPUSES
SK/C06.05) John Gill, TIMES HIGHER EDUCATION, March 27, 2008, p.
14, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. A gossip
website JuicyCampus.com, which is encouraging students to humiliate their
lecturers as well as their peers are gaining popularity all across campuses in the U.S.
The website is severely criticized by universities and colleges as social networking
gone bad.
SK/C06.06) Kristina Ryan, CQ RESEARCHER, May 2, 2008, p. 400. One
of the latest and most abusive gossip sites is eight-month-old Juicycampus.com,
now being used at some 60 campuses nationwide, including the U.S. Naval
Academy and West Point. The site promises posters complete anonymity. Many of
the comments posted about sorority girls, football players and professors are sexist,
homophobic, racist or anti-Semitic. Juicycampus postings at such schools as Loyola
Marymount University in Los Angeles, Colgate University in New York state and
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have included students threatening
shooting rampages, a fake “sex tape” of murdered UNC student-body President Eve
Carson and a crude “photo-shopped” picture of a female Vanderbilt University
student.
SK/C06.07) Daniel J. Solove [Professor of Law, George Washington U.],
SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, September 2008, pp. 102-103. College students have
begun to share salacious details about their schoolmates. A Web site called
JuicyCampus serves as an electronic bulletin board that allows students nationwide
to post anonymously and without verification a sordid array of tidbits about sex,
drugs and drunkenness. Another site, Don't Date Him Girl, invites women to post
complaints about the men they have dated, along with real names and actual
photographs.
4. EFFICACY OF COLLEGE LOAN SITES IS UNPROVED
SK/C06.08) Charles Paikert, INVESTMENT NEWS, July 14, 2008, p. 14,
Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. "While the
concept behind GreenNote is intriguing and many young people are already familiar
with, and part of, the whole social networking scene, peer-to-peer lending in general
is in its infancy,” said college financing expert Troy Onink, chief executive of
Russell, Pa.-based Stratagee.com. "We'll have to wait and see how effective it is
through the whole cycle of a student loan; from origination to payoff, before we will
know the effectiveness of the model.”
SK/C07. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES DON’T BENEFIT BUSINESS
1. THEY AREN’T A GOOD PLACE TO ADVERTISE
SK/C07.01) Bryant Urstadt, TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, July-August 2008,
p. 36, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. But
even low rates haven't been enough to lure advertisers and media buyers to social
networking. "A lot of advertisers are very hesitant to get into MySpace," says
Anthony Acquisti, who oversees strategy for emerging media at OMD, an
advertising agency in New York. "We've even flat-out told interested brands, 'You
don't want to be there." Why not? The problems with social-network advertising
revolve around three main issues: attention, privacy, and content.
SK/C07.02) Bryant Urstadt, TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, July-August 2008,
p. 36, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. "It's a
really bad place to advertise," Jason Calacanis, founder of Webblogs and
Mahalo.com, says of social-networking sites. As he wrote in an e-mail, members of
social networks "are busy in conversations and don't want marketing messages."
SK/C07.03) Bryant Urstadt, TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, July-August 2008,
p. 36, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP.
Advertising on Google works because visitors come to Google looking for specific
information. If a user who types "scooter" in the site's search field is hoping to buy a
scooter, the keyword ads that appear at the right of the search results can be more
useful than the results themselves. In social networks, on the other hand, users show
up to find friends; ads are, at best, irrelevant to that goal. The click-through rates on
social-networking sites bear this out. While around z percent of Google users
actually click on a given ad (and the number is much higher when users are
conducting searches for purchasing reasons), fewer than .04 percent of Facebook
users do, according to a media buyer's report obtained last year by the Silicon
Valley blog Valleywag.
SK/C07.04) Bryant Urstadt, TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, July-August 2008,
p. 36, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Unlike
a newspaper or television show, social networking is a medium whose content is
deeply unpredictable. In the sports pages of a newspaper, an advertiser knows
roughly what kind of material its ads will be running next to. But an enormous,
highly visible brand may not want to risk seeing its ad wind up on a page such as
that run by the actual Facebook group "I've Had Sex with Someone on Facebook,"
which at press time had 59,353 members.
2. THEY DON’T ENHANCE ON-LINE SALES
SK/C07.05) Seth Alpert [Managing Director, AdMedia Partners],
MEDIAWEEK, October 6, 2008, p. 16, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING,
Expanded Academic ASAP. So, are online social networks viable in niche markets?
Based on our surveys of senior executives at leading media companies, the answer
is that social networking Web sites are not going to be viable in most cases. Hitwise,
a leading online competitive intelligence service, has validated this skepticism by
reporting that only 4 percent of U.S. online retail traffic is driven by social sites,
which is significantly less than the 29 percent of online retail traffic that is driven by
search engines.
3. THEY DISTRACT EMPLOYEES FROM WORK
SK/C07.06) Paula J. Hane, INFORMATION TODAY, September 2008, p.
7, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The top
concern of businesses is that social networks are too separate from other IT systems,
requiring employees to enter information about themselves into the social network
and distracting them from their work.
4. THEY ARE SERIOUS THREATS TO COMPANY SECURITY
SK/C07.07) Jason Short, RISK MANAGEMENT, October 2008, p. 28,
Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The essence
of Web 2.0 is increased interactivity. The more people participate, the more likely it
is that they could divulge proprietary information about themselves or their
employers. With the ability to post photos, video and audio recordings to sites,
employees can inadvertently "leak" confidential company information and post
inappropriate personal information that puts both the employee and the business at
risk, from both reputational blackeyes and litigation.
SK/C07.08) Jason Short, RISK MANAGEMENT, October 2008, p. 28,
Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. As two
recent incidents demonstrate, the threats to corporate and individual security and
privacy show why companies should be concerned. These threats, and others like
them, have led some companies to consider curtailing employee access to social
networks altogether.
SK/C07.09) Jason Short, RISK MANAGEMENT, October 2008, p. 28,
Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Even more
recently, ExxonMobil was snared by a case of online impersonation involving
someone posing as a company employee on Twitter. While the comments made by
"Janet at ExxonMobilCorp" were largely positive, they were nonetheless
unauthorized by the company. According to Jeremiah Owyang, a senior analyst at
Forrester Research, this was a case of "brand-jacking," an increasingly common
tactic in which people falsely adopt the identity of another person or company on
the web.
SK/C08. THEY DON’T BENEFIT MEDICINE OR JOURNALISM
1. SITES FOR SHARING MEDICAL INFORMATION ARE FLAWED
SK/C08.01) Peter Aldhous, NEW SCIENTIST, May 17, 2008, p. 26, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Mark Rothstein, a
bioethicist at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, is concerned that diseasebased social networking sites will become vehicles for advertising drugs and
medical devices to their users. "That's an area we're going to look into carefully and
see what our customers are OK with," says Avey [co-founder, 23andMe].
SK/C08.02) Peter Aldhous, NEW SCIENTIST, May 17, 2008, p. 26, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Another worry is that
patients may be lured into providing personal data that might come back to haunt
them. Many users of PatientsLikeMe are already divulging detailed medical
information, often without concealing their identities. Rothstein points out that there
is pressure on users to provide as much information as possible, as those who do so
enjoy prominent billing on the site.
2. NETWORKING SITES ARE UNRELIABLE FOR JOURNALISTS
SK/C08.03) Kelly Wilson, AMERICAN JOURNALISM REVIEW,
February-March 2008, p. 12, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded
Academic ASAP. Washington Post copy editor Phillip Blanchard used the group to
express his concern that the increased ease of communication brings an increased
potential for fraud. "Facebook is great for 'social networking' but not terribly useful
as a journalistic tool," he said in a post on the group's wall. "People aren't always
who they seem to be. For example, you can't even be sure who I am.... Verification
is very important in journalism, which apparently is being forgotten a lot, or never
learned." In an e-mail interview, he added: "Facebook is amusing and fun for
millions of people, and journalists are people. I set up a profile purely for
amusement. I don't see any role for Facebook in our work lives, because on
Facebook, like everywhere on the Internet, you never know who wrote what you see
and whether it is true."
SK/C09. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES CAN’T PROTECT PRIVACY
1. THEY HAVE TOO MUCH CONTROL OVER PERSONAL DATA
SK/C09.01) Erica Naone [Asst. Editor], TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, JulyAugust 2008, p. 44, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic
ASAP. Advocates of so-called data portability, including Scoble and Smarr, say
people should be able to transfer information easily in and out of any Web services
they use. Facebook, on the other hand, says it needs to safeguard the information it
stores so that it isn't misused, and that means keeping tight control over users'
information. At stake is not simply the ease and security with which people move
between social-networking sites but control of the currency that gives those sites
their value: personal information.
2. PRIVACY SAFEGUARDS ARE INADEQUATE
SK/C09.02) Thomas J. Billitteri, CQ RESEARCHER, May 2, 2008, p. 402.
Yet critics say it is easy for children to circumvent MySpace's safeguards by passing
themselves off as adults, and for adults to manipulate MySpace by pretending to be
adolescents. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, the lone holdout in signing the
agreement, said he could not support the pact unless MySpace takes action to
authenticate users' ages.
SK/C09.03) Thomas J. Billitteri, CQ RESEARCHER, May 2, 2008, p. 402.
But Keith Durkin, chairman of the Department of Psychology and Sociology at
Ohio Northern University, in Ada, said an effective age-verification system is nearly
impossible. A predator or child could use a pre-loaded credit card to circumvent a
system that uses credit cards to verify age and identity. And, he said, no hardware or
software solutions will be effective unless they are expensive, intrusive and violate
current privacy laws - something that would turn a law-enforcement problem into a
political controversy.
3. PROSPECTIVE EMPLOYERS CAN CIRCUMVENT SAFEGUARDS
SK/C09.04) Carly Brandenburg [Indiana U. Law School], FEDERAL
COMMUNICATIONS LAW JOURNAL, June 2008, p. 597, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Despite the available
technology that can potentially limit or block unwanted social network users from
viewing students' and graduates' Facebook profiles, many Facebook users simply do
not activate their privacy settings. Other social networkers enable their privacy
settings, but fail to realize that employers nonetheless may be able to gain access to
profiles seemingly protected by privacy settings. Hiring companies can access
potential hires' social networking profiles in a variety of ways.
SK/C09.05) Carly Brandenburg [Indiana U. Law School], FEDERAL
COMMUNICATIONS LAW JOURNAL, June 2008, p. 597, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Some companies also hire
current students who can access their peers' social networking profiles and
effectively circumvent any privacy settings a potential hire may have put in place to
attempt to restrict unwanted persons from accessing their profile. For instance, an
Indiana University ("IU") student seeking interviews may take extra precautions to
keep his or her information safe by setting online privacy measures allowing only
other IU students to access and view his or her Facebook profile. Not only would
that student's information not be safe from a recent IU graduate who retains an IU
student or alumni email address and now uses that address to aid his or her
employer in seeking out the next wave of new employees, but the student also
would not be shielded from a current peer instructed to research prospective
employees for a particular company.
4. CONSUMER OUTRAGE REVEALS IMPORTANCE OF PRIVACY
SK/C09.06) Bryant Urstadt, TECHNOLOGY REVIEW, July-August 2008,
p. 36, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. In
November 2007, Facebook tried to get between its users with its Beacon program.
Announcing the program in New York, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg
declared, "The next hundred years will be different for advertising, and it starts
today." Beacon was an advertisers dream--and, like many things that are good for
advertisers, very annoying to ordinary folks. Working with commercial websites
like Blockbuster and eBay, Beacon tracked Facebook users' purchases and displayed
them to their friends. The problem was that users were enrolled in the program
automatically. If a user went to, say, the Blockbuster site and rented a movie, that
information was automatically sent to everyone in her Facebook network. (That's
what happened to Cathryn Elaine Harris of Dallas; she is suing Blockbuster for
violating the Video Privacy ProtectionAct.) Online petitions and negative press
ensued, and the program was clumsily scaled back.
SK/C09.07) Jessi Hempel, FORTUNE, May 26, 2008, p. 37, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Meanwhile the most
controversial product Zuckerberg introduced, Beacon--the thing he was bragging
about in that Madison Avenue speech--has failed. It allows friends to see one
another's activities on different websites. Zuckerberg claims it was designed to
enhance the user experience, but it's easy to see its appeal to advertisers. Imagine
what happens to Blockbuster's traffic, for example, when one user finds out that her
coolest friend just rented Walk Hard. But users hated the loss of privacy. Some
signed a MoveOn.org petition to halt the program; one testy Texan even filed a
lawsuit.
5. VIOLATIONS OF PRIVACY ARE HARMFUL
SK/C09.08) Siva Vaidhyanathan [Associate Professor of Media Studies &
Law, U. of Virginia], THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, February
15, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic
ASAP. Through a combination of weak policies, vapid public discussions, and some
remarkable technologies like camera phones and the Internet, we have less and less
control over our reputations every day. (Now we hear that undergraduate
researchers at my university have found that a new program for Facebook allows
anyone -- including an identity thief -- to mine our personal pages for data.) And it's
clear that people are being harmed by actions that follow from widespread
behavioral profiling, whether it's done by the Transportation Security
Administration through its no-fly list or Capital One Bank through its high-fee
credit cards for those with poor credit scores.
SK/C10. SEXUAL PREDATORS DO HORRIFIC DAMAGE
1. CHILDREN REVEAL TOO MUCH PRIVATE INFORMATION
SK/C10.01) PC MAGAZINE ONLINE, July 22, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Parents are making an effort
to talk to their kids about Internet safety, but children are still willing to talk to
strangers on IM, post personal information about themselves on social networking
sites, or be the target of online bullying, according to a Tuesday study from Cox
Communications and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
(NCMEC).
SK/C10.02) PC MAGAZINE ONLINE, July 22, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. As for social networking
profiles, many of which have age limits, 34 percent of 11-12 year olds said they had
profiles, while 9 percent of 8-10 years old said they used the sites.
SK/C10.03) PC MAGAZINE ONLINE, July 22, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. As they get older, tweens are
less concerned about the ramifications of posting personal information online.
About 67 percent of kids aged 8-10 said they don't post personal information on the
Internet; that number dropped to 51 percent among 11-12 year olds. About 73
percent of tweens said that their parents talk to them "a lot" about Internet security,
while 25 percent said their parents talked to them "a little." Walsh [host of
“America’s Most Wanted”] said that number needs to increase. "The remaining
twenty-seven percent represents too many kids to leave unprotected when there are
people out there who have the compulsion to commit horrible acts," he said in a
statement. "Each child with Internet access must learn as much about safety as
possible. The stakes are just too high."
2. MUCH CONTENT IS INAPPROPRIATE FOR CHILDREN
SK/C10.04) THE CHRISTIAN CENTURY, July 1, 2008, p. 9, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. In an attempt to
create a safe space online, two fathers have created an alternative to MySpace and
FaceBook: christianspaceonline.com. Other social networking sites are notorious for
attracting inappropriate content for children and youth, and users may be solicited
for pornography.
3. SEXUAL PREDATORS ARE AN INCREASING PROBLEM
SK/C10.05) Susan Hanley Duncan [U. of Kentucky Law School],
KENTUCKY LAW JOURNAL, 2007-2008, Online, LEXIS-NEXIS, pp. 533-534.
Teens utilize this technology in great numbers and people disagree whether their use
should be encouraged, discouraged or something in between. The answer may
depend on whether one views the benefits as outweighing the risks. Some scholars,
although recognizing the potential for harm, think the media exaggerates the risks
resulting in a moral panic. This position too easily dismisses data concerning the
number of predators on these sites and the rise of teenagers using them. And even
though some data shows teens may be paying attention to safety messages, one
study still reported that eight percent of teens surveyed had actually agreed to meet
someone in person that they only knew online.
SK/C10.06) Susan Hanley Duncan [U. of Kentucky Law School],
KENTUCKY LAW JOURNAL, 2007-2008, Online, LEXIS-NEXIS, p. 534.
According to the Census Bureau 17,079,000 children from the ages fourteen to
seventeen lived in the United States in 2005. If 70% had a profile (11,995,300) and
8% of them met someone they only knew online that would calculate to 956,424.
Even if a small percentage of these children were actually solicited, molested or
otherwise preyed upon that would still be a substantial number. North Carolina's
Attorney General found more than 100 criminal incidents involving adults preying
on children via MySpace in the first six months of 2007 based on media reports. n43
And as predators become more and more aware of these sites as well as
opportunities the sites present, including predation, we can anticipate these numbers
may very well increase.
SK/C10.07) Jessica S. Groppe [Catholic U. Law School], COMMLAW
CONSPECTUS, 2007, Online, LEXIS-NEXIS, p. 215. Online predators are
becoming increasingly successful in soliciting youth. Predators come in all shapes
and sizes, with no easy stereotype for law enforcement to target. The online predator
community runs the gamut, including male and female teenagers, young adults, and
adults. The Internet provides predators with anonymity and nearly unlimited access
to information, particularly on social networking sites such as MySpace or
Facebook, creating a pressing societal concern.
4. THEY INCREASINGLY EXPLOIT SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES
SK/C10.08) Richard M. Guo [U. of California-Berkeley Law School],
BERKELEY TECHNOLOGY LAW JOURNAL, 2008, Online, LEXIS-NEXIS, p.
626. During the years prior to the explosive expansion of social networks, most
online sexual predators attempted to contact youths through chat rooms and
message boards. In recent years, however, predators are increasingly targeting
minors over social networking services.
SK/C10.09) Jessica S. Groppe [Catholic U. Law School], COMMLAW
CONSPECTUS, 2007, Online, LEXIS-NEXIS, p. 221. One-third of all solicitations
are aggressive in nature. Aggressive solicitations, the most dangerous of sexual
advances, move beyond the confines of the Internet into "real life." The predator is
typically a person unknown to the youth offline, who seduces children via money or
gifts and guides children blindly through the virtual world into their actual hands.
Particularly with the recent development of social networking sites, such as
MySpace and Facebook, the online community is combating a surge of aggressive
online solicitations.
SK/C10.10) Jessica S. Groppe [Catholic U. Law School], COMMLAW
CONSPECTUS, 2007, Online, LEXIS-NEXIS, p. 226. MySpace has become a onestop shopping catalog for child predators. Not only can a predator talk online with a
child and view a child's pictures, but online predators can gather easily-accessible
personal information posted on a member's page--information about a child's
friends, her school, and her intimate secrets and interests--to target the youth and
establish "cyber-relationships." Predators often rely on the anonymity of social
networking sites by posing as youth of comparable age and with similar interests as
the youth they exploit. This dangerous phenomenon allows predators to develop
"friendships" with their targets and gain their trust. MySpace's broad forum, where
infiltration of one child's profile opens the door to hundreds more, allows sexual
solicitors to easily target a larger array of victims than the typical one-on-one
contact offered by chat rooms or instant messaging.
SK/C10.11) Jessica S. Groppe [Catholic U. Law School], COMMLAW
CONSPECTUS, 2007, Online, LEXIS-NEXIS, p. 226. Youths even compete for the
largest number of online "friends" and will accept new contacts on their own
member pages even if such contacts are complete strangers. With a breadth of
personal information so easily accessible, extortion on social networking sites has
also become a pressing concern. Text and images on a member's page become
irretrievable public information, even after a site has been deleted, easily allowing
predators to use posted personal information to continuously threaten and bribe their
victims.
SK/C10.12) INFORMATIONWEEK, May 7, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. An Illinois Congressman
wants to ban Second Life in school and libraries. U.S. Rep. Mark Kirk said Second
Life and social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook have grown
increasingly popular, attracting both children and online predators. "According to a
U.S. Department of Justice survey, one-in-five kids have been sexually solicited
online," Kirk explained in a news announcement. "As new technologies develop,
more disturbing revelations unfold. Sites like Second Life offer no protections to
keep kids from virtual 'rape rooms,' brothels and drug stores.
5. SEXUAL PREDATORS DO ENORMOUS DAMAGE TO CHILDREN
SK/C10.13) Jessica S. Groppe [Catholic U. Law School], COMMLAW
CONSPECTUS, 2007, Online, LEXIS-NEXIS, p. 218. In over half of these
incidents solicitors request photographs of youth, and in twenty-seven percent of
such occurrences solicitors ask for sexual photographs. These pornographic
depictions involve abusive activities that "exacerbate the already vulnerable status
of children" who consequently become mere sexual objects in pornographic work.
Compliance with a solicitor's pornographic requests often results from youths who
lack the prudence or maturity to understand the implications or consequences of
such pictures. Children's meager knowledge of the nature of sexual acts bolsters the
fact that children cannot meaningfully consent to participating in child pornographic
activities, and thus, suffer harm from its production.
SK/C10.14) Susan Hanley Duncan [U. of Kentucky Law School],
KENTUCKY LAW JOURNAL, 2007-2008, Online, LEXIS-NEXIS, pp. 527-528.
The origins of these horrific incidents can be traced to a fairly new channel of
Internet communication, social-networking sites. These sites, hugely popular with
teens, provide unique and largely independent and unsupervised channels of self
expression for adolescents and opportunities for them to "visit" with friends and
make new ones. Yet the sites also present real dangers to today's youth, the most
serious being child victimization by sexual predators. The sites also make it easier
for teens to engage in cyber--bullying and other destructive behaviors that harm
families, schools and our society.
SK/C11. CYBERBULLYING DOES ENORMOUS DAMAGE
1. CYBERBULLYING OF STUDENTS IS WIDESPREAD
SK/C11.01) Chris Riedel, T H E JOURNAL (TECHNOLOGICAL
HORIZONS IN EDUCATION), May 2008, p. 20, Online, GALE CENGAGE
LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. A 2006-2007 study by i-Safe
(www.isafe.org), a California-based, congressionally funded organization focused
on internet safety, breaks down the prevalence of cyberbullying in schools: Twentyfive percent of high school students and 21 percent of students in grades 5 to 8 say
they know someone who has been cyberbullied. Thirty-two percent of high school
students and 17 percent of middle schoolers admit to having said mean or hurtful
things to another person online. The most striking statistic is this: 52 percent of high
school students say they themselves have been cyberbullied, while the same
percentage say they have cyberbullied others.
SK/C11.02) PC MAGAZINE ONLINE, July 22, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. With more and more kids
communicating online, Internet bullying has become a larger issue. About 22
percent of kids said they have friends who have been bullied online.
2. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES FACILITATE CYBERBULLYING
SK/C11.03) Chris Riedel, T H E JOURNAL (TECHNOLOGICAL
HORIZONS IN EDUCATION), May 2008, p. 20, Online, GALE CENGAGE
LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Lynch [detective with CharlotteMecklenburg Schools (N.C.) law enforcement unit] explains that all the new digital
technologies and the emergence of social networking sites offer bullies an
abundance of opportunities to make trouble. MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo pose
the greatest risk to students, since they pose the easiest access for would-be
cyberbullies.
SK/C11.04) Jessica S. Groppe [Catholic U. Law School], COMMLAW
CONSPECTUS, 2007, Online, LEXIS-NEXIS, pp. 227-228. In addition to sexual
solicitation, harassment and "cyberbullying" have become a concern on social
networking sites, typically among teenagers. Unlike sexual predators who hide
behind the Internet's anonymity, online harassers are rarely strangers. Cyberbullies
use online "wall postings" and real-time messages to threaten other teenagers, post
embarrassing pictures of classmates, and send humiliating, cruel, and degrading
messages. Online social networking sites have thus become a "virtual bathroom
wall" for bullies to scapegoat others and spread rumors to a large online audience,
leaving youth distressed, angry, and embarrassed. Online harassers have also
deceived victims during instant messaging conversations into revealing sensitive
personal information, which the harassers then forward to a wide range of people.
SK/C11.05) Michelle R. Davis, DIGITAL DIRECTIONS, June 9, 2008, p.
15, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. A new
Maryland law adds cyberbullying to the legal definition of bullying in the state and
requires school boards to write anti-bullying policies by next year. "One of the
problems with Facebook is that people are more willing to say things there than they
ever would to a person's face," Goodwin [Principal, Walt Whitman High School,
Montgomery County, MD] says. "If two kids are name-calling, their friends are on
Facebook too, watching it. ... They try to incite the situation."
3. CYBERBULLYING LEADS TO HUGE PROBLEMS IN SCHOOLS
SK/C11.06) Michelle R. Davis, DIGITAL DIRECTIONS, June 9, 2008, p.
15, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. All the
cyber socializing by students in their after-school hours inevitably leaks into
schools. In the 137,000-student Montgomery County, Md., public schools, Walt
Whitman High School had two recent social situations that went from the virtual
world to reality. In April, Whitman Principal Alan S. Goodwin handled two separate
incidents in which taunting and name-calling on Facebook resulted in physical
fights at school. Two of the students fighting were girls, and two were boys.
SK/C11.07) Nancy Willard [Director, Center for Safe & Responsible
Internet Use], DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION, September 2008, p. 53, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. One study reported
that the victims of cyberbullying were eight times more likely than other students to
report bringing a weapon to school. The concerns for student safety are very real.
Students who do not believe school officials can help them may seek their own
revenge or refuse to come to school. The videotaping of up to six Florida girls
beating up a female classmate in April in one of the attackers' grandmother's home
is an example. The student who was beaten reportedly had been cyberbullying her
assailants, using slurs and insults, on MySpace.
SK/C11.08) Nancy Willard [Director, Center for Safe & Responsible
Internet Use], DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION, September 2008, p. 53, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Two Oregon students
create a racist profile on a social networking site, with cartoons about lynching and
racist language. Other students link to the profile and post ugly, racist comments.
Teachers report that many of the school's minority students are frightened. In
another instance, several high school students create a "We Hate Ashley" profile
online that includes crude sexual innuendoes and poking fun at her weight. Ashley
no longer attends school. Her grades plummet. Her parents say she is under
psychological care and on suicide watch.
4. CYBERBULLYING LEADS TO MURDER AND SUICIDE
SK/C11.09) Jessica S. Groppe [Catholic U. Law School], COMMLAW
CONSPECTUS, 2007, Online, LEXIS-NEXIS, p. 228. Cyberbullying can be a
dangerous phenomenon. Children have received death threats, been killed by other
children, and committed suicide after having been victimized by online harassment.
SK/C11.10) Nancy Willard [Director, Center for Safe & Responsible
Internet Use], DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION, September 2008, p. 53, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The problem is that
most incidents of cyberbullying occur off-campus because students have more
unsupervised time. But the impact is at school where students are physically
together. Although there is no data on the extent of harmful impact, anecdotally, it is
clear that some incidents lead to students avoiding or even failing school,
committing suicide and even becoming violent. Studies on cyberbullying reported in
the December 2007 issue of Journal of Adolescent Health reveal that both
perpetrators and targets of cyberbullying report significant psychosocial concerns
and increased rates of involvement in offline physical and relational aggression.
SK/C11.11) Michelle R. Davis, DIGITAL DIRECTIONS, June 9, 2008, p.
15, Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Many
schools felt compelled to develop cyberbullying policies after the suicide last year
of a 13-year-old Missouri girl, Megan Meier, who was the victim of virtual bullying
through her MySpace page. Even so, some school officials still don't understand the
impact such harassment can have, says Miller, the Facebook expert.
SK/C12. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES INCREASE SUICIDE
1. SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES PROMOTE SUICIDE
SK/C12.01) Jo Carlowe, NURSING STANDARD, April 16, 2008, p. 20,
Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Social
networking sites and chat rooms are part of everyday life for many young people.
While parents are likely to be aware of the risks of internet 'grooming', there are
other potential hazards of online communication. For example, concern has been
voiced about whether online tribute websites glamorise the act of committing
suicide. Perhaps of greater concern is the existence of 'suicide websites' that provide
detailed descriptions of how to kill yourself, and chat rooms in which participants
provide encouragement and advice on the 'best' ways to die.
2. THEY INCREASE INCIDENTS OF SUICIDE AND VIOLENCE
SK/C12.02) Kate Gross, YOUTH STUDIES AUSTRALIA, June 2008, p. 9,
Online, GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Many suicide
prevention groups and mental health professionals believe that social networking
websites and other websites and discussion forums containing information on how
to commit suicide played a role in what appears to be a string of 17 'copycat' suicide
deaths involving young people in and around the town of Bridgend, Wales since
January 2007. Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald in March, psychiatry registrar
Tanvaar Ahmed said that the deaths 'signify the dark side of internet
communications, where vulnerable and unstable members of society are socialized
into virtual communities whose shared vocabulary and values become an antidote to
loneliness as well as providing a forum to normalise their psychopathology' (West
Australian, 28/01/08, p.21; Sydney Morning Herald, 18/02/08, p.9; 11/03/08, p.11).
SK/C12.03) INFORMATIONWEEK, May 16, 2008, pNA, Online, GALE
CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. Citing the suicide of a
Missouri teen, a California murder, and the videotaped beating of a Florida teen
after MySpace taunts and a YouTube "hit list," a California legislator wants social
networking sites to limit access by children and to fight violent, criminal, and
inappropriate content.
SK/C13. NATIONAL SECURITY LEAKS THREATEN LIVES
1. SOLDIERS CAN LEAK VITAL DATA ON NETWORKING SITES
SK/C13.01) Ari Melber, THE NATION, September 15, 2008, p. 25, Online,
GALE CENGAGE LEARNING, Expanded Academic ASAP. The U.S. Army
officials believe that social networking sites used for blogging by enlisted soldiers to
share information with family and friends while on deployments may present a
breach and threat to security.
SK/C13.02) Ari Melber, THE NATION, September 15, 2008, p. 26. By
enabling soldiers to share "information with friends and family members," an Army
memo states, social networking poses a "significant operational security challenge."
Operations Security (OPSEC) is the military's program to prevent soldiers from
disclosing benign actions that might still provide useful intelligence to adversaries,
The idea is that innocent bits of information, such as how many twilight pizzas are
delivered to the Pentagon, could reveal classified material, like the imminence of a
new operation.
2. AL QAEDA HAS INFILTRATED NETWORKING SITES
SK/C13.03) Ari Melber, THE NATION, September 15, 2008, p. 26. Maj.
Ray Ceralde, who directs OPSEC, helped write regulations requiring soldiers to
clear in advance potentially every blog post or personal e-mail with a supervisor.
"The Internet, personal Web sites, blogs--those are examples of where our
adversaries are looking for open-source information about us," he told the Army
News Service. One Air Force briefing estimated that Al Qaeda members have
created hundreds of false accounts on social networking sites, according to an April
article on an official military site.
3. SECURITY LEAKS THREATEN U.S. LIVES
SK/C13.04) Ari Melber, THE NATION, September 15, 2008, p. 26. The
Defense Department has drastically restricted blogging and prevented many enlisted
soldiers from visiting social networking sites. Last year, a policy banned thirteen
popular websites, including YouTube, MySpace and BlackPlanet from military
computers. The restrictions would pre-empt bloggers like Watson, who started
writing through a personal profile on MySpace. And this year the Air Force banned
access to a military social networking site, TogetherWeServed.com. Pentagon
officials say these measures are designed not only to save bandwidth but to save
lives.