In addition to this, a lot of crime has occurred during the time of social networking. Kidnappers, sexual assaulters, paedophiles and much more have been able to contact people of a young age through facebook and MySpace e.t.c. These site want you to sign up with them, but don’t ask for a prove of age, therefore allows adults to communicate with teenagers or even give false identification, which leads to crime being committed.
In the same way, Social Networking can be used to intimidate children and even adults, sometimes leading to depression and suicidal. In other words ‘Bullying’. Through the popularity of social networking sites such as facebook, MySpace or YouTube, Cyber bullying has become a main issue. It seems to be a part of human nature for some people to have the need to make others feel bad.
In the new Cyber Bullying playground, all you need to do in order to hurt someone’s feelings is the skill to type wicked words in the safety of your own home. As you may be aware of the incident regarding Keeley Houghton, 18, who wrote in a post that she would kill Emily Moore, also 18. On her Facebook page, Houghton wrote an offensive threat to Emily and I quote: “Keeley is going to murder the bitch [Moore]. She is an actress. What a fucking liberty. Emily fuckhead Moore”. When Moore threatened to call the police, Houghton told her: "I'll give you something to ring the police about." After pleading guilty to harassment, Houghton was sentenced to three months in a young offenders' institute.
In contrast, social networking does allows you to gain new friends, communicate with old/new friends and family, it also gets you in the known i.e. Clubs, events, parties. You can acquire for a job, or you may even be acknowledge by an agent or a company through social networking, further more you can start or grow a businesses for higher profits.
On the other hand social networking sites generate a lot of dangers such as… creating businesses with false information, illegal selling’s / scams, it can even hack into an individuals computer systems/software’s leading to viruses and infections, likewise we often hear on the news about people’s credit card details being used and hacked into, causing to serious debts, which the card owner is not aware off.
In Conclusion
I believe that you don’t need to quit your Twitter or Facebook or any other social networking program, now that you know about the dangers of social media. But I believe that you should think twice before signing up and make sure you understand the terms and conditions, as well as keeping your personal information secure and report any abuse or incidents at the early stage.
