Facebook: Social Boon or Lure to Predators?

Message Board

Networking sites display copious amounts of personal information. That those same details can be used against people stirred a huge online debate at ios.typepad.com

Carin

I’m on Facebook and it seems as harmless as having your own website or blog. Nobody is suggesting all the bloggers should stop, are they? It can also be positive, too, an indication of a varied and active personality.

Robert

An idea has emerged that it is somehow ‘dishonest’ to use a nickname. Many people have no concept of how easy it is to gather information and build a profile of them once they start publishing under their real name.

Chris

If you use these ‘spaces’, only put on there what you would want other people to know about you or don’t use them at all.

Nigel (CritEst)

The problem is not with the technology. The real problem is with the prejudices, lack of integrity and bigotry of those who use the information illicitly.

Dottie

It’s simple. If you don’t want the whole world to know something, don’t put it onto a public website. If information is posted on a public website such as Facebook, then it is not illicit for a present or prospective employer to read it.

Darren Reynolds

Posting to the IoS blog under a real name might have similar consequences. My wife has cited my Facebook page in our divorce proceedings. She thinks I’ve gone weird because I’ve gone vegetarian and started meditating.

Tony

Social networking sites are a just fad. They will gradually fade away when fees are applied to be a member. Those who post information about themselves are naive.

K

How is it that random prospective employers are viewing everyone’s pages? Doesn’t the privacy setting take care of this whole issue? Isn’t this how Facebook works?

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