There is a dating site called ‘OK Cupid’, which is a fast growing dating site graze (coming in second to ‘Match.com’ in most popular dating sites in the UK). Ok cupid has a newly introduced feature that allows its users to broadcast information on their whereabouts, from the city and exact location to what their wearing. This feature can be a fun and romantic feature to locate your love interest and allow them to locate you, but it’s also like an advertisement to online sexual offenders and predators, such information shouldn’t be broadcast out to strangers. Even if you think your safe and trust the person, you can never be 100% who’s really behind the screen.
This next artical is taken from a debate, that was done online, they show the opinions and facts taken from Leon Benjamin who works at a Law Firm Group, Stuart Brocklehurst from Carbon Leadership LLP and Sally Broom YourSafePlanet.
The benefits of social networking
Social networking can help companies, individuals, governments and society in general to raise social consciousness. It can help participants, particularly young people, to socialise.
Social networking is now ubiquitous and is here to stay. People can use social networks within organisations to help those same organisations to succeed; can help individuals within an organisation to make decisions and do well for themselves.
Elements of social networking provide opportunities for people to try out new ideas in a lower risk environment.
For governments social networking can be an agent for global change and help break down divides between nations and states and help assist globalisation.
Some delegates felt that we tend to assume things on the web are correct even when they’re not. However, the web could theoretically be more accurate than the printed word because potentially millions of eyes are scrutinising the information.
The risks of social networking
Social networking is frequently used for nefarious purposes including child pornography and pirate downloads. There are also major issues within social networking regarding privacy and the misuse of people's data. Twitter can spread good and bad information very quickly and ruin reputations overnight. Like most tools social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook should be viewed as double-edged swords, having equal capacity for both good and bad
Individuals have to remain accountable for their profiles and realise that there must be a separation between their social and private lives. There is the risk of unwittingly making mistakes public which remain permanently on the record.
One delegate mentioned that organisations in unelected positions (e.g. Google, Yahoo) can make global decisions, which can lead to frightening developments, for example, their attitude to social networking and data sharing.
There are also unintended consequences of government behaviour including routine wholesale spying on citizens (e.g. Echelon, RIP) and the use of the Terrorism Act by local government.
The way in which people treat different genders is exaggerated online too. Females, for example, are treated very differently to men. Is it unethical to pretend to be something we're not online or is it just like a senior manager getting his/her PA to respond on their behalf? The issue of gender and ethnicity can't apply in the same way online because users don't have to prove their identity. The big question perhaps is therefore when we should intervene on perceived misuse of online personas?
these are pictures of convicted online sex offenders, i found out that majority of them are
men causcasian aged 30 and over.