‘Fakebook’: Who's watching you?

Everyone uses Facebook or a social networking site. But who's watching you? Jack Nesteruk investigates.

Facebook users could be putting themselves at risk of identity theft by giving away personal details too easily, research suggests. Two in five people who use the social networking site revealed personal information to a stranger, according to a snapshot survey.

“As of December (2008), Facebook had an estimated 150 million active users of all ages, many of whom are unaware that there are people on the same site trying to corrupt their computers, steal their identities and prey on victims," says PRFriend.com - a site dedicated to reviewing webpage's.

"This is a wakeup call for all users, and especially, parents because of the vulnerability of young people on social network sites."

The figures are horrific. At any time of day - 50,000 paedophiles are on-line and 20% of children are receiving unwanted sexual solicitation on- line, according to figures complied by Enough Abuse.

Unsurprisingly, 61% of 13-17 year olds have a personal profile on a social networking site and 71% of teens have received messages online from someone they don’t know.

To investigate the problem, I created an alias - David Hallam, a 23 -year -old engaged man from Newcastle. My task was to add as many people as I could to my Facebook site - and then sit back and wait.

Monday and Tuesday was spent browsing through people’s accounts, people’s friends and adding who I felt necessary. I was shocked at how easy it was, and how many routes there were leading onto individual profiles. Having a Facebook account myself, I am all too aware of having too much personal information on show, information which any Tom, Dick or Harry could access.

Adding someone on Facebook is simple, you can either search for their name, go through someone's friends or Facebook even suggests 'people you may know'.

I added as many people as possible to my David Hallam profile. The best Facebook could do in terms of a warning was to suggest I slowed down.

On Wednesday I checked how many people had accepted my friend request. I knew this investigation was to expose critical flaws in today’s social networking sites. In just two days I had 128 members, who didn’t have a clue who I was, or, if I was who I said I was.

By Thursday this figure rose to 173, Friday’s total was 243, Saturday 260 and Sunday ended with 278 members.

With so many people at my disposal, I was able to gain a number of personal details. A 20 year old girl’s profile from Sheffield stood out. It included a number of contact details - a mobile number, email address, college, area she lived, pictures and status updates.

Facebook distance themselves from any blame connected to content by saying, “You (the user) are solely responsible for the photos, profiles (including your name, image, and likeness), messages, notes, text, information, music, video, advertisements, listings, and other content that you upload, publish or display (hereinafter, "post") on or through the Service or the Site, or transmit to or share with other users (collectively the "User Content").

These terms and conditions are hidden away in small print at the bottom of the page, a million miles away for a child being bothered to read them.

Monday finally came back around, a week after starting this investigation. I was horrified to see I had 291 members in the palm of my hand.

The most worrying aspect of the whole exercise was the fact that out of 291 members, only 6 asked me to identify myself.

I was sickened at how easy it would be to prey on vulnerable individuals and especially how easy it would be for someone like a paedophile, hacker or nutcase to access and store someone else's details.

Things are being done to try and protect children online. NetiDMe Ltd develops online safety solutions designed to protect young people from Internet predators and cyberbullies.

ChatShield works in conjunction with NetiDMe Ltd and is an add-on for MSN Messenger allowing parents to prevent their children from speaking to internet strangers.

Marilyn Hawes was unaware her two children were being exposed to a paedophile who was a trusted friend of the family, and their headmaster at school.

“What happened to me was 6 years ago but the passion will never leave my life no matter how hard I try,” she said.

From this moment, Marilyn has campaigned tirelessly, creating an organisation – Enough Abuse - for the protection of young children.

“It is a terrible crime for a mother to know or feel she led her children into danger through lack of knowledge and I attended the Child Protection courses with the guy who abused my sons and still didn’t see what he was doing.”

Marilyn believes children need to be educated on the dangers of the internet.

“The Internet is an amazing invention but the hidden dangers are there for the innocent and uneducated,” she said.

“The social networking sites are a beast in disguise. I have not the remotest idea why kids use them. Even my own do - kids have no idea who is looking at these things other than the people they intend to do so.”



Story by Jack Nesteruk


http://www.prfriend.com/pr/2009/02/18/connecticut-bbb-warns-facebook-users-about-new-dangers-lurking-in-cyberspace/