Why Parents Have a Point on Teen Privacy

I think everyone in this class has heard it from their parents. "Don't do this, don't do that. Make sure you do this, etc." I think we've all heard this speech from our parents in regards to SNS.

I didn't realize this until I got older, but parents really fear for their kids' safety. Not just fear as in scared, but trembling in fear. The worst case scenerio is in the back of their minds at all times.

I can remember when me and my friend were eight years old. We lived on the same block, and one day, we decided to take a walk downtown to the park, alone. Our parents called the cops, and the next thing I remember, a police officer in a squad car was blaring his siren at me. My parents were angered, but they were also relieved at the same time.

So it should come to no suprise that when I signed up for MySpace, my parents found out and they gave me a little talk. They thought I gave out too much information on the internet (in hindsight, I didn't, but the standards for amount of information are different from my parents and myself). They did not want some pervert stalking my profile and contacting me. I told them it was ridiclious and to start treating me as an adult.

Now, as I read the article "MySpace Bug Leaks 'Private' Teen Photos to Voyers," it's not so ridiclious anymore.

"If kids are doing what they think they need to do, and are still having their photos picked up by slimebags on the internet ... then these are serious issues," said Parry Aftab, executive director of WiredSafety.org, a children's-online-safety group. "It's a matter of trust and it's a matter of safety." (WiredSafety is not connected to Wired News or Wired magazine.)

Representatives for MySpace did not return Wired News phone calls Thursday.

The flaw exposes MySpace users who set their profiles to "private" -- the default setting for users under 16 -- even though MySpace's account settings page tells users, "Only the people you select will be able to view your full profile and photos."

Clicking on the photo link on a private profile gives unauthorized users this message: "This profile is set to private. This user must add you as a friend to see his/her profile." But anyone -- even those without a MySpace account -- can plug the target's public account number, called a "Friend ID," into a specially constructed URL that grants access to those photos.

Now I can see why parents are so worked up on the dangers of SNS. Part of it is fear that their children were not listening when the parents gave them the talk about the dangers of online social networking. The other part of it is the fact that the parents simply do not trust the technology. For example, my mom never uses her debit card online to buy things, for fear that her bank account will be hacked into. I think that fear has translated into fear that my profile will be hacked into.