Social networks require regulation
2nd April 2008 by David North
There is a lot being discussed at the moment with regard to regulation of games after the Byron review last week and now this seems to have spread to social networks after Ofcom published a report about children using social network websites (Download the Ofcom social networking report).
As usual the media have turned on the evil Internet again but when you look through this hysteria there is an interesting argument here. Online regulation isn’t easy as due to the Internet’s very nature it evolves quickly (too quickly for Government intervention perhaps) and there is a degree of anonymity which also means enforcement becomes more difficult.
In addition some would say regulation would stifle the freedom that is currently available.
Personally I can’t see how regulation is going to work, essentially most schemes with regard to online regulation seem to be badly conceived and I’m not convinced Governments have a clue about the underlying issues.
I think application providers and websites should take responsibility for this in the regard that they should provide the tools within the system for privacy and protection rather than requiring various shock headlines to make them change their policies.
This still leaves a gap for who is going to ensure that children use the systems available and I’m afraid this for the most part should come down to parents. Currently it would seem that many parents don’t understand issues surrounding the social Internet but I don’t see this as an excuse. Outside of the virtual World parents keep on top of developments related to their children - this should be the same for when their child logs on.
Certainly there is a case for education here and maybe a Government should formulate a swifter response to the moving goalposts online. There are already independent sites for advice such as Safe Social Networking but maybe a more inventive and proactive approach is needed.
Any other opinions would be welcomed.
Some very good points Dave. I personally feel that the service providers should employ a team of essentially cyber police that float around, have access to all profiles and are able to see problem areas and potential grooming. I know that the police already do so but they are so stretched across a number of different sites so the government should enforce Bebo, Facebook and MySpace among other lesser know social media websites to employ their own team to do so.
It’s an idea Kev but I just can’t see how they’re going to be able to look over everybodies shoulder all the time and even if they should!
You’re basically giving people permission to view every conversation anyone has on a social networking site. As mentioned in the post the anonymity of the Internet means you can’t assume that just because someone has said they are over 18 they actually are so you’d have to monitor everybody.
I’m not as extreme as some privacy groups but I still wouldn’t want all my conversations read as a matter of course - it opens the system up for abuse.
A very well-reasoned piece David.
I honestly think regulation of social networks is 1) unnecessary and 2) largely unworkable. I definitely don’t think it should be an area of responsibility for ISPs.
With regard to point one, I’m still at a loss to see exactly why regulation is needed for social networks, other than they’re used by children.
Perhaps social networks should include a privacy tour when anybody signs up outlining exactly what the code of conduct for using the site is and how to use the privacy settings. There’s probably a lot of adults who’d benefit from that - so ultimately no individual could use the excuse that they didn’t know, and it would be their choice as to how much information they disclosed to the world on their profile.
And yes, I’d definitely go along with the idea parents should take more responsibility. At the end of the day, there’s little these sites can do if kids lie about their age.
Other than that, there’s nothing that immediately springs to mind, other than providing a more comprehensive set of privacy settings, that would be much use or wouldn’t become irrelevant in a few months time.
Thanks for your thoughts Gary. I think the reason that this is really being floated around the media at the moment is because it sits uncomfortably with some that children on the net are broadly treated as adults and there are no controls in place.
The argument is that a child is not responible enough to handle their own privacy issues (as most adults also seem to be). The big question is who should step up to take this responsibility? And it certainly isn’t an easy answer.
The headline of the post is really to attract attention I don’t believe regulation can or should be used but I do think the tools to allow people to take control are not seen as a priority but an afterthought. For example Facebook have only tightened this up after quite a bit of pressure.
As mentioned there are some sites that give best practice advice when it comes to this kind of thing but generally on the actual sites it’s a bit sparse and hidden away - so your tour idea could be a starting point.
Maybe it’s just better for websites and applications to make a locked down account the default and then users would have to actively allow access to everything. However this gives a greater learning curve when starting out so could discourage new users.
Tricky.
Hi, Dave. Found you via Gary/the comments t’other day.
Grand post - my main agreement with all comments being that the default setting of any new user should be private. Facebook’s daunting to any new user - but the tutorials are easily-understood and with a more generalised acceptance that users having tightened privacy ‘is the norm’ this could be an important step in stopping the media going bonkers. Unfortunately grooming and the like has and always will be a problem - and it’s not an easily-rectified issue.
Thanks Matt. Is it just me or does the press get more and more alarmist every day?! And of course the Internet is to blame.