From the beginning of social networks there has been concern for one’s security online. “Over the last decade, law enforcement officials both here and abroad have recognized that the Internet is a veritable shopping outlet for child pornography,” this was stated in the article: Social Networking Websites: Are Myspace and Facebook the Fingerprints of the Twenty-First Century? By:
Edward M. Marsico, Jr. There have been several cases that have involved pedophiles trying to talk to teenagers online. In fact, there have been so many of these occurrences that NBC’s Dateline came up with an edition of their show titled “To Catch a Predator.” Undercover investigators pose as young girls to try and catch the online predators. This show has proven to be effective. It makes it easy for online predators when studies have shown in the article Blog Function Revisited: A Content Analysis of MySpace Blogs; written by Chris Fullwood, Ph.D., Natasha Sheehan, B.Sc., and Wendy Nicholls, Ph.D.; that “31% of blog authors provided a full name and 36% a first name, while over half, 54% percent of bloggers provided specific demographic information such as age, occupation, or location on their blog home pages.” (685) When there was a study done on who blogs more, men or women, and what age group researchers found that young adults along with men are more likely to keep a blog or in other words, a personal journal.
One big problem with young adults online is cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is defined on www.stopcyberbullying.org as, "when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones.” There have been several cases involving teen suicides caused by cyber bullying. For this reason there are now a number of organizations trying to stop it.
When it comes to MySpace and one’s identity I believe that someone’s social network whether it be MySpace, facebook, twitter, or a blog, these pages show are true identity. Some of us may be shy out in public or around new people but that does not show in our online life. If you have pictures on one of your pages of you drinking, then you will be categorized as a drinker. If you tweeted or posted a status that was obscene then I know some people who would call you “un-classy.” There may be pictures of you taking pictures wearing close to nothing making suggestive poses then you may be called a slut. That is what you must expect though when you post certain things on your social networking pages. A lot of people probably do not care what others think about them; especially when it comes to what they post. I bet you will care what your future employers might say though.
If the things that have been posted are not like the person who posted them is in real life then is it really their “real world?” A virtual world is not a real world, for most it is material. You can act like whomever you want to online. Just think back to when I was talking about online investigators. So if you want to be a movie star, professional athlete, or just a ladies man on line, when you are actually just a loner in school then I believe that your true identity is at stake.
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