Social Networking Information

Social networking is a term that is used to describe some of the ways in which people communicate online via their computers or mobile phones.

Some common elements of social networking online are:

• Membership of a website is required;
• A personal profile can be created that tell others about themselves;
• There is the ability to add other people as online friends or contacts;
• Members of the website can communicate among themselves.

Social networking has become a very popular way for young people to organise their lives and keep in contact with their friends. It is a tool to share information, gossip, photos, arrange social gatherings and invite friends to events. Preventing young people from engaging with social networking sites can mark them out as different to their peers and can exclude them for social activities and friendship groups. Online communication has many advantages over more traditional forms of communication such as:

• Many people can be contacted all at once;
• Communication is free or relatively cheap depending on internet / phone contracts;
• Messaging can be open or private;
• Communication is controllable in that a response does not have to be provided, it can be lengthy or a quick comment;
• Make new friends or contacts easily;
• Distance / country is not important;
• Communication does not have to be in 'real time' or can be instant;
• Young people have grown up using computers and phones and are confident in their use;
• Not all young people feel confident in face to face settings.

When a person joins Facebook they create a user profile likely to include a photo of themselves and some general information such as gender, date of birth, general location of where they live, interests and hobbies. However, a user's profile photo can be of anything, not necessarily their face. It is also possible to use a false name and/or a false photo.

Facebook allows users to organise events online, join specific interest groups or become 'fans' of individual celebrities or organisations. Most organisations, from charities to retail companies have a Facebook page that the user can join. The site also provides the facility to chat online, to share information and to interact with friends through games, quizzes and other activities. Many social networks allow users to watch videos and listen to music, and users can find out further information about friends such as birthdays, follow their news feeds and interests such as TV programmes.

This can help build a sense of belonging to a community, and have specific advantages, such as letting people know about up and coming events and special occasions. However, there is a need to be aware of who might be finding out about events and the young person's plans to attend specific activities. Using privacy settings on a young person's profile can allows this information to be managed appropriately.

Users add online 'friends' who they are then connected to. For users this is likely to include current friends, family and old friends that they might have found and been reconnected with. New friends can be made through common interest groups.

Here are some common communication terms used on Facebook.

See: Internet, Photographs and Mobile Phones.

It is important to be aware of issues of confidentiality on social networking sites. Children and young people have a right to privacy; no one should publish information about a child or young people without first checking with those who have parental responsibility. It would not be appropriate for foster carers or residential officers to post any information about the children in their care, especially photos.

Photographs that are posted on site can be viewed by a wider audience than originally anticipated and can be difficult or even impossible to remove once posted. One of the most popular features on Facebook is 'tagging', which gives the user the ability to identify and name the individual people that appear in the photos, videos or notes that they post.

Facebook can also draw conclusions from the address information held in user profiles and from the 'tagging' of photographs. Facebook is able to correctly identify the location of where photos have been taken and will offer this information to users to confirm in their profile photo albums etc. This information can help someone else find out where you live, where you go at different times of the day etc.

'Checking in to Places' allows users with an iPhone, an Android phone or a Blackberry V1.9 to post an exact location of where they currently are. This location is then displayed on a map on the user's profile. The user can also 'tag' friends who are with them at this Place. If you do not want to be 'tagged' at a Place you must set your privacy settings accordingly.

Facebook has a number of privacy settings. These allow a user to decide who can see what on their Facebook pages and must be reviewed regularly as the options can be updated from time to time by Facebook. It is worth remembering that even with the strongest privacy settings, once material is published it could be seen by anyone and can be very hard to erase. It is always worth users regularly checking content they may be featured in.

Realistically, a Facebook user's privacy is only as secure as their least private Facebook friend.

Facebook makes it quite difficult to really permanently delete an account. Deactivation and deletion are two different things.

Deactivating a Facebook account will hide the account profile and all the information associated with it so that anyone using Facebook will not be able to search for the profile or view any profile information. Facebook will save the profile, information (friends, photos, interests etc). The account can be reactivated just by logging back into it with the email address and password. If you choose to reactivate the account it will look just the way it did at the time that you deactivated it and the profile will be visible to other Facebook users again.

To permanently remove a Facebook account and all the information associated with it, the account has to be deleted. Using the delete option will remove all personally identifiable information associated with the account from the Facebook database for example, name, email address and screen name. Some information remains within Facebook but is completely inaccessible to other Facebook users. Once a Facebook account has been permanently deleted it will be impossible to regain access to it, or retrieve any of the content or information from it.

Facebook states that they do not use content associated with accounts that have been deactivated or deleted.

Social networking can be a positive experience but at the same time it can raise concerns for those with responsibilities for children, whether their own or children in foster care. Understanding what children and young people are doing when they are online, having regular and open dialogue with them, being alert to the possibilities offered by social networking and monitoring its usage are important to minimise the risks associated with it.

When appraising 'risk', it is important to put that risk into context. Statistically, probably the greatest risk is that a child will encounter people in chat rooms and social networking sites who are mean or unpleasant. Another 'risk' is that a young person will spend a lot of wasted time in areas that are not very productive. The more involvement that you have in a young person's online life, the more you can be assured of their safety.

One of the problems with passwords and pass codes is that it can be difficult to remember them and in an effort to not forget them, simple things like the name of a pet or dates of birth are used. This makes it very easy for a hacker or someone you know to guess your passwords. These simple steps will help you create a more secure password / pass code:

• Do not use personal information - easy for others to find your basic details and you may have published the details yourself on Facebook;
• Do not use real words - computer tools are available to hackers that try every word in the dictionary;
• Mix different character types - use both upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols such a & or %;
• Use a pass phrase - think up a sentence or a line from a song or book that you like and create a password using the first letter of each word;
• Use different passwords / codes for each login you are protecting - if one gets found out, the others are still safe;
• Change you passwords / codes - at least every 60 days;
• Do not re-use a password / code for at least one year.

How to keep your passwords and pass codes safe:

• Do not keep using a default or reset password / code - change it after you have used it once;
• Never give our password / code out in an email;
• Don't leave your passwords / codes lying around - keep them hidden and locked away;
• Do not use computers at internet cafes or in hotel business centres if you want to access a website that requires a login - you can not be sure they are fully protected from spyware, keyloggers and other malware (see: Section 4, Basic Safety and Parental Controls). Basic safety and parental controls;
• Do not give your password out to anyone on a game site, even if they claim to be a member of staff;
• Never respond to an email asking for your password, especially if the email asks you to confirm your login details or they will close your account. This type of email will ask you to follow a specific link to a site, which then asks you for your login and password (the email will very often look 'real' and use familiar logos). This type of email is called 'phishing' and is a common method used to commit fraud. For more help and advice on 'phishing' see the Action Fraud website.

You need to understand both the opportunities and risks associated with social networking for children and young people in general. However, this must be viewed within the context of the overall plan for the young person and in particular, any specific contact arrangements that are in place or reviewed.

Maintaining and building relationships are particularly pertinent to children and young people in foster or residential care and need to be addressed in a positive way.

By facilitating contact with friends and siblings and even parents, social networking sites can be invaluable in allowing young people in care to maintain important relationships. Social networks can be vital for children and young people in care to maintain as 'normal' a life as possible, through interacting with their peers on a equal basis. It can allow them to keep in touch with their friends especially if they have to move home to an entirely new area.

Children and young people need help to ensure that they have contact with those that they want to. There may be relationships that the young person does not want to maintain and relationships where considerations such as safeguarding make it inappropriate for them to stay in contact.  You will need to monitor online relationships as they would in the 'real world' and support young people to ensure that they understand why it is important to consider how, and with whom, they interact on social networking sites.

Children and young people in care can be particularly vulnerable and sometimes withdrawn, lonely and lacking in confidence. Social networking can be their link to the world and a place in which they feel they have lots of friends and they are important. However, the young person might use social networking sites to retreat from the 'real world' and from developing productive face to face relationships. A balance can be struck by limiting a young person's time on the computer, preferably through encouragement and discussion or through the use of parental computer controls.

If you are using Facebook and other social networking sites then you will be in a better position to understand what it is the children and young people in your care are doing and in turn help them to be safer online. For example:

• If you are on Facebook then you can be 'friends' with the young people in your care and can keep an eye on their Facebook page;
• Get to know the sites that the young person you care for uses. If you don't know how to log on, get the young person to show. Find out more about the site and whether there are settings to block out objectionable material;
• By understanding how to use privacy settings for your own Facebook profile you can ensure that the young person can hide their profile in searches and block unwanted contact;
• Facebook allows you to sort your friends into different lists so that you can control which list of friends or contacts see what;
• Work to create openness about social networking with the all the children in your care, encourage foster children to tell you if their family is in contact with them online. Ask to see the messages that are being sent.

There are some simple steps that you can take to mitigate the negative aspects of using social networking sites for the children and young people in your family:

• Ensure that the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) 'panic button' has been installed on any Facebook profile. The panic button is an application aimed at children and teenagers that allows them to easily report suspected abuse to CEOP and Facebook. The application has to be added by the user themselves, even if they are under 18. You can find out more at the THINKUKNOW website;
• Avoid posting photos that give out clues as to where a child lives or goes to school as this could help others to trace the young person;
• Never allow a child to arrange a face to face meeting with someone they meet online without parental permission. If a meeting is arranged, make the first one in a public place and go with the young person;
• Have the computer situated in a shared 'family' space such as the lounge and ensure that all computers have updated virus protection;
• Bear in mind that many modern mobile phones have the ability to connect directly to the internet. Either using the mobile phone operator's network such as HDSPA or over local wi-fi (wireless internet) like the wireless internet connection you may home for your home computer. Some mobile phone operators sell phones with filtering software included;
• Make sure that that everyone in your household who is using social networks is aware of their security settings and how to change them if they need to;
• Make sure that all young people in the household know not to download programs to the computer without checking with you first;
• Talk with your children about internet safety and privacy. If your child is computer savvy, ask them to do the research on suggested privacy settings, common mistakes that reveal identifying information etc and ask them to teach you;
• Establish common sense rules for your child's use of the internet;
• Accept that you do not have complete control. As your child gets into the middle and upper teens, you will have little ability to prevent them from doing anything, especially on the internet. It is more productive to go on the 'journey' with them.

The Home Office They have produced a website for children about safety and the internet, see the THINKUKNOW website.