Final Essay

Why privacy is such a contentious issue for internet users particularly for young people who use social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook


Privacy is not a new issue, long before the digital age of technology and prior to the invention of social media sites young people were concerned about who knew their confidential information. In the school yard we worried about who we told our secrets to and only certain stories we divulged to our parents. Parents were also concerned, their children had strict curfews and we were always warned as children, never to talk to strangers and never to hang out with the wrong crowd. So why are we so obsessed with privacy in recent times? This essay will examine why in our technological age, privacy has become such a debatable issue, particularly due to concerns with the internet and social networking. This paper will look at two social networking sites commonly used by children in Australia, MySpace and Facebook and if the growing concern is warranted.


Social networking sites have arguably changed the way young people in Australia interact. According to influential social media researcher Danah Boyd ‘Socialisation is forced to shift out of shopping centres and parks, and into “networked publics” (Boyd, 2007). Social networking is the norm for young people today; not participating can make them feel isolated. Senior lecturer at Griffith Brady Robards conducted a small research project on the Gold Coast. He explains ‘abstaining can often equate to social exclusion, given that many offline social events are organised through social network sites (Robards, 2010). This means that parental responsibilities and concerns are different today is different compared with those in the past. Nowadays parents have less concerns about their children’s whereabouts, they have to worry of knowing what their child is up to on social networking sites in the home.


The media has played a huge role in bringing the privacy on social networking sites debate to the forefront of our attention. Just this month the Courier Mail ran a story headlined “Queensland Premier Anna Bligh speaks out on the unsuitability of Facebook for pre-teens” this story explains how the premier advises parents to be vigilant as children may pose as adults to sign up for an account. In the article John Fison (2010), Chairman of Brisbane IT firm NetboxBlue explains how social media can be a great tool for young people, however warns of the hazards ‘Social networking can be a great tool, it is a lifesaver for children at boarding school or in remote areas but there can be serious dangers’. The internet can prove to be a very dangerous place, not because social networking sites themselves are perilous rather it is simply the volume of people who can potentially connect with yourself or your child. Dwyer et. Al (2007) begs the question ‘Is it possible to join a network of millions of people and be able to trust all of them?’ We would to be naïve to think so.


Social networking in Australia is extremely popular ‘On a per capital basis Australia has one of the highest uptakes of social media in the world’ (Social Media News, 2010). As mentioned earlier this is where the issue of privacy becomes extremely important as exposure to large audiences has associated risks. Until recent years Australia was reality unscathed in the online social networking revolution however some tragic horror stories have emerged in our own backyard as a result of using social networking sites. A 15 year old girl, Carly Ryan was murdered after being lured by an older predator posing as an alter ego on MySpace. Carly Ryan’s mother is now campaigning for parents to exercise extreme caution with what their children are doing on social networking sites ‘They need to be more actively involved and checking their children’s websites’ she said (Adelaide Now 2010). Danah Boyd agrees with this notion in her presentation at the annual Music, Film & Interactive Conference however, she draws a fine line between parent’s being concerned for their child’s privacy and invading it themselves. Ms Boyd suggests opening the issue for discussion rather than being totally against social networking, ‘please consider the value of opening up a dialogue’ (Boyd 2010) she says.


Strangers are not the only individuals who put our children at risk by invading privacy on social networking sites. A Melbourne teenager Allem Halkic, committed suicide after he was a victim of cyber-bullying by a former best friend on MySpace. This particular case was a landmark prosecution in Australia. In an interview with the ‘Australian Newspaper’ Police Prosecutor Glenn Collins referred to bullying on social networking sites as ‘a plague in our community’ (The Australian 2010). The dangers with social networking are very real, so as expert researchers have suggested parents need to engage in active monitoring of their children’s involvement in shared media on the internet. Privacy is always jeopardised on the walls of social networking sites as the content is public. Young people can read conversations between their peers and draw whatever conclusions they like from them. They are also free to write whatever they like about each other, a perfect platform for bullying. This case highlights the need for parent’s to exercise vigilance over their children’s privacy. Young people need to be educated on the dangers of writing certain things on their MySpace or Facebook.


This essay has examined privacy concerns associated with social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. There are many risks related to the use of both of them, however youth of today must utilise and engage them in order to have a feeling of belonging and social acceptance among their peers. This essay concludes that there are significant benefits as well as risks for young people engaging in social networking. This notion is well summarised by German sociologist Giddens as follows ‘for today’s teenagers, self-actualisation increasingly includes a careful negotiation between the opportunities (for identitiy, intimacy and sociality) and risks (regarding privacy, misunderstanding, abuse) afforded by internet-mediated communication (cited in Livingstone p12). The issue of privacy and risk on social networking on sites such as MySpace and Facebook is only predicted to grow further in the future. Parent’s and young people should exercise caution and utilise privacy settings so they can successfully use these sites without threat and realise the social rewards from using them.



Bibliography:

Boyd, Danah 2007, ‘Why youth (heart) social network sites: The role of networked publics in teenage social life’, in D. Buckingham (ed.) MacArthur foundation series on digital learning – youth, identity and digital media: 119-142

Boyd, Danah 2010, ‘Making Sense of Privacy and Publicity’ SXSW Music, Film & Interactive Conference’ Austin, Texas, March 13 2010

Livingstone, Sonia 2008, ‘Taking risky opportunities in youthful content creation: teenagers’ user of social networking sites for intimacy, privacy and self-expression. New Media & Society, 10(3): 393-411

Robards, Brady 2010, ‘Randoms in my bedroom: Negotiating privacy and unsolicited contact on social network sites’, PRism, 7(3)

Sinnerton, Jackie 2010, ‘Queensland Premier Anna Bligh speaks out on unsuitability of Facebook for pre-teens’, Courier Mail October 10 2010, viewed October 10 2010 <]http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland-premier-anna-bligh-speaks-out-on-unsuitability-of-facebook-for-pre-teens/story-e6freon6-1225936496248 ‘Social Media Stats in Australia – Facebook, Blogger, Myspace’ Social Media News.com.au June 11 2010, viewed 5 October 2010 http://www.socialmedianews.com.au/social-media-stats-in-australia-facebook-blogger-myspace/

Further references:

Boyd, Danah 2008, ‘Facebook’s Privacy Trainwreck: Exposure, Invasion and Social Convergence’ Sage Publications, London, Los Angeles, New Delhi and Singapore Vol 14(1): 13–20

Baumgartner J, and Morris, J 2010, ‘MyFace& YouTube Politics, Social Networking and Political Engagement of Young Adults’ Social Science Computer Review, 28(1)

Cassell, J and Cramer, M 2007 ‘High Tech or High Risk: Moral Panics about Girls Online’ MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. (pp. 53-75) MIT Press

Dwyer, C. , Starr R. & Passerini K. 2007, ‘Trust and Privacy Concern Within Social Networking Sites: A Comparison of Facebook and Myspace’ Americas Conference on Information Systems , Colorado August 09 -12 2007

Dunlop, W.G 2010, ‘Privacy a priority, says Facebook director Randi Zuckerberg’, viewed October 18 2010 http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hiIK2tpygMx0K3NMwARTZ0DwHMCQ?docId=CNG.39d86b87288610357aedef0bdb96a13e.4f1

Evans, David and Felt Adrienne 2008, ‘Privacy Protection for Social Networking Platforms’, Workshop on Web 2.0 Security and Privacy. Oakland, CA. 22 May 2008

Fewster, Sean 2010, ‘I won’t let Carly’s death be in vain’ Adelaide Now January 30 2010, viewed 8 October 2010, http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/i-wont-let-carlys-death-be-in-vain/story-e6frea83-1225824877039

Hunt, Elissa 2009, ‘Jordan Parker jailed for sex with underage girls after befriending them on Myspace’, Herald Sun December 3 2009, viewed October 8 2010, http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/jordan-parker-jailed-for-sex-with-underage-girls-after-befriending-them-on-myspace/story-e6frf7jo-1225806546765

McDonald, Brendan 2010, ‘Don’t revel in virtual reality’, Herald Sun, July 21 2010, viewed 8 October 2010 http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/dont-revel-in-virtual-reality/story-e6frfhqf-1225882005697

Pearson, Erika 2009, ‘All the World Wide Web’s a stage: The performance of identity in online social networks’, First Monday, 14(3).

Raynes-Goldie, K. 2010, ‘Aliases, creeping and wall cleaning: Understanding privacy in the age of Facebook’, First Monday, 15(1) http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2775/2432


‘2010 Australian Social Media Compendium’, Australian Media Blog, viewed 7 October 2010 http://digitalmarketinglab.com.au/index.php/2010/03/28/2010-australian-social-media-compendium/


‘Satanist uses MySpace to feed desire for teen girls’, The Daily Telegraph October 30 2009, viewed October 8 2010 http://www.news.com.au/technology/satanist-uses-myspace-to-feed-desire-for-teen-girls/story-e6frfro0-1225792626406

Course evaluation

Overall, I have to say I have really enjoyed the New Comm Tech Course!

I did learn alot about the digital world that I never knew existed.. and I had underestimated the power things like culture jamming. I do feel that there was too much time spent discussing certain themes such as cyberpunking and culture jamming. I was really lucky to meet a great group in our tutorial and we all worked really well together on our set activities.

In my opinion the course could be improved by teaching us more practical skills and letting us put them in to practice in tutorials...rather than the weeks where we spent most of the tute time just discussing themes and ideas e.g cyberpunk it is really just a sci-fi genre ...I thought the short interactive tasks like making a film and uploading it to the net.. and setting up our blogs were the things I found most useful. I would suggest some website building or photoshop tutorials... things like that.

I also must add that I only enjoyed about half of the lectures I attended. I enjoyed the lectures given by Josh and Jules... but the guest lecturers were as exciting as watching grass grow or paint dry. The guest lectures focused a little too heavily on conspiracy theories and speculation rather than actual facts and knowledge we will take with us to the workforce.

I think with a little tweaking the course could be slightly better.. but you guys have still done an amazing job!

Cheers,

Sherie :)