Social networking and Facebook in particular features heavily in the news today…

A 38 year old man who admitted to grooming a 15 year old girl after they made friends on Facebook. Ivan Lumley, began speaking to his victim in January 2009 after his marriage collapsed. The girl then gave him her mobile number, to which he started sending naked images of himself. In November the pair slept together for the first time. However, the girl’s mother called the police when she realised her daughter was missing, leading to Lumley’s arrest. He was recently forced to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years and disqualified from working with children.

Facebook is also “aggressively disabling” its stalker applications such as ‘Stalker Check’ and ‘Who’s Visited My Profile?’ that enable people to see a list of their friends who have been viewing their profile the most. However, Facebook comments that users should not believe these apps, as they often produce false information, designed only to make money for their developers. Facebook’s Head of European Policy, Richard Allan, said: “Applications try to attract users in and try to get people to install them. Once a large number of users have installed that application, they can try to offer services like advertising that will make money.” This also means that users could be potentially directed to malicious and virus infected sites.
Speaking to Newsbeat in March 2009, Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg rejected the idea of an application vetting system, stating that “there will occasionally be some applications that people don’t like. Our philosophy is that having an open system anyone can participate in is generally better.”

Elsewhere in the US, it’s nice to hear  social networking sites receiving some positive PR for change. Despite the many dangers, surely the sites have some advantages? The FBI certainly think so, as they are using social networking sites to extract information for evidence in criminal cases. Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace and Twitter are all being used by FBI agents to ‘friend’ certain contacts that they believe may be suspects and lure them into revealing clues or confessing. Law enforcement agencies have long used internet chatrooms to lure child pornography traffickers and suspected sex predators and with a warrant, can seize suspects and defendants’ email records. But Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites provide a wealth of additional information, in photographs, status updates and friend lists. In many cases, the information is publicly accessible. Agents can examine photographs for guns, jewellery and other evidence of participation in robbery or burglary, and can compare information on Facebook status updates and Twitter feeds with suspects’ alibis. Friend lists can also yield witnesses or informants. Let’s hope that the sites continue to be of use and helps catch as many criminals as possible.