Social network - the new trend of the Internet world

The parents left the seminar at Eastshore Elementary School in Irvine, California (USA) with a nervous mood. This meeting is not about teenagers' use of drugs or alcohol but related to virtual community websites.

Although safety issues on the Internet have been mentioned for many years, the new wave of "social web" overwhelmed both chat rooms and made many parents concerned. Sites like MySpace.com, Livejournal.com, Xanga.com . are encouraging teenagers to post photos, diaries, music files and share personal information more effectively than any other form of online exchange before. .

MySpace, founded in 2003, is the largest website in the social network with 60 million subscribers. Due to unrestricted membership, such sites may entice unwanted guests, including many child sexual abusers. Last month, West Milford police (the United States) imprisoned a 21-year-old youth for forcing a 15-year-old girl he knew from MySpace. Last week, two men in New York and Pennsylvania were also accused of having sex with two 11- and 14-year-old girls they met on the MySpace site.

" I'm trying to frighten people? I just want the parents to be aware of the dangers that are near, " said Colm F. Connolly, a lawyer in Delaware (USA).

"Social network" is formed when a group of initiators sends a message inviting their acquaintances to join the site. New members will repeat the process and create a large affiliate network. The first social networking website was SixDegrees.com since 1997. But it wasn't until 2003 that such sites became really popular thanks to the rise of Friendster site. There are currently more than 200 social sites and last year, MySpace also gained more hits than Google. Social networking is also becoming an Internet development strategy when in March 2005, Yahoo launched Yahoo 360 service and in July 2005, News media bought MySpace. (Wikipedia)

In contrast, Parry Aftab, director of Wired Safety, is optimistic: " People are too stressed out. They feel like 'daddy' on the Internet is crowding right behind the door. So far That risk has not really happened . "

Moreover, when trying to control access content, parents often hurt their children. For many, social sites are simply a pure means of communication. Sam, 14, the son of Lester, said most of his friends on MySpace provided moderate and cautious personal information to strangers.

" Adults are taking unnecessary actions. Two years ago they were angry with chat rooms and now have the same attitude towards MySpace ," Sam said. " Now someone is kidnapped and accidentally joined this site, everything will naturally become a big problem ."

Erica Hoegh, Principal of Eastshore Elementary School, also advised everyone to calm down a bit. " In the 20s of the 19th century, people also boycotted both novels and recent decades, they were against Rock 'n' Roll. But then the fear will also go away and everything becomes peaceful again. normally, "Hoegh assured.

TN