As online social networking has become increasingly popular,
with Web sites like MySpace and Facebook boasting millions of
users, UCLA community members have become concerned about online
safety.
“If you don’t have familiarity with it, there can be
fear,” said Karen Minero, associate director of the UCLA
Center for Women & Men.
To address these concerns and educate students and staff ““
many of whom are parents ““ about online networking, the
center and the university police co-sponsored a forum titled
“MySpace … Scary Place?” in cooperation with several
other UCLA organizations.
Another workshop, called “Facebook, MySpace, AIM … Are
You Getting “˜Too Personal’?” is scheduled to be
held today and May 4 at the Student Activities Center.
Panelists included Minero; UCPD Crime Prevention Officer Luis De
Vivero; Kathy Sims of the UCLA Career Center; and fourth-year
mathematics, economics and psychology student Bank
Chantaruchirakorn.
Though the panelists acknowledged the potential benefits of the
Web sites, they urged caution.
The center and university police have noted a significant
increase in stalking cases reported since the online networks
launched and gained popularity, Minero and De Vivero said.
“(Kids and students) have a false sense that their
(profile) is private,” Minero said. “They don’t
realize that these are public forums.”
To decrease risks, De Vivero urged students to be smart and
careful about how much information they put up on profiles and to
consider limiting that information because it can be used against
them.
He said online forums have made it much easier for potential
stalkers and identity thieves to uncover information about their
victims.
“If you do put information up, there are some
consequences,” De Vivero said. “My suggestion is
don’t put all this information up there. … It’s not
the most secure site in the world.”
Chantaruchirakorn, who has a Facebook profile himself, pointed
out several benefits, including increased social networking, as
well as the ability to create study groups.
The panelists said there are advantages of online social
networking, as long as students use the resources responsibly.
Sims said information found on profiles can also be used by
potential employers and graduate schools to uncover more
information about applicants, which may jeopardize employment or
acceptance.
She also urged caution about sharing information with strangers
online.
“You just have to be suspicious and scrutinize before you
participate,” Sims said. “Why share that kind of
information?”
Minero encouraged parents to monitor their family’s online
activities and create accounts on the Web sites themselves to read
what their children post online.
But she recognized that students “see it as very
intrusive. … They feel that we’re making too big of a deal
of it.”
During a Q-and-A period, audience member Alasdair Burton, who
works at the UCLA Medical Center, said he felt part of the
presentation was trying to make people afraid of online networking,
rather than simply informing them about it.
De Vivero responded that the purpose of the forum was to
educate, not scare.
“You have to build a relationship with your kids,”
De Vivero said. “You want to get involved (and) educate
yourself.”
Burton said people were worried when their children first began
to go online many years ago, so the concerns raised and addressed
by the panel were not new or unique.
He pointed out that much of the information disclosed on online
profiles could be readily attained from other public sources, such
as phone books.
“The reality is, if you want to keep something a secret,
you literally can’t tell anyone,” Burton said.
Though he said that forums such as this were useful tools to
inform people about potential risks and consequences, he made an
analogy between the consequences of online networking and driving
the freeway: Drivers know that people die in car accidents every
day, but feel that the benefits outweigh the risks.