Do you know what your kids are doing on Facebook?
No, it has absolutely nothing to do with sex (although it easily could), but when I saw this I was absolutely dumbstruck. At its best, it’s giving telemarketers a highly targeted list of phone numbers, at its worst it’s a sinister ploy by a serial killer. Anyone that knows me, knows I don’t like Facebook too awful much to begin with. The site is a collection of privacy concerns, an example of how not to run a social network, and the constant back-peddling about it by the company’s executives is… well, vomit-inducing. The only reason I even have a Facebook account, is so that I can form my own opinion. Trust me, it isn’t a pretty one.
But while I don’t like the site, millions of others do, use it on a daily basis and seem to be quite happy with it. All the power to them. Have fun super-poking, naughty-gifting, bringing sexy back, finding out which Winnie the Pooh character you are, pillow fighting, pack-ratting and iLike-ing. While you are at it, however… You should keep an eye on your safety. Your personal, physical safety that is. Remember, when your mom told you not to take candy from a stranger? Or when your dad said not to get in a car with someone you don’t know? Those rules still apply!
So when I was surfing Facebook and came across a publicly visible message (that means anyone that logs into Facebook can see it) that read:
Peyton Couch (***** High School) wrote at 10:04pm yesterday - 555-5555
I was dumbfounded! Here is a girl who openly lists where she goes to school, and gives the world her cell phone number to boot! Yes her name is really Peyton Couch, but I did change the rest of the info to protect the innocent. But Peyton, my stars, how naive can you be? A serial killer probably doesn’t care about your phone number. He has seen your profile picture (so now knows what you look like) and he knows which school you go to. One afternoon he might just follow you home. Come to think of it, you are probably doing yourself a favor listing your cell phone number. When you lie in the woods, raped, with your throat slit, all those hundreds of morons you don’t know that are going to ring your phone, may just help get you found quicker. Better yet, one of the telemarketers that now also has your number, might be selling funeral arrangements… Wouldn’t that be a hoot.
No even better, why don’t you forward your cell number to Mallory Cowan’s. She is also on that list. Maybe she is still alive when the calls start pouring in. Hopefully she can figure out what happened to you. So what am I going on about? Let me quickly clue in the uninitiated.
Facebook allows you to join a network. A network is a group of people with similar interests, or maybe the same geographical proximity. Within those networks anyone can create a group. Sort of like a network within the network. The group this story is about is called “New phone, please join”. When Josh Hill created it, he probably thought it would be nice (now that he has a new phone) to quickly collect a list of numbers to add to his address book. I don’t think Josh is very savvy, when it comes to privacy and/or safety. And neither are the 70 people who put their phone number in. As of this writing, the latest sucker is Robyn Peete, she put her number on a web site for the entire world to see… some 20 minutes ago.
That same Robyn Peete, can also be found in another group that has the sole purpose of listing phone numbers. The Facebook group “New phone, please join” links to: “OLIVIAS PHONE BROKE AND SHE NEEDS NUMBERS PRETTY PLEASE”. Our friend Robyn put her number on that one at Christmas day of 2007. 76 people gave their phone number in that group! At least Robyn was smart enough not to list her school. But how hard can it be to get her address? All I have to do is dial the number she listed and make up some excuse as to why I need it. That’s called social engineering. I have at least 3 books sitting on the shelf that describe how hackers used to steal passwords that way from unsuspecting system administrators. Can your teenager be trusted not to fall for such a stunt? She has already freely given out her cell number!
I seriously wonder what these kids watch on TV. Obviously it is not the news (or even the commercials in between) or they would by now, know about identity theft. And that, is really the least of their problems. There are whole law-enforcement units specialized in catching online perpetrators, they sit in chat rooms all day to catch people trying to lure kids into having sex (the perps, not the cops). Maybe some of their money, or more of their money, needs to be put towards educating our youth that the internet is really not as friendly as it seems.
But it starts with us! We need to teach our kids to be careful. I mean, you told them them not to take candy from a stranger, right?