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Tuesday, 22 September 2009 07:25 | Written by AdministratorG |
By LeRae Haynes
Young people in the Williams Lake area have been targeted by a local man who has been charged with one count of ‘communicating via computer to lure a child under 16 years of age’ through Facebook, and 11 counts of ‘breach of recognizance.’
“In many instances, kids put together suggestive pictures of themselves and their friends on Facebook,” said Nancy Gale, Executive Director of the Child Development Centre “The big thing that I would tell kids is not to put personal information on Facebook. I would tell them that if they don’t know the person they’re talking to, don’t share any personal information---you’re putting yourself at risk for people who prey on vulnerable kids.”
Kathy Morse is the owner of Communication West and the author of the program ‘Facebook: Yes or No.’ She said that she has a young niece living in Williams Lake, and that dangers to people via the Internet aren’t limited to large cities. “It isn’t only NASA and the FBI whose private data bases can be accessed illegally,” she said. “Anyone can get into Facebook and it is simply not enough to use all their privacy settings.”
She offers her ‘Facebook: Yes or No’ program in various formants to parents and children as young as eight years old, to elementary school, high school, colleges student groups, businesses and corporations.
“Some of the main things I talk about with kids are friends versus virtual friends, how far your information can travel and who owns what you put on Facebook,” she explained. “We talk about the difference between a friend—someone you’ve put time, effort and work into as a friend—and just someone whose name you know. You really don’t have 657 ‘friends,’ and if you don’t really know the person, you can’t really trust them.
“I get the kids to tell me the answers, and they always come up with the right ones. It’s much more effective than a lecture,” she continued.
She said that it’s really important, no matter how old you are, to think carefully when answering a question on Facebook like, ‘What are you doing right now?’
“I’ve seen quite a few times when people say things like, ‘Rob and I are going to the cabin for the weekend.’ You need to think very carefully. How many people do you want knowing that your house will be empty for the weekend?” she said.
“The balance in all this, though, is that social networking is also a fabulous thing,” she concluded.” It’s not Facebook that’s the problem—it’s dealing with it judiciously.”
For more information about ‘Facebook: Yes or No’ visit www.communicationwest.com or phone 1-778-836-7831.
Last Updated (Tuesday, 22 September 2009 07:27)