Social Networking Sites
Social Networking Sites - focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and activities. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail, message boards, and instant messaging services.
Social networking sites are where teens are at already: In the Harris Interactive YouthQuery survey, it was found that “55% of online teens use social networks and 55% of create online profiles” (Pew Internet and American Life Project). The survey defines social networking sites as “online place where a user can create a profile and build a personal network that connects him or her to other users.” Adolescents also use the internet frequently as it is often available to them in their homes, at school, at community places such as a library, and may even have access to it at other friends’ residences or another family member’s residence. “48% of the teens who visit the social networking site visit daily, while 22% visit several times a day. Teens say social networking sites help them manage their friendships. 91% of all social networking teens say they use the sites to stay in touch with friends they see frequently, while 82% use the sites to stay in touch with friends they rarely see in person” (Pew Internet and American Life Project).
Benefits for using: Teens are already using these sites so it will be easy to have them join an online support group within a social networking site. These sites will also allow teens to feel someone will always be available to talk to and they may feel more comfortable having someone to talk to over the Internet than in person (Pew Internet and American Life Project). Social networking sites allow teens to learn more about their support group peers from the profiles they create and some of these settings can be very safe, and are already free. Facebook offers members to create groups that are “secret” (invisible to the public) which have strict settings where only the group creator can add people and are notify every time contributes something to the group’s message board. You can read more about this in the “creating a facebook group” section. In a study on social networking sites by the University on Minnesota (2008), researchers found students were sharing "creative original work like poetry and film and practicing safe and responsible use of information and technology. These websites offer tremendous education potential."
Concerns for using: There have been many problems and criticisms of social networking sites, especially in the last few years. If teens do not understand how to adjust privacy settings and what information they should not post to their profile, these sites can be extremely dangerous for teens. Make sure you are using the most secure features of a social networking site if you decide to go this route and make sure teens and their parents understand what safety precautions they should take and be aware of to protect themselves on these networks.
How much control does one have: A moderator can give advice for what information should and should not be shared but ultimately it is the parent’s responsibility to monitor their child’s actions of these networks. A moderator can have control in their secret group, like on facebook, and monitor the discussion and admission to the group, but teens can have private discussions outside of the group and that’s when the moderator will not have control. Although a secret group like facebook does not let you approve members before they can join and a posting before it is posted, it does notify you when a post is made and you do have the ability to delete posts or report any person who is inappropriate to the facebook organization to have their account deleted.
What are security and privacy concerns: Privacy can be a risk factor if the group name appears in the client’s profile so the name of the group and it’s content should either be hidden from the profile so only group members can see group content and members. Facebook’s secret groups offer some security. A group that is visible in a member’s profile will most likely violate confidentiality of the client’s usage of your agency, so social networking site groups should not be used unless they are invisible to everyone but group members.
What are legality concerns: Check with your agency what their policy is about communicating with adolescents over the Internet. Most agencies do not allow online contact so for you to be able to have support groups on social networking sites so policies may need to be updated with a protocol for what topics will be discussed. Always keep records of the conversations with clients either by saving emails or printing and saving them in a locked file at the office for documentation purposes.
Time management: Social Networking sites inform you when someone requests to join a group or add you as a friend, and they make a posting on the group’s message board… so checking your email periodically will manage the account for you.
My decision to use Facebook to create an online community support group for the prototype site was because of three things:
1. familiarity - I have been using facebook personally for the last four years and I feel safe in terms of my privacy to participate in the network as well as safe in terms of not having contact with people I do not want bothering me.
2. privacy settings - it is not all or nothing like on myspace, there are options of adjusting certain information to be public and private and I can make some people see only limited information of my profile.
3. secret group - group feature of facebook and the ability to make those groups secret from the profile seems to be a smart choice for a bereavement support provider because it leaves the group confidential to the rest of the Internet and allows a free space for convining for an online community support group.
What settings should I use to ensure privacy of the adolescent? Click here to see our suggestions for adjusting privacy on a facebook account.
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