Fine Print

Matt Hartley’s recent series regarding the perils of social networking had me thinking. If you read his article in Saturday’s Globe and Mail, he had several examples of the scary amount of personal information he was able to acquire based solely on posts he’d found on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace — information that members were willingly putting on their sites with seemingly no thought to who could see it.

We’re talking cellphone numbers, addresses, dates and times of parties. It was frightening, and another reason why I was hesitant to join Facebook in the first place. Mind you, I’m fairly certain I’m more cautious than high school kids when it comes to putting my personal information online.

Still, I’m always surprised when strangers post comments on my personal blog, and how quickly. I recently mentioned Marilyn Churley on my blog (as she’s running for election in my riding) and found a comment a few hours later from an individual working on Marilyn’s campaign.

On Saturday night I had dinner with a couple who have a young daughter, and the thought of online predators makes them shudder. The things parents have to worry about today in comparison to when I was young blows my mind! And although the couple said they would easily lay down the law with their children about Internet use, they also know that by the time their daughter is old enough to be using social networking sites, technology will have advanced to the point where they’ll be as ignorant as parents today when it comes to protecting her.

~ Stephanie Sayer, Account Coordinator, GCI Canada