Firm outlines tips for child safety on Bebo

01-11-2006

by Ciara O'Brien

Social networking site Bebo is causing major concerns for parents, and privacy should be top of the list.

So says a new survey by search engine Bigulo.com, which allows users to search social networking pages. The search engine only allows searches to be conducted on member profiles over the age of 18.

The survey, carried out by NUI Maynooth PhD scholars Des Traynor and Andrew Page, looked at some 2 million publicly viewable Bebo pages which had an Irish link, and found that more than a third were belonging to children aged between 13 and 17. Bebo claims to have in the region of 700,000 Irish registered users.

The social networking experts warned against children making their profiles publicly viewable, which could open them up to cyber stalking.

"This means, in effect, that a person can view a child's Bebo website with no accountability and virtually zero traceability whatsoever, and this has to worry parents," according to Des Traynor of Bigulo.com.

However, parents and Bebo users can do more to protect themselves. "A few simple steps can greatly increase your child's safety using Bebo; first and foremost you have to ask them to make their profile private," said Traynor

Private profiles can only be viewed by "friends" on Bebo, and contact is limited to this buddy list. However, there are ways around this. According to Traynor and Page, a potential attacker could create a profile pretending to be a 15 year old girl, fooling children into forming an online friendship.

"Secondly, warn your children about the dangers of adding 'friends' they don't know or haven't met in real life," said Traynor.

They also recommended trying to convince children to let parents know their passwords, or at least allow them to view their Bebo pages occasionally.

"Children and teenagers are usually protective of secrecy, and don't want their parents to know what is happening in their life, but if you can get them to show you their page even once a month, you'll be able to check that nothing inappropriate is happening on their page," said Traynor.

Although Bebo has been blamed in part for the rise in cyber attacks, Traynor pointed out that this is an undeserved reputation.

"Services such as Bebo have been around for years, Bebo is just the most popular in Ireland at the moment. The only solution to the problems posed by online interactions is to educate children properly on how best to protect themselves online," he said.

Bebo has taken a number of steps to help protect its users, including hiring a child protection officer and including cyber safety information on its webpage. It is also seeking to include a one-click link to the Gardai to report suspicious behaviour.