By giving its users more privacy options this month, Facebook managers acknowledged the social network’s role in cyberbullying. Yet the changes don’t go far enough, a network security provider tells Campus Safety magazine.
As social media formats become increasingly sophisticated with peer-to-peer features, integrated chat and instant messaging, cyberbullying incidents at K-12 campuses are also on the rise. And the bullies often know how to circumvent a school’s Internet filter, said Ann Baty, marketing director with Deep Nines, which provides secure Internet gateway technology to K-12 districts.
“It’s a good first step,” Baty said about the Facebook privacy update. “When Facebook makes announcements like that, they obviously realize that security is a problem. It’s such a complicated line with what’s going on at school. It’s just so easy to access information, and that just exposes kids in such a huge way.”
In a Dec. 1 letter to its 350 million users, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the social media site would eliminate local networks and provide more tools for managing viewable content.
The changes come in the wake of cyberbullying incidents such as the “kick a ginger” page and the suicide of Hope Witsell, the Florida 13-year-old who was bullied on social media sites after she sexted a classmate.
“The plan we’ve come up with is to remove regional networks completely and create a simpler model for privacy control where you can set content to be available to only your friends, friends of your friends, or everyone,” Zuckerberg wrote.
In Witsell’s case, students repeatedly bullied the teenager after she sent a topless photo via text message to another student.
There are a bevy of privacy settings on Facebook students can use to tailor their profiles to avoid abusive commentary. AllFacebook.com provides 10 tips for increasing user privacy.
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