Parents beware, Google Buzz can sting your kids!
Over the past few years, Web 2.0 has caused many of us to take a second look at privacy issues. Remember when the little yellow lock at the bottom of the screen meant that your privacy was being protected? Remember when the biggest threat to privacy was malware?
Social networks have become an open forum for people to share personal information between their networks of friends and contacts. On Facebook, I post regular status updates that speak to my mood or what I’m doing. Twitter allows me to push the PR of this blog and other relevant professional information. Foursquare allows me to check in and let people know where I phyically am. YouTube allows me to post videos of adventures with Sam (my dog). LinkedIn provides a place for me to list my entire professional history. I could go on and on, but you get the idea.
Furthermore, all of these sites make my network of friends visible to each other unless I choose otherwise. But that’s okay… because I have the choice to set my privacy settings to where I am comfortable. I’m an adult, and I understand what is appropriate to put out there and what isn’t. I also understand the risks involved with sharing my information.
Now, along comes Google Buzz, Google’s attempt at becoming a viable force in social media. And while Buzz can be another great way to connect, in my humble opinion, Google Buzz is a nightmare for the privacy and safety of our kids.
With Google Buzz, anyone can follow/friend anyone. I can search for people within the Google network to follow or I can follow anyone on my Gmail contacts without their approval. This is important for parents to know and understand the gravity of the issue. I recently signed into Gmail to a notification that I had a Google Buzz update. When I clicked on the notification, Buzz showed me a conversation between one of my relatives (who is under 13) and her friend. I was sort of stunned that I was able to view the string of communication. Thankfully, nothing out of line was said.
Why this is important? Parents, family, siblings… it’s important because if I can view this kid’s communication, so can ANYONE that chooses to follow her. Imagine your 12 or 13 year old child is being followed by a sicko that she wasn’t aware of. One day, she buzzes “heading to the Coral Springs Mall @ 2:30 today… come join me”, and at 2:30pm, Mr. child predator shows up too.
People, this isn’t a joke. It’s very serious stuff we’re talking about here! It’s okay for adults to freely give away their privacy, but it’s another for it to be taken from a child.
According to a recent LA Times article:
University of Maryland law professor Danielle Citron said Google is not legally required to confirm the ages of Buzz users, but should. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/feb/23/business/la-fi-google-privacy23-2010feb23
Also, in the same article, Google puts the onus of protecting a child’s privacy on the parents. While this is true… parents should be responsible, it’s also almost impossible for parents to ensure that every area of a child’s online activity is protected. Furthermore, why do politicians parade around Washington pushing their “moral” agenda and not do anything about social media’s serious risk to kids? The Government has mandated that if a child under 18 attempts to purchase a ticket for an R-rated movie, he or she must be accompanied by an adult. Why does the motion picture industry get regulated when social networking sites don’t?
Some sort of legislation needs to be created to protect our kids from online predators on social networks, but in the meanwhile… parents, please keep an eye on your kids’ online activity and make sure they understand the risks of publicly releasing personal information.
