www.saferinternet.org

Managing online identity in social networking sites

Karl Hopwood

26 September 2011

Reputation....

Gossip can unfairly stain aperson’s reputation; it often exists as a bundle of half-truths and incomplete tales.

What are they doing in there?

Good or “normal”…

“Social producing” Learning social rules Decorating profiles (self-

expression) Exploring identity Writing blogs Writing software code

Sharing/producing music Producing & editing

videos Discussing interests Social/political activism Keeping in touch with

friends long-term Risk assessment

What else are they doing in there?

Neutral or negative…

Seeking validationCompeting in a

popularity contestVenting Showing off

Embarrassing themselves

Pulling pranksGetting evenHarassing

Inability to manage, appreciate and understand risk....

No thought of consequence......

The technologies may change, but human nature will remain the same

‘How can we come to any harm when we are sitting at home, nothing really bad can happen’.

15 year old girl

The ‘Net effect’

How the Internet changes the equation...• Disinhibition: Lack of visual cues reduces empathy• Persistence & searchability: Net as permanent searchable

archive• Replicability: ability to copy and paste from anywhere, to

anywhere• Scalability: high potential visibility• Invisible audiences: you never know who’s watching• Blurring of public and private: boundaries not clear

Source: danah boyd: Taken out of Context, 2008

Think before you post....www.dubestemmer.no

Some adults will make asplit second decision based on what they see and young people may have to live with the consequences of that…

Use the privacy settings…

You can approve any photo or content you’ve been tagged in before it is visible via your profile – you need to enable this function as it is off by default.

Resist the temptation to gossip…

“Frape”

Take privacy seriously…

Top ten passwords 2011

1. password2. 1234563. 123456784. 12345. pussy6. 123457. dragon8. qwerty9. baseball10. football

• child’s name• +DOB• pet’s name• favourite pop singer• favourite celebrity• partner’s name• iloveyou

Explicitly teach these skillsRather than banning, we needto educate....It doesn’t need to be complicated....

Behaviour not technology….

• Researchers were:– “surprised by the extent to which students

appeared to lack even some of the most basic information literacy skills that we assumed they would have mastered in high school.”

7 FEBRUARY 2012

Connecting generations

Further information is available from www.saferinternetday.org

SID

Safer Internet Day – let’s work together

Discovering the digital world together…. safely!

www.saferinternet.org

Thank you!karl.hopwood@eun.org