Creating friendships with people from all over the world use to be an unrealistic view to most people. Now however, with just the click of a mouse, teenagers are able to communicate with teens from other countries. How is this possible? Networking sites such as MySpace and the recently popular Bebo site provide teens with the space to mingle and make virtual friends.
What exactly is Bebo?
Bebo claims to be “the next generation social networking site” providing services such as blogs, photo postings, profile pages and a recent addition of instant messaging and voice chats. Bebo has taken off well in Britain and had attracted 22 million subscribers by the year 2006 (Sands 2006). This teenage parallel universe however, is not without its share of problems.
Sourced from: www.webdevtwopointzero.com
The homepage of Bebo
The temptation of getting attention from others is irresistible to most teens. Schoolgirls post albums of themselves skimpily dressed in swimsuits and costumes, with their personal details made available for all to see. “Police have claimed more than 50,000 potential sexual predators are scouring the internet at any moment in time” (Sears 2006). The lack of safety features on Bebo against these predators has sparked concern among many parents. Their main question being: “who is reading the stuff on the site and are they genuine”? (Sands 2006).
The minimum age of having a Bebo account is 13. The site does not ask for proof of age however, allowing young children to become members. Bebo allows users to create a fictional life and post false information about themselves. This has led to several cases of rape such as the one involving Lee Costi, 21, who had sex with two girls aged 13 and 14 after meeting them in an online chatroom (Sands 2006).
Copyright infringement
Its a common issue with most online network sites and especially so with Bebo. The only safety measure on the site against photograph laundering is to block users from viewing your profile. Bebo has been quoted as saying “Do not post anything on your homepage unless you are 100% sure you would like to share it with the entire community”. Jonathan Bailey 2006, says this echoes the argument most “copyright foes” make which is: “If you post something to the Web, you should expect it to get stolen”. Instead of taking measures to protect users, Bebo turns to victim blaming.
Sourced from : www.rev2.org
This is an example of photo infringement. The original picture has been taken apart and used in various contexts.
The language used on Bebo is easy and often mirrors instant messaging. These enables users to scan the text and get the information on the site quickly, without actually having to read it word for word (Nielsen & Morkes 1997). This will attract users to return to the site, causing this online community to continuously expand.
In my own opinion, the problems with Bebo can be fixed with just some consideration on the part of Bebo’s Webmaster. If Bebo hopes to gain an edge over its competitor MySpace, addressing these issues would be the best way. Teens will continually communicate using these sites, so making it safe for use is essential for the users and Bebo itself.
References
1.Bailey, J 2006, Bebo.com: Victim Blaming, viewed 10 June 2008, <http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2006/05/17/bebocom-victim-blaming/>.
2. Nielsen, J & Morkes, J 1997, Concise, Scannable and Objective: How to Write for the Web, viewed 10 June 2008, <http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html>.
3. Sands, S 2006, ‘Dawn of the cyber mob?’, Mail Online, 3 July, viewed 10 June 2008, <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-393791/Dawn-cyber-mob.html>.
4. Sears, N 2006, ‘Paedophile warning over teen websites bebo and MySpace’, Mail Online, 3 July, viewed 10 June 2008, <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-393764/Paedophile-warning-teen-websites-bebo-MySpace.html>.
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