Dangers Of facebook

• Your personal information is being shared with third parties
• Social Networking Sites have proved to be a top-class hunting ground fro stalkers and paedophiles looking to groom children, because they are allowed to remain anonymous.
• Privacy settings revert to a less safe default mode after each redesign.
• Scammers are creating fake profiles 
• facebook ads may contain malware

Case Study

UK May 27, 2010- A pedophile postman used Facebook and Bebo to groom up to 1,000 children for sex.

After creating at least eight fake 'profiles', Michael Williams targeted youngsters he met on his postal routes, on school runs as a taxi driver, and in his role as secretary of a football club.

He dyed his hair different colors to hide his identity and pretended to be a young boy called 'James' and a teenage girl called 'Gorgeous Charlie' to meet children aged between 11 and 16.

Many victims were tricked into performing sex acts on a webcam but he convinced others to meet him in parks, on beaches and at his home, where he abused them.

Williams admitted to 27 charges at Truro Crown Court (UK), including grooming, sexual activity with a child and inciting children to engage in sexual activity.

But he asked for another 460 offenses to be taken into consideration – including voyeurism, sexual assault and child pornography.

Police have identified about 500 victims he groomed or abused but believe there could be up to 1,000 youngsters in total because hundreds are too scared to come forward.

Detectives described 28-year-old bisexual Williams – who kept newspaper cuttings about child killer Ian Huntley – as a 'predatory, manipulative and prolific offender'.

They praised the 'brave young people' who helped snare him but attacked Facebook, saying many sickening incidents could have been avoided if the social networking site had installed a 'panic button' which allows youngsters to alert authorities if they suspect they were being groomed.

Facebook had refused to install the function, despite public concerns following the conviction last year of a serial rapist who used the site to meet an unsuspecting teenage girl. But in an apparent U-turn this week, the site said it was working 'very closely' with the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (Ceop) center on the safety measure.

Detective Inspector Simon Snell said: 'Williams is a predatory pedophile who used the internet and his postal rounds to infiltrate the lives of his young victims and exploit them for his own sexual gratification.

The children who have been tricked into having sexual activity with this man are horrified and distraught. But some simple safety procedures could have stopped him.

A panic button is a visible deterrent which would provide reassurance to Facebook users. There is a real chance that some of Williams' victims would have pressed the panic button, which would have immediately informed Ceop, who would have then informed us.'

A spokesman for Facebook said the website was installing new security measures. He said: 'We cooperated with the police in this matter and disabled Michael Williams' profile when this came to light, while retaining data from the profile for any investigations.'

Between 2005 and 2009, Williams, of Penryn, Cornwall, pursued hundreds of children, signing up to Facebook, Bebo and MSN Messenger and posing as a youngster.

One victim, a 15-year-old girl, said: 'I hope he rots in prison. It is shocking what he has done.'
Williams has been remanded in custody for psychiatric reports and will be sentenced at a later date.

Inspirational Use of Facebook

• You will still be able to keep in touch with friends that you have not seen in a long time.
• It is easy to communicate with your friends that are overseas.
• You can give advice to people by the things that you post.
• Post quotes that may even inspire someone .
• When your friend is sad, you can cheer them up with a positive post

Interesting Facts about Facebook

• There are over 250 million registered users on Facebook of which 125 million login for atleast once almost daily. And on an average each of these 125 million users spend atleast 4 minutes on Facebook everyday (per user). This also makes Facebook one of the busiest websites in the world.
• Over 1 billion photos and 10 million videos are uploaded to Facebook each month. Images alone consume hard disk storage space as much as 25TB of storage space every week. This entire thing became so humongous that Facebook redesigned their image storage system.
• Facebook's Application Development Platform has turned many ideas into businesses and young people into entrpreneurs. Over 70% of Facebook users use applications made on the Facebook App Platform.
• Facebook promotes active discussion and sharing of thoughts between millions of users daily with the help of more than 45 million active user groups that exist on the site. Isn't this great?
•  Demographics: Almost One-Thirds of the total Facebook Population are school or college going. The age group that uses Facebook the most is 35 - 45 years.

Cyber Wellness Tips

• DON'T ever reveal your personal information. Eg. Mobile Number, Address, School etc.
• DON'T accept the request of someone you don't know.
• Set your privacy to 'Friends Only'
• DON'T add people that you don't know.
• DON'T post things that may allow a stranger to find you.