Originally called thefacebook, Facebook was founded by former-Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg (while at Harvard) who ran it as one of his hobby projects with some financial help from Eduardo Saverin. Within months, Facebook and its core idea spread across the dorm rooms of Harvard where it was very well received. Soon enough, it was extended to Stanford and Yale where, like Harvard, it was widely endorsed.
Before he knew it, Mark Zuckerberg was joined by two other fellow Harvard-students – Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes – to help him grow the site to the next level. Only months later when it was officially a national student network phenomenon, Zuckerberg and Moskovitz dropped out of Harvard to pursue their dreams and run Facebook full time. In August 2005, thefacebook was officially called Facebook and the domain facebook.com was purchased for a reported $200,000.
Many of its users do not know the threats of Facebook. They only think that Facebook is a place to exchange ideas and make new friends. Little that they know that by using the real name on Facebook increases the chances of strangers with bad intention to find them easily. These Facebook users uses their real names, uploads their real pictures, updates their whereabouts and personal information. It is easy for strangers to track them down. They know where the victims live, where they normally hang out and where they go to school. These users can become a kidnapper's target. They will lure these people by adding them into their friends' list, make up a decent conversation and try to set a date where they can meet. Oprah Winfrey, the host of Oprah's talk revealed that social networking sites have become a playground for child's predator. The victims normally will be very depressed and tend to attempt suicide.
Moreover, these Facebook users consists of many types of people, some of them are actors, actresses, politicians, and other celebrities. Who does not have a Facebook account nowadays? Facebook is a trend and a lifestyle. Who does not follow the trend will be considered as lame. These famous people have their own die hard fans who are more than pleasing to know their idols' whereabouts which the idols already openly tell the world through their facebook status. Who can blame the fans being stalkers when the celebrities themselves revealed their exact locations? Awal Ashaari and Scha Al Yahya openly talks about their love life in twitter and these conversations will used by the medias to humiliate them. You can find in http://www,izyan,com or http://www.ohartis.com where they copy paste the conversation of those two to be featured in their gossip websites. Do not declare wars with the medias when you, yourself give them chances to embarrass you.
Besides that, many culprits post death threats through facebook. The recent one is Mohd Safuan Mohd Hilmi who posted in his facebook that he said to be willing to face the death penalty if he couldkill Nik Aziz who is the Kelantan Menteri Besar. Facebook is no longer a place where you can meet new people or long lost friends. There is also many cases of posting death threats through facebook around the world. This also can be considered as cyber bully. There is a case in Britain where a teen had been jailed for posted a death threat in her facebook towards her classmate which has been bullied by her for almost 4 years already. Facebook also become a place to spread rumors about the government. These rumors can harm the society and made them skeptical and doubt of government's capability to run this country.
Since the Internet can reach larger potential prospects, the scammers are getting smarter. There is an increase in scams where people's login information is collected through sites and then their accounts are accessed without permission to ask friends for money. It is said that if the users log in their facebook account everyday they will get RM 100 which is totally absurd. Who is so stupid to give away cash just by log in to facebook? Facebook gives its users freedom to create applications which lead to scam applications such as "Who's glancing through my profile?" and "Who's checking out my profile?”. The app itself is designed to look convincing enough, but none of the many ‘Continue’ buttons it offers will activate some under-the-counter profile checking functionality – they will just push you into another Facebook app earning the scammer advertising revenue in the process.
In a nutshell, the governments, parents and authorities must work hands in hands in curbing the menace. The government should monitors the information flow in the internet that can harm the society and imposes punishment for those who spread the rumors. Parents also should monitor their children especially when they are using the social networking sites and advise their children about the threats that the sites can bring. The authorities should hold campaigns to expose the dangers of social networking sites to the society.
By : Nurina Marini Bt Alias (2009265102)
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