Facebook - any opinions?

[viscount17]

Harmless it may be to some, but I have a thing about info/pics etc freely given to one person being freely given to others without my authority, like pictures of my kids for example.

There is an issue concerning the photographing of children to the extent that many schools ban parents from photographing their own kids in school concerts in case they also photograph other children. (Remember the cases of the parents who had photographed their children 'topless' on a beach and were reported when they sent the films for developing.)
This was instigated partly by the PC crowd and partly as a result of the paedophile hysteria a few years ago.
Yet these same people seem more than happy to put photos of their kids on public display on facebook and similar sites.
Logical?

 

[Herbie]

Absolutely true Viscount, Im not a paranoid person, but I do believe in privacy on certain issues and I find it a bit much when your images or details get spread around innocently by the naive. If I showed a pic of my wife to you on the course, I would be pretty annoyed if you then took that pic from me and showed to every golfer at the club without my concent, no matter how innocently you did it. Most people wouldnt do this in real life, but so many think nothing of doing it on the internet.

 

[Cernunnos]

You can choose who you allow to see what on there. It is nowpossible to allow certain people tobe friends, but block them from whatever you'd rather they didn't see.

 

[Pedro_Wedgitos]

and you can lock your photos so only friends can see them.

 

[Herbie]

and you can lock your photos so only friends can see them.

That may be true, but how many of you invite a friend of a friend or family member? Does it prevent the invited from copying pics?(never used to) When I went on this site briefly, I found the same pics appear on anothers page, I saw the list of about 30 friends on my nieces page, my niece had pics of me and my family posted innocently on there without asking me and about 25 strangers(to me) able to have a good look at them, thats the point.

To tell you how invasive some of this access can be, I showed my niece that from one photo I could identify where her friend lived, the house and window in the pic, her interests, simply from the details in the pic, landmarks in the distance,other detail and things laying around inside the room and the caption. Its that simple.

Now it may all be completely innocent to many, but how many really know the people with access to their pictures and comments?? If I want strangers to see pics of me and mine, I will put them on OPEN site as I sometimes do, if you dont want strangers viewing your family, dont use facebook!

 

[theeaglehunter]

Now it may all be completely innocent to many, but how many really know the people with access to their pictures and comments?? If I want strangers to see pics of me and mine, I will put them on OPEN site as I sometimes do, if you dont want strangers viewing your family, dont use facebook!

Or alternatively don't put up pictures of people / places possibly vulnerable to some form of backlash from a weirdo who may have been able to see the pics? Only pictures of people in the facebook targeted age group of 18-30 who are less vulnerable.

In other words don't put up pictures of your children playing outside your house as you know the risk- I think at a guess the majority of pictures on facebook are of people in a 18-30 age bracket who have pictures of themselves on a night out which even in the hands of the most discerning weirdo is going to be difficult to cause a problem with. This is certainly where most of my pictures come from and what facebook was designed for, to be honest I don't know why anybody would post pictures of young family members in the first place as even if they want selected people to see them it would be just as easy to send an email. I never upload pictures anyway I just get tagged in ones others upload and I can untag myself as I choose But as long as you don't upload photos of your younger family members like you say, there is no reason to not use facebook.

 

[Herbie]

But the point is, it could be your niece or nephew innocently posting them on their page, where they have innocently invited 50 'facebook friends' into their fold.

 

[theeaglehunter]

But the point is, it could be your niece or nephew innocently posting them on their page, where they have innocently invited 50 'facebook friends' into their fold.

Good point- and this therefore beckons the question should their be an age limit on sites such as these to prevent such naivety? Or should parents better monitor what their children get up to on the internet: presumably your brother / sister or in laws. Whilst your niece or whatever may be doing it perfectly innocently a quick suggestion to remove them and not post such pictures should soon rectify the issue.

The whole facebook issue you first raised is no doubt more poignant in relation to the actions of minors, but they should no doubt be prevented from using such sites until they have reached a level of maturity where they understand the risks. If used by people around the 18-30 mark (or indeed older) to upload pictures there would be few issues. It is know doubt an issue with the user as opposed to the actual site / system which causes problems.

 

[viscount17]

Good point- and this therefore beckons the question should their be an age limit on sites such as these to prevent such naivety?

Drawback is that there is no upper or lower age limit on naivety just as there is no age limit on the absence of common sense.

 

[theeaglehunter]

Good point- and this therefore beckons the question should their be an age limit on sites such as these to prevent such naivety?

Drawback is that there is no upper or lower age limit on naivety just as there is no age limit on the absence of common sense.

Good point! 18 is however considered an age where people can make appropriate / considered decisions on most matters, so although you still get some 18 year olds who have as much common sense as tiger has shanks- at this age someone should surely be able to understand that putting pictures up of young children etc is not wise? Even if an older family member who uses the site has to notify them of their mistake. At 18 they should be able to rectify the situation and remember not to do it again, and if they don't have the mental capacity to adhere to this then their family are in trouble anyway to be honest

That said I suppose my argument is based around suggesting an age 18 limit which due to what you say about differing levels of maturity amongst people of the same age would mean sensible 17 year olds, for example, would have to miss out on the 'service' faceboook provides so this would be a pretty unfair ruling.

It seems pretty hopeless then...I guess the situation would be more easily solved if people just had a bit more common sense, but then again with some that's never going to happen.