Facebook Terror

The day started like any other day would; a young 14 year old known as "sparkles96" decided that she would join the social networking website Facebook. Only 40 seconds after joining Facebook she was bombarded with unpleasant sexual messages from a 36 year old man named Chris. Sadly this is just one in a number of recent internet attacks. As the internet grows in popularity so do the risks that it poses to young people all over the world.

A social networking site is a place online where you can chat with your friends. However because of the anonymity it allows, it has also lead to a rise in inappropriate communication between young people and adults. This shocking revelation highlights the need for parents to be more aware of what websites their child is using and who they are communicating with online.

Advice has been issued to parents to help them to protect their children:

Firstly, parents should help their children to understand that they should never give out personal information about themselves on social networking sites and should also explain to their children what information counts as personal. For example, e-mail addresses, mobile telephone numbers and house addresses. Additionally, children should not put any photographs or videos on their account. It can be very easy to forget that the internet is not a private space, and as a result, children sometimes join risky online chat with people that they do not know or that they think they know. Children should be reminded that they should never reply to texts or e-mails from people that they do not know. In fact, children should not even open anything from people they do not know. Furthermore, adults must make sure that children understand that some people online are not truthful and may lie about their age, name and description.

Ultimately, children must be confident that they can discuss any problems or concerns that they have over messages that they receive.

As a result of social networking, people who impersonate others should be reported for abuse and should be arrested for it, so please make sure you know who you are talking to online and check the facts.

Reported by Claire and Katie