If there was a competition for internet buzzword of the year, then this year’s winner would probably be ‘social networking’ that could be described as the use of a variety of tools to connect to other individuals or groups. Recently SN sites have concentrated on ‘rich media’ tools by encouraging users to share their own content online, including blogs, photos, videos, music and other digital files.

This raises worries about the dangers associated with sharing personal information, and online safety issues. Internet based SN sites are not new, but there has been an unprecedented response to them in the last year, with current figures for popular sites such as MySpace (93,800,857 registered members) and Bebo (22,000,000 registered members) rising daily. Alongside that increase have been several high-profile incidents relating to the safety of popular social networking sites. For example, a 14-year old girl is currently suing MySpace, alleging that she was sexually abused as the result of another user lying about his true identity. These incidents have raised questions regarding the measures that social networking sites take to protect users, specifically those who are under the age of 18.

This impacts directly on Internet Safety Zone’s (ISZ) core concern and that of all other EU safety awareness nodes – what are the potential dangers to children using SN sites? As a result staff at CRU have begun a comprehensive analysis of social networking sites and how they are used, with the aim of developing evidence-based practices that inform online safety programs.

To date, a major problem has been the gap between the basic perceptions of children and young people and adult/industry concerning SN and safety issues. In order to address this issue CRU is exploring several avenues including summer workshops for children and youth, summer training days aimed at local and national educators/trainers, fact-finding with leading industry, charity and government online safety practitioners.

ISZ and CRU are working towards helping children, young people and grownups to realise that when using social networking technologies, they are communicating in a public space. By identifying safety issues around social networking, ISZ continues to develop best practice in providing a one-stop-shop for internet safety advice.