Should Social Networks do more to Protect Children?

Three of the most popular social networking sites on the Internet are not doing enough to protect their child users, an independent expert audit has concluded.

The investigation by web usability consultants at User Vision, one of Europe’s leading independent user experience companies, found that Facebook, Bebo and MySpace all lacked targeted, clear information about online security for under 18s. People are more worried than ever before about identity theft and protecting children from predatory adults, yet social networking sites which rely on users giving out as many details about themselves as possible have never been more popular. Sites such as Facebook, Bebo and MySpace have become lucrative targets for advertisers.

The Government has also announced this week it is to take action to protect children from online material. It has appointed psychologist Dr Tanya Byron to lead a study into what action needs to be taken.

User Vision say all three sites have a “social and corporate responsibility” to replace at least one-in-50 views of the adverts that occupy highly visible spaces on social networking sites with a warning about online safety on the profiles of their members who are under 18.

Emma Kirk, strategic director of User Vision, said: “All three of these hugely popular social networking websites should be doing more to protect the young people using their sites. They have a social and corporate responsibility to do so. We were particularly concerned to find that the privacy policy and the information on staying safe were presented by two of the three sites in almost identical ways, whether we joined as adults or when a child signed-up.”

During the User Vision evaluation, one of the team signed up to MySpace giving only his name and city location yet almost every morning he found at least three emails from people he did not know asking to be his MySpace “friend”. Facebook offered the least effective privacy policy in terms of usability. Whether someone signed in as an adult, a college student or a child the terms of use and privacy policy were the same – all required the user to click a link to read more about privacy. There was no additional or different text for children that highlights how important this information is. MySpace was similar to Facebook in not giving any prominent security warnings to child users.

Emma Kirk said: “Children and young adults in their teens aren’t overly concerned with their information privacy. So the issue here may not be how these sites word their privacy policies but rather one of making privacy a concept that is accessible to teenagers. Individually targeted advertising is becoming an increasingly prevalent tactic on the web, so social networking sites could target their privacy advertising at their users they know to be under 18.

“At the end of the day, choice would still be with the user – but at least they would be better informed.”

Associated Link: User Vision: Usability and Accessibility design consultancy

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