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This survey found that 71% of the respondents have not set their profiles to private this is a higher proportion the researchers say, than that found either in the UK or US. Theysuggest this is a technical issue related to the complexities of the architecture of Bebo, themost popular social networking site in Ireland.A search of the literature (cited in Livingstone, 2007) shows certain trends in the way socialnetworking sites are used63:•Most contact on social networking sites is with people known to the user, or withwhom there is a shared interest•There is some evidence that while social networking sites are displacing certainforms of electronic communication such as emails and chat rooms, other forms ofcommunication are being developed (such as instant messaging) although directcontact is still preferred.•The distinction between online and offline communications becomes less clear astechnologies are increasingly incorporated into daily life.•For young people such as teenagers, social networking sites allow them to take ‘safe’risks or to use the risks as opportunities to test various adolescent behaviours.Livingstone (2007) interviewed a small number of British teenagers (16 teenagers aged 1316) in an ethnographic study, looking at their use of and behaviour within social networkingsites.64 She found that the technologies did not in fact sustain the needs and desires of theseteenagers.
They had a sophisticated gradation of friendship and this could not be supportedby the social networking sites they used, as these generally do not permit distinctions amonglevels of friendship or intimacy.61Hinduja, S. and J. Patchin, W. (in press) "Personal Information of Adolescents on theInternet: A Quantitative Content Analysis of MySpace", Journal of Adolescence, (2007)(doi.10.1016/j.adolescence.2007.05.004)62The Anchor Watch Your Space Survey: Survey of the Irish teenagers use of social networkingwebsites (2007) Anchor Youth Centre. http://www.watchyourspace.ie/article.aspx?id=781663Livingstone, S Taking risky opportunities in youthful content creation: teenagers’ use ofsocial networking sites for intimacy, privacy and self-expression (in press)64Livingstone, S.
(in press) Taking risky opportunities in youthful content creation on theinternet. New Media and Society.59Social NetworkingMesch and Talmud (2007) in Israel found that relationships developed offline are strongerthan those created online, again supporting the view that offline interactions are not seen byrespondents as replacements for actual relationships and friendships.65 Other research alsosuggests that these technologies are used to enable social relationships – and the entirevariety of devices available is used.66 Participants in Dwyer’s study (2007) in the USswitched between devices and communication systems as they wished. Similarly, Ellison etal (2007) show that social networking sites in the US are used to develop social relationshipsand may be a positive force from those who otherwise have weak ties with people on the sitethey used (in this case the site studied was Facebook).67As this report is concerned mainly with harm, this is not explored further here but it doesunderline the finding that users of social networking sites tend to communicate and interactpredominantly with those within their social circle, although the radius of that circle is ratherwider than it might be in an offline world.
In short, social networking sites have a definiteplace in the lexicon of social interaction by providing insights into, for example, one’s ownidentity through the actual presentation of self and through the way in which the network ofrelationships (of which such sites are one node) is developed:Each profile gains its meaning from the network to which it is connected and these linksprovide the basis for trust (Livingstone, 2007)Livingstone finds that teenagers present themselves in different ways, based on their ages.Younger participants present ‘a highly decorated, stylistically elaborate identity’ while olderparticipants aim to create ‘a notion of identity lived through authentic relationships withothers’ (Livingstone, 2007).
The creation of these identities, she argues, contains an elementof risk which public policy may try and manage.Boyd and Heer (2006) also conducted ethnographic studies on the profile segment of thesocial networking sites, Friendster.68 They found that the presentation of one’s self isdetermined and given structure by the identities of those with whom one is connected.The previously mentioned issues of verifiability and anonymity are studied by Boyd (2004).She describes the growth of ‘Fakester’, a false set of ‘friends’ collected on Friendster sites,which grew out of frustrations with the site’s technological difficulties.69 As a result it is oftenunclear who is and is not ‘real’ on Friendster, Boyd argues, which can lead to confusion (atits mildest).The value of social networking sites is clear, both as an entertainment tool but also as a wayof creating and giving oneself identity.
Importantly the identities and profiles presented aregenerally constrained by social expectations. However, teenagers will continue also topractice what Hope (2007) calls ‘boundary performance’ risk taking activities to push65Mesch, G. S. and I. Talmud (2007) "Similarity and the Quality of Online and Offline SocialRelationships among Adolescents in Israel", Journal of Research on Adolescence, 17 (2), pp.455-46666Dwyer, C. (2007) "Digital Relationships in the 'MySpace' Generation: Results from aQualitative Study".
in 40th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences(HICSS'07), Hawaii, http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/HICSS.2007.17667Ellison, N., C. Steinfield and C. Lampe (2007) "The Benefits of Facebook "Friends:" SocialCapital and College Students' Use of Online Social Network Sites", Journal of ComputerMediated Communication, 12 (4). http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/jcmc68Boyd, D. and J. Heer (2006) "Profiles as Conversation: Networked Identity andPerformance on Friendster".
in International Conference on System Sciences, Kauai,Hawaii,January 4-7, 2006, IEEE Computer Society69Boyd, D.. (2004) "Friendster and Publicly Articulated Social Networks." Conference onHuman Factors and Computing Systems (CHI 2004). Vienna: ACM, April 24-29, 2004.60Social Networkingnormative boundaries, something that is often publicly performed rather than secret, as partof the process of identity construction.70 Moreover, even when the potential misuse socialrules or norms is quite well-understood, it is not always acted upon.Social networking and privacyDefinitions of what it means to be private appear to be changed by social networking sites.Certainly teenagers in the Livingstone research (2007) keep much of their personalinformation and communication private and their interactions are determined by socialmores.
Yet they nonetheless share what might be thought of as ‘intimate’ information withmany hundreds of people that they know very casually, if at all. Barnes (2006) in a discursivearticle also refers to the potential exploitation of young people’s privacy which they may havegiven up, unwittingly71:“Currently social responses to privacy in social networks do not tend to deal with thepotential misuse of personal information. Instead the response is based on the protection ofchildren against predators, which is only one aspect of the privacy paradox. Similarly, a legalresponse has been the proposal of a bill to protect underage children.
The government andindustry responses tend to focus on the issue of predators and this focus distracts from theactual privacy issue — the social behavior of teenagers on the Internet and the use andmisuse of their private information.” (Barnes, 2006).72A recent survey from Get Safe Online found that“Over 10.8 million people across the UK are registered to a social networking site. Of these,one in four have posted confidential or personal information such as their phone number,address or email, on their online profile, making them vulnerable to identity fraud.
Theresearch also found that 13% of social networkers have posted information or photos ofother people online without their consent. This trend is strongest amongst younger users,with 27% of 18-24 year-olds admitting that they have posted information, photos of otherpeople without their consent online.”73A large scale online market opinion study (of nearly 2,500 adults) among potential employersand internet users in the UK conducted by YouGov (2007) found that: 15% of 18+ year oldssay they have posted "personal information" on MySpace, 7% on Facebook, 3% on Flickr,6% on YouTube , and 3% on Wikipedia•There is a definite effect of age with a greater proportion of 18-24 year oldshavingposted such information - 45% of 18-24 year olds say they have postedpersonal information on MySpace, 44% on Facebook and 17% on YouTube•19% of respondents have posted holiday pictures online•19% have a profile on a social or business social networking website70Hope, A.
(2007). Risk taking, boundary performance and intentional school internet'misuse'. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 28(1), 87-99.71Barnes, S. B. (2006) "A Privacy Paradox: Social Networking in the United States", FirstMonday, 11 (9). http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_9/barnes/index.html72Barnes, S.B. (2006) ibid, also expresses concern about marketers’ use of privateinformation teens make public on such sites: “Marketers who target teen consumers can usestated, personal information gathered from social networking sites for purposes other thanwhat users intend.
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