Facebook no safe haven

Facebook just turned 5 years old. But a week that should have been filled with reflection and good times was instead marred by a series of breaking news reports detailing sex scandals, phishing, and other malicious activity on the world's largest social network.

On Tuesday, February 3rd, it was reported that thousands of sex offenders (many of whom were previously booted from MySpace) were lurking on Facebook (they've since been removed). Ok so these might not have necessarily been MySpace 'refugees' in the sense that they migrated en masse from MySpace to Facebook - they likely maintain profiles on multiple social networks. But the fact remains that there were thousands of convicted sexual offenders on a social network that is generally perceived as safe. On Wednesday news broke of an elaborate and disturbing sex ring involving at least 31 high school students. An 18 year-old man named Anthony Stancl has allegedly been masquerading as high-school girls on Facebook, flirting with underaged male classmates and convincing them to send him nude photographs. He would then use the photographs to blackmail the boys into performing sexual acts with him, which he took pictures of using a cell phone. Stancl has been charged with 12 felony counts and up to 300 years of jail time. (In a somewhat bizarre twist, Facebook responded to news of the sex ring by stating that fewer than 1% of its 150 million users are affected by impersonation schemes. So, around 1.5 million people. Not exactly a confidence-inspiring statistic.)

The same day, Facebook updated its Terms of Service, rewording many of its rules to make them easier to understand and explicitly prohibiting some common transgressions, like including false information in profiles or creating fake accounts. But there was one far more timely addition: "If you are required to register as a sex offender in any jurisdiction, you may not use the Facebook Service." Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt says that sex offenders had previously been banned through a number of other more general statements in the Terms of Service, but that the company wanted to make it more explicit. On Friday, CNN reported on an increasing number of phishing attacks seen on Facebook, using a technique that was first heard about in January. After gaining access to compromised accounts, scammers are now using Facebook to ask the victims' "friends" for cash. The attacks can be particularly effective because the scammers can easily look up personal details of the people they're contacting.

The reality is that no matter what these social networks do, they'll never have the technology or the manpower to stop every threat. Which is why they need to stop pretending that they're safe. Facebook's (and MySpace's) goal is to connect as many people as possible, and the sad truth is that many people are very naive when it comes to online safety. These social networks need to step up their education and awareness efforts, perhaps even offering a 'safe mode' for users (even adults) who aren't adept at navigating the web's pitfalls. Because sharing is only fun until someone gets hurt.