Children and their privacy on social network sites

According to the popularity of Facebook among students in the Netherlands, Facebook is also becoming very popular by children. 70 percent of the Dutch children between 9 and 12 year have an account on Facebook or Hyves. Due to the fact that more children use social network sites, these sites have to be private for the safety of the children. It is important that the profiles of children are only visible for the ‘friends’ of the child and not all other members of social network sites. Nowadays, children say that they know that they can change their settings, so that their profile is only visible for ‘friends’, but they do not want this. Therefore, the settings of the social network site of a child should be private automatically.

It is necessary that the profiles are automatically private and parents do also have to keep an eye on the social network sites of their children.

How many communication can there be?

Persistence pays, or maybe not?   

 
Egypt, 2011. Following the announcements on Facebook, by human right activists and other people who stand for a democratic Egypt, many people in the streets of Cairo began protesting against President Mubarak. Fierce battles against and between civilians arise, but also journalists are harassed. The Egyptians demand that Mubarak must step down immediately. But Mubarak thinks that he is running the country in a great way and says he will resign in September 2011 and not earlier. Of course this promise is not enough for the Egyptians, so they continue the protest. Millions of people are in the streets of Cairo to express their dissatisfaction towards the president. Mubarak uses propaganda against the Egyptians by stating that the Journalists and Western Countries are at the core of the rebellion (he really does not get it). The civilians protest even more and they do not believe the allegations from their President. Finally, it is February 10, and it seems that Mubarak intents to step down. Mubarak speaks live from his Royal Palace to the Egyptians, who are following him at the Tahir square. Many of them are excited because they feel that their demands will be met.  The protest of millions of people has had its effect and the president understands; he is finally in line with the population. He has to go; he knows that he is hated. Great news for the Egyptians! At 9:50 p.m. Dutch time, it is time, there he is. He looks sad and all the Egyptians think that this is the end of Mubarak as the President of Egypt. He starts his speech by talking about the casualties and that those who committed those crimes will suffer and pay for it. However this is something what no one wants to hear. The Egyptians want to hear only one thing after all those days in which they have expressed their displeasure with the President. And that is the following: “I will step down with immediate effect”. Mubarak continues his speech with a sad face which bodes well for the Egyptians but not for him (it seems that he does have the right communication skills). But again, his speech takes a turn; he says that he wants to change the constitution, and his functions will be taken over by the equally hated Suleiman. So, he still not realizes what the civilians want. The temper on the Tahir square turns; Egyptians are holding their shoes in the air to express their displeasure. Mubarak tries to calm the people and preserve his function as a President .Protests, battles, and casualties have occurred, but the most hated President of the moment has not understood the people and will continue as a President… So they lived happily ever after with a President who has learned nothing in the past 3 weeks.

Actually, this was the story; until February 11. You wouldn’t believe it, but at 5.00 p.m. Dutch time the breaking news aired; Mubarak has seen the light! He will officially step down. Hurray for the Egyptians! Persistence pays off! Not in the case of Mubarak by the way, he has left the country!

We Dutch people still live in the Stone Age when it comes to Social Media

How can it be that that the Dutch are so far behind with other countries on so many things? Hyves, we thought, was the next big thing and Facebook was not really interesting. It was more than enough to interact with your close friends or their friends through the use of Social Media. But now, while we were sitting here doing close to nothing for a few years, numbers tell us that suddenly we are all registering with Facebook. Facebook gives us the opportunity to be in touch with the world, instead of only our native country. In the past half year only, one million Dutch people have made a new Facebook account and by the looks of it, this rise will not give out yet!

But now; Twitter. While we are speaking, there are an estimated 200 million active Twitter accounts and of those only 191 thousand originate from the Netherlands. I hear you thinking; that is a small amount! But it is true! It gets even worse. We have 191 thousand accounts and only 9550 of them are owned by companies or other organizations. Yes you just read it in the right way; NINETHOUSANDFIVEHUNDREDANDFIFTY of the 884 thousand companies and organizations in our country use Twitter. All we do is cling to our safe little world. Please, do not ask us to be innovative on the area of Social Media. But I ask you, my dear fellow Dutchmen and women, do not behave so conservatively! When Social Media is used in the right way, it has a lot of opportunities. In the following little movie you can see 10 reasons why Social Media is not a choice but an absolute NECESSITY! 

Sources: 

Twirus

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