Facebook;
love it or loathe it? Come on, be honest, when you turn on your computer,
laptop, tablet or phone in a morning, what’s the first thing you log on to? I
bet its Facebook. I’m no different - how
we love to see the red alerts, which indicate that people have “liked” what we
have had to say, or better still, they made a comment about it, or shared it
with others. Best of all is the personal message – we all like to get those and
so much easier than email.
For
most of us, Facebook is a way to keep in touch with friends and family, and
when used appropriately, it’s a great social medium. For others like me, it’s a
fantastic platform to promote business or, in my case, my books. For me,
Facebook was an absolutely invaluable place to promote and share what was going
on in the process of getting published, and I am eternally grateful to all my friends, family and followers who
“re-shared” my posts and supported me in making my books successful.
My debut novel, the bestselling Known to Social Services
My recently released 2nd book
Like
everything however, there is a downside to Facebook; take the dozens and dozens of posts
that we plough through on a daily basis, often of no interest or particular value to us, but
which sidetrack us with their demands on our time and attention as we trawl through. I don't really need to know what the weather is doing on the other side of the world. Neither is it really necessary for me to watch the hundredth video of the day about an amusing
cat, dog, horse, hamster, parrot, elephant, piglet (Hands held up - I’m as
guilty as anyone for putting those on from time to time) Despite this, we all find ourselves spending what can amount to hours, staring
at the screen and then wondering where our day disappeared to!
Funny yes, but a bit to close to the truth for many of us!
I
am not a fan of the games available via Facebook, but I have friends who love
them. I don’t think though, that everyone realises that when you play a game
via Facebook, it redirects you to an unsecure site, which can make you
susceptible to being hacked. It can also become highly addictive. I have
several friends who closed down their Facebook account for this reason – they
became addicted to the games!
Look familiar?
Yes,
Facebook is here to stay, or so it would seem, and most of us, myself included,
will continue to enjoy what it has to offer. There is one trend however, which
I have noticed creeping in which disturbs me, and I say this with my social
worker’s head on. I have seen a few
posts lately, in which the person posting is asking people to re-post and
share. Often I have no idea who these
people are, but they get onto my page via friends re-posting. So why am I
disturbed? Let me explain.
The
last post of this nature concerned a little boy who looked approximately around
four years of age. There was a cute picture of said child and a suitably heart
rending story to go with it. It went something like this.
“Please
help - this little boy is missing and we need your help to locate him. If you
have seen this child, please send a me a pm and help reunite him with his family
who are missing him”
Yep,
that was it – so why the worry? Surely we should all rush to re-post that one,
right?
Sad stories tug at our heartstrings, but wait ..... what's the REAL story?
Well,
as I said, I had my social work head on, when I read it, which raised my
suspicions about the post. Why was the child not named? Why were we not told
where he had gone missing from or what he was wearing at the time? Why were the
circumstances of his so called “disappearance” not shared? Why was there
nothing on the news about him?
Having
worked as a child protection social worker, I am sadly all too familiar with
the necessity of removing children from their families for reasons of
safety. I am also all too aware of the
(understandable) lengths parents will go to, to try and track down their
children, and using social media is a favourite. My concern is, that the child
in the photograph may well have been a child who was removed from his family
for good reason. The child may well be in a foster placement, many miles from
his original home. By using Facebook and telling a story similar to the one
above, is a perfect way to glean information about the child’s potential
whereabouts.
I
have had to move children more than once, due to exactly this scenario. Parents
have managed to track down their child through Facebook, and believe me, it
does not end well for anyone, least of all the child.
I
have known foster carers who have had angry and hostile parents at their door
at all hours of the night, demanding that they hand over their child – the
child who they traced via social media. Not good.
Here is a link to an excellent article in the Guardian more than 5 years ago - yes, it was happening then;
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/may/23/birth-parents-stalk-adopted-facebook
Another
scenario is where a child is deemed to be safe with one parent but not the
other. Let’s say that the mother has been a victim of serious domestic violence
and the court has awarded her custody of the child, but denied the aggressor
any visiting rights. The mother flees to start a new life, but the aggrieved
and violent father traces the child using social media and in such a case, the
results can be truly catastrophic.
The
final scenario, which was of great concern, was a post about a beautiful young
woman who was reported to have been killed overseas. The person posting the
tale, said she was a close friend of the victims and accused the woman’s boyfriend of her murder. She asked for help in
tracking him down and pleased with us to re-share the post. Again, there was no possible way of knowing if it was even true. I
Googled the story and found no news reports on it whatsoever; no mention of the so called murdered victim and yet ........... the
story had over 150,000 shares!
Facebook
can be a wonderful way to maintain long distance relationships, share family
photos and much more. However, please accept this word of caution and be very
selective in what you share. Read the small print and ask yourself why this
post is on Facebook and what exactly is it asking; more importantly who is
asking and why?
Post Script
I am grateful to one of my social work colleagues for bringing her excellent blog to my attention. The same subject matter was discussed in this blog in June of this year, and can be read by following the link below.
http://barefootsocialwork.weebly.com/blog/the-dangers-of-social-media-for-missing-children
Freya
