Bebo is dangerous

Hank_Scorpio

I was using bebo for contacting old school chums but turns out you can contact anyone who is registered with the site. All I had to do was register and I actually got a 12 year old girls email address from it. It's scary. From her profile I got her general locaton and school she goes to and she had a photo of herself on the site.

It's not funny, I emailed bebo and complained a week ago but never got an answer from them regarding this security matter. It's sick and not right.

I'm not happy with them although i do use their service i think it could be more secure.

It's not right and because i did not get a response from them regarding this i hope this post will get more people to email them and make a highlight of this situation. Hope people will follow me and make it a reality that this does not happen any more.

Kind regards,
Concerned bebo member

Lisapeep

I see they've added something new. When you're editing your profile they have a "warning" beside the box where you enter your name. It says that if you're under 21 you shouldn't enter your surname! Don't think this goes far enough to ease the worries you mention above though!

Hank_Scorpio

it's disgraceful in my book man

no need for it

people know there are sexual predators out there it's a fact and it's not right

bebo have to assume responsibility my only fear is that they will only implement security when something bad happens which is useless in my book cos something horrible would of happened by then

mloc

While I share your concerns, it must be pointed out that its not bebo's fault. many such forums exist. the resposibility lies, once again, with the parents of children. if they are concerned with it, use a website blocking program to block it from thier childrens computers.

let's be fair, how difficult is it for a 12 year old boy to access hard core porn on a PC? its literally childs play.

With greater penetration (sorry no pun intended... really!) of PC mass communication into the home this issue is only going to get worse. IRC was a few years ago... Bebo is today... in the future it could be anything. Online communities are developing at a phenomenal pace and it's more and more important for parents to be aware of these situations and to educate both themselves and their children of the dangers involved.

Age verification is almost impossible for a service like bebo. They cannot be held responsible for the actions of those who wish to abuse the services they provide.

Hank_Scorpio

children access hardcore porn sites at their will

paedophiles access child sites at will for sexual gratification.

How easy is it for a paedophile to go onto bebo, find a childs picture, school, age, area of living in etc...

Surely bebo know this. It's not that children are accessing adult sites more likely that paedophiles are using the site to find children that are vulnerable or could be vulnerable.

Websites have a duty to protect their users.

If you were a parent and your child was attacked by someone who found your child by an internet site you wouldn't be happy.

Just saying that there are securtity measures that can be placed now before it happens and reduce the risk of parents and CHILDREN being hurt.

You know it makes sense. Yes the parents have the repsonsibilty to protect their child but some don't do it and children are left unattended using the computer. This doesn not relieve bebo of any responsibility for what happens through contact from one person to another.

There has to be control

You could say that at a concert that a parent is responsible for their underage daughter/son at a concert but in reality it's the security there that's responsible. YOU KNOW IT MAKES SENSE

rainbow kirby

And what in the blue hell does this thread have to do with UCD?

mloc

Hank_Scorpio wrote:

Yes the parents have the repsonsibilty to protect their child but some don't do it and children are left unattended using the computer.

The internet is a large ungoverned space. Bebo, in many ways, has become a victim of its own popularity. However, it has no more responsibility than any other website for the actions of its users. Parents/Guardians have sole responsibility for childrens access to computers, and Bebo cannot be blamed for negligent parenting.

This doesn not relieve bebo of any responsibility for what happens through contact from one person to another.

If the parents don't do it, then they are liable. It's akin to blaming the postal service for letter bombs, or saying American Airlines destroyed the Twin Towers.

You could say that at a concert that a parent is responsible for their underage daughter/son at a concert but in reality it's the security there that's responsible.

Quite the contrary, if the child is underage and not meant to be there, then it's entirely the parents responsibility, unless the security knowingly admitted the child underage.

I would add however, that perhaps as a token gesture, bebo should introduce an age limit of 13 or older for the use of the site. However most kids will still find away around this (putting in a fake date or whatever). Back to square one.

edit:

rainbow kirby wrote:

And what in the blue hell does this thread have to do with UCD?

agreed. just couldn't let the op get away with letting parents off the hook again.

Hank_Scorpio

Not necessarily

Children may not want to contacted by older people or by people they don't know

so when when the person clicks on the profile maybe a message could be sent to the person who owns the profile indicating that said person is attempting to access their profile. The person owning the profile could then refuse or accept the person.

This email could be preceded by general rules at which the child should follow in engaging an unknow person to accessing their profile.

Internet is dangerous, regardless what you say you know i'm right.

mloc

Hank_Scorpio wrote:

regardless what you say you know i'm right.

yeah i don't think im going to bother trying to argue with you with an attitude like that.

Hank_Scorpio

erm i saw a thread in the ucd regarding bebo.

i thought i was putting this into the education section

i thought people should be aware of this

moderators feel free to move to appropriate section of site

Hank_Scorpio

a correct morale attitude?

what's there to argue about

there's a threat there and bebo are doing nothing about it

what you want a child to be raped before they change their ways?

i'm just concerned and if it's a bad attitude then i'm sorry

FunkyChicken

12 year olds shouldnt be on bebo!

Hank_Scorpio

my point exactly

but hey there they are showing pics of them selves, schools they're in, they're friends and general area they live in!!!

tintinr35

if your 12 you should not be on the internet sans parental supervision, im sorry but its too young!

Robbo

Hank_Scorpio wrote:

my point exactly

but hey there they are showing pics of them selves, schools they're in, they're friends and general area they live in!!!

It's simply a problem for the parents to see that their child is using the internet in a supervised manner. You can't try to shift the responsibilty onto Bebo because you can't be bothered to be a parent to your kids.

Pythia

You can make your profile only be viewable by people who are confirmed friends. That stops randomers from looking at it.

shroomfox

For God's sake, if you want to stretch it: boards.ie could be a forum for paedophiles to contact kids. You've got a private message function and people have blogs, and there's no way they could stop a twelve year old if they said they were older, could they?

It's not a nice state of affairs but blaming Bebo is ridiculous. There's no possible way they can protect minors any more than they do already, other than just shutting themselves down.

Hank_Scorpio

They could there's always a way

I just don't think it's fair on the parents. What if they go out of town for a few nights leaving the older brother in charge. Kid has friends over for a night, older brother goes out, kids go on bebo and start messing about. Eventually someone is going to get hurt.

All I'm saying at the moment there are no security measures in place on Bebo to stop older people contacting younger people.

Pythia

Hank_Scorpio wrote:

All I'm saying at the moment there are no security measures in place on Bebo to stop older people contacting younger people.

Yes there is. See my post above.

mloc

Hank_Scorpio wrote:

I just don't think it's fair on the parents. What if they go out of town for a few nights leaving the older brother in charge. Kid has friends over for a night, older brother goes out, kids go on bebo and start messing about. Eventually someone is going to get hurt.

Parents should have access blocking software in place in that case. And I have to agree with Pythia, there are options to block access to your page from those who are not direct friends.

shroomfox

Hank_Scorpio wrote:

They could there's always a way

And that is...?

Hank_Scorpio wrote:

I just don't think it's fair on the parents. What if they go out of town for a few nights leaving the older brother in charge. Kid has friends over for a night, older brother goes out, kids go on bebo and start messing about. Eventually someone is going to get hurt.

This is totally alarmist. Do you want me to list all the thousands upon thousands of scenarios where parents can't keep an eye on their kids? Do you want me to list the myriad of ways that children can be harmed, or can be subjected to explicit material or be approached by strangers? It would take days, and it wouldn't be limited to the communications developments of the past hundred years. If you're going to follow that kind of thing to its logical conclusion you'll end up banning anything which allows communication and wrapping your kids in straitjackets in the back room.

If a kid is determined enough to put their details in the public forum, they will. They might not understand the consequences, but it's up to the parents to make sure they do and to have security measures installed themselves. There is no other way, and if there is: suggest it. I see you wrote to Bebo complaining about it, but what kind of measure did you suggest? Criticism is all well and good, but unless it's constructive it's usually useless.

Sangre

Hank_Scorpio wrote:

I just don't think it's fair on the parents. What if they go out of town for a few nights leaving the older brother in charge. Kid has friends over for a night, older brother goes out, kids go on bebo and start messing about. Eventually someone is going to get hurt.

And the latest news is just in: The Bebo Disaster of 2006 deathtoll has reached an unprecedent 4,132 deaths...mainly children. It surely is a sad day for parents everywhere. Unconfirmed reports suggest that Bebo was originally setup my Al-Queda terrorists.

Robbo

Hank_Scorpio wrote:

They could there's always a way

You'd be talking about some pretty highly motivated paedophiles then. Kind of a robo-paedo. Must be some damn attractive children we're talking about here.

humbert

Hank_Scorpio wrote:

I was using bebo for contacting old school chums but turns out you can contact anyone who is registered with the site. All I had to do was register and I actually got a 12 year old girls email address from it. It's scary. From her profile I got her general locaton and school she goes to and she had a photo of herself on the site.

It's not funny, I emailed bebo and complained a week ago but never got an answer from them regarding this security matter. It's sick and not right.

I'm not happy with them although i do use their service i think it could be more secure.

It's not right and because i did not get a response from them regarding this i hope this post will get more people to email them and make a highlight of this situation. Hope people will follow me and make it a reality that this does not happen any more.

Kind regards,
Concerned bebo member

Actually bebo is the least of your worries, just think about primary schools, full of 12 year old girls and you know exactly where they are and what they look like. Quick ban primary schools!

blondie83

rainbow kirby wrote:

And what in the blue hell does this thread have to do with UCD?

I echo this - Hank there's relatively few 12-year olds on the UCD forum these days, you might have been better off posting this on the Junior Cert, Transition year or even USS forum if you want to really warn people.

tintinr35

Hank_Scorpio wrote:

They could there's always a way

I just don't think it's fair on the parents. What if they go out of town for a few nights leaving the older brother in charge. Kid has friends over for a night, older brother goes out, kids go on bebo and start messing about. Eventually someone is going to get hurt.

are u for real, come on its not a bag of crack, or a gun i think ur being very sensationalist!

shroomfox

Haha, reading over Hank's posts...I reckon he's taking the piss.

Nice work, man, very original.

mloc

Robbo wrote:

You'd be talking about some pretty highly motivated paedophiles then. Kind of a robo-paedo.

The ChildRape 5000. R2D2's seedy cousin.

Syth

Peados on the internet? I thought we sorted that out in the 1990s...

BTW, Hank_Scorpio, *plonk*

Chinafoot

Moved to Humanities.

Could make for an interesting discussion.

Blush_01

Pythia wrote:

Yes there is. See my post above.

While that's nice in theory, in practise the big thing on Bebo is to have more friends than anyone else, more page-views than anyone else etc. People congratulate each other on reaching "milestone" view numbers - 1,000 5,000 10,000 etc. The biggest thrill (and I use the word thrill very lightly) is the fact that you can compete with other people in a form of popularity contest for a lot of kids. They won't make their profiles private - it goes against why they signed up for Bebo in the first place. That's the sinister thing. It not only breeds recklessness with regard to personal safety - read the article in last sunday's Ireland on Sunday if you want the details. (I know it's a bit of a rag, my brother buys it and I love horoscopes so I spotted it while flicking through it.) A reporter deliberately set out in order to prove how easy it is to find out details about pre- and pubescent children. She chose a boy's name, a random photo from google, put in dodgy details to see if it would send up any red flags, joined three primary schools and one secondary school (some of which were all girl schools, and she had specified that she was male)and tried to join more but apparently you can only join four academic institutions - there are SOME regulations after all! She was bombarded with details from 12 and 13 year old girls with "sexy" in their usernames. One girl's listed interests were: shopping in BT2, going to the Wezz and dancing with sexy black men. I was appalled, if that even covers it, that red flags weren't popping up all over the place but hey, the place would have to be monitored and moderated for that, right?

BuffyBot

From her profile I got her general locaton and school she goes to and she had a photo of herself on the site.

Welcome to the Internet. Bebo is only one of millions of places this can happen.

However, there is line between the responsibility of the site and the responsibility of the parents here, which needs to be taken into account. Hysterical "OH MY GOD WONT SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN" attitudes certainly don't help.

As the site is based in the US, under 13's shouldn't be registering on sites like bebo anyway. You should mail them again, and ask them if they have got parental permission from this persons legal guardians as required under the FTC's COPPA regulations. That might wake them up a little..

Sangre

Blush_01 wrote:

She was bombarded with details from 12 and 13 year old girls with "sexy" in their usernames. One girl's listed interests were: shopping in BT2, going to the Wezz and dancing with sexy black men.

Racist.

MrSinn

Bebo is dangerous like a butterknife is dangerous,the people that use it are dangerous!

On a side note!Has anyone seen lynsey o connors profile oon bebo(girl who fell off cruiser in mexico)!Its hugely moving.Her profile on bebo has become a remembrance page.Its amazing to see all the comments from her friends.Some of them truly heartbreaking.

As another person said bebo isnt dangerous,its the person that uses it.Here you can see a positive attribute of bebo.Helping young people with bereavement.

Sleepy

The Internet is dangerous for kids?! OMG!

How is Bebo any more dangerous than Yahoo! Chat, Boards.ie, MySpace, Geocities or whatever?

Sure, they should be placing a minimum age of 18 for signups but what happens then? A huge surge in "18 year old" members. Kids may be naieve and stupid about what they'll put up in their profiles but they're not slow when it comes to technology.

Bottle_of_Smoke

You don't supervise your kids on the internet. Extremely invasive. And they'll find somewhere else you can't so why bother.

Instead you explain the dangers, don't patronise them. If they want to meet someone you don't forbid them, you say to go with a friend and meet in a busy area.

However Bebo's stalking potential does need to be reviewed. I found a girl I fancied when I was 17 with three clicks(a friend messaged me, one of his friends had said girl on his friends list.) Wasn't an accident I just knew who was friends with who. That's far too eay.

snickerpuss

If you don't want people to be able to click on you then just set your page to 'private' or whatever. And if you're really bothered....don't join.
Evidently if you're on bebo with a public page you musn't mind people looking at it.

Bottle_of_Smoke

snickerpuss wrote:

If you don't want people to be able to click on you then just set your page to 'private' or whatever. And if you're really bothered....don't join.
Evidently if you're on bebo with a public page you musn't mind people looking at it.

If that's the case then this thread really should never have been started. And I believe it is!

Mortmain

Hank_Scorpio wrote:

I was using bebo for contacting old school chums but turns out you can contact anyone who is registered with the site. All I had to do was register and I actually got a 12 year old girls email address from it. It's scary. From her profile I got her general locaton and school she goes to and she had a photo of herself on the site.

It's not funny, I emailed bebo and complained a week ago but never got an answer from them regarding this security matter. It's sick and not right.

I'm not happy with them although i do use their service i think it could be more secure.

It's not right and because i did not get a response from them regarding this i hope this post will get more people to email them and make a highlight of this situation. Hope people will follow me and make it a reality that this does not happen any more.

Kind regards,
Concerned bebo member

I reckon that it's akin to saying "science is dangerous" - its not the subject, it's the people. Bebo is only as dangerous as the people who use it. All internet users need to develop a sense of heightened awareness. Parents, if you don't think your kids are capable of exhibiting this - block them. Kids, use your heads - play with fire and get burned.

spudington16

MrSinn wrote:

Bebo is dangerous like a butterknife is dangerous,the people that use it are dangerous!

I'm in full agreement. In Bebo's defence, they have an privacy option a user can select, whereby only those who the user personally knows can view the user's homepage and access their details.

However, as with safe general internet usage amongst suseptible groups (eg young children, preteens), this is only effective if the parents play an active role, and monitor what their children are doing.

Jonny Arson

I'm repeating what most other people have been saying with regards to Bebo. It's on the internet, as we all know there is far far worse threats on the internet to children and adolescents. Yes it does have potential exposure to one's personal information and security etc. but if someone who has an account is responsible then nothing is likely to happen. Bebo wouldn't be overly to my personal tastes. I find it is immature and will probably be largely forgotten within 6 months time. Like what some other people have said it is a popularity contest, there may be some ''stalkers'' on it and I have seen people acting the asshole towards others on it but all of this in reality is similar to so much we see in everyday life and everything around us. If someone is being bullied or whatnot then they can make their profile private or they can simply not use the thing. Simple really.

Hank_Scorpio

A guy only moved school because of guys in his class putting up an internet site about him

Teenagers have killed themselves

It is just a way to get at them from home. At least when i got home from school all i had was peace. Nowaday it's emails and pms and websites. the child does not get a minutes peace.

mloc

Hank_Scorpio wrote:

It is just a way to get at them from home. At least when i got home from school all i had was peace. Nowaday it's emails and pms and websites. the child does not get a minutes peace.

And I suppose his PC is chasing him around forcing him to read his emails?

If you ask me its important that children get used to dealing with recieving unwanted information when thier young, and also get used to finding ways to relax away from thier pc. They'll need it in later life.

Hobbes

FunkyChicken wrote:

12 year olds shouldnt be on bebo!

She wasn't 12, she was 102 years old according to the profile. She just looks young for her age.

TBH, bebo isn't the problem. It just shows the problem up easier.

Best way to treat the internet is like dropping your kids off in the worst place in town at 9pm and saying you will be back to pick them up in the morning. Somehow because the child is sitting in the other room they are somehow safe.

The fact that whole site is just a clever way for Marketters to spam/collect information seems lost on some people.

Now if you will excuse I'm off to give some ex-presidents wife my bank details so she can give me some money.

zam

Personally I think the whole 'BEBO' thing is being catastrophised. I mean, it's the person who registers choice whether or not they want to be stalked, and how much information they want to put on their page. The thing is, everyone's getting so worried about bebo when infact myspace is alot worse, just nobody cares becuase D4s dont use myspace.

Anaiyela

mloc wrote:

While I share your concerns, it must be pointed out that its not bebo's fault. many such forums exist. the resposibility lies, once again, with the parents of children. if they are concerned with it, use a website blocking program to block it from thier childrens computers.

I agree. I use bebo and I find it great for keeping in touch with friends in other countries. It is up to parents to watch what their kids are doing on the internet, and ensure that they don't get into a situation where they are vulnerable to paedophiles

NicklesXXXXX

i dono y evry1 makes such a big deal outa bebo its jus a bita fun lik de only ppl dat r messin it up r de teachers hu r apparently lik making accounts 2 c wot wer up 2!lik how sad!:eek:

amp

NicklesXXXXX wrote:

i dono y evry1 makes such a big deal outa bebo its jus a bita fun lik de only ppl dat r messin it up r de teachers hu r apparently lik making accounts 2 c wot wer up 2!lik how sad!:eek:

What's even sadder is that despite having a full keyboard in front of you, you seem to think that the computer you are on is a mobile phone.

We speak english here. Do so or your lame ass txt speak will be banned.

SpitfireIV

I dont think bebo is 'dangerous', but it can be if you let it get to that stage, i.e. if you put on personal info, like your address, or private pics etc (which we all know is pretty stupid, even on secure sites) or start inviting people to your profile that you know nothing about.

Or then you have them eejits with there 'add me to your friends list!!!', 'Check out my profile!', these same people have about 500 friends, seems to be some sort of buzz for them to add as many people as possible, people whom they dont even know a thing about, so they are inviting trouble on themselves and have themselves to blame should things turn sour.

I'm on bebo and treat it like everyday life, I know who I'm dealing with, the only people on my profile are the ones I know and went to school with, no one else!! And I'm not one of these guys who roams through profiles looking for good looking girls to add to my profile either, they again could be inviting trouble! But above all a bit of common sence is needed.

CroppyBoy1798 (check out my pr.......:D

drdre

bebo was good before for contacting friends but now its crap and a waste of time.