bebo and teenage privacy

thebaz

Like many teenagers my daughter has her own Bebo website -- we suspect her to be up to no good -- what do people , especially Bebo users themselves, think of there parents/ teachers reviewing there sites ? Are teenagers boasting what they are actually up to, are there freinds/enemies planting stuff ? are they exagerating to look cool ? are other kids creating false sites for someone the don't like ? hard to know what to believe , as the main users are young teenagers .

Time Magazine

Bebo = safer than the real world.

Bebo = crap.

And,
Bebo = frowned upon on boards.

fuzzywiggle

Exaggerating to look cool? Yes. I've seen some young teenagers that I know that have ''i love smoking,gettin locked, gettin high wit me mates'' as the main sentences on their bebo.

stevenmu

Teenagers are always up to no good, at least with bebo they're doing it in your house where you can keep some sort of an eye on them instead of off in a field somewhere

Ruu_Old

Plenty of exaggerating and plenty of rubbish. I closed mine a while ago, used it to keep in touch with friends from my old school and college but got bored and just got their emails.

secret_squirrel

Teenagers are always up to something their parents wouldnt approve of, its just the degree of disapproval that changes.

If I was you I would sit her down and explain the perils of posting personal info on the interweb.

Im sure with a little work you could track her site down on bebo - review it and make your own mind up on whether she is crossing the line.

Presumably she's using the family PC to post? There are many ways to find out how she is using that PC. It just depends on how you balance keeping her safe and still giving her some privacy.

I would think long and hard before doing this but I would guess that if you went to Bebo on the family computer and using her account (if you have named accounts on your pc) then it would probably be set up to log automatically into bebo.

If not a quick search of the history pages, the cookies or the browser cache would probably give you enough pointers.

Karoma

Ruu wrote:

Plenty of exaggerating and plenty of rubbish. I closed mine a while ago.

And then there was a little bit less.

Bebo, and the bahaviour demonstrated on it are symptomatic of society as a whole. It's what teenagers do. Your concern should extend as far as your child and not much further. If you take issue with it - raise your daughter well, monitor or restrict her access to the Internet as well as you can, and report anything dodgy to Bebo.


ed: You might also want to point her in the direction of threads relating to people getting in trouble for their Bebo profile (ex: Students getting in trouble for photo's of them drinking and smoking,etc. on school holidays being posted on a Bebo profile)

Red Alert

i wouldn't worry about what she's up to on bebo. they're probably all at it in her school.

Lisapeep

As others have said, create your own profile on Bebo and log on to see what she's up to! You'll see all the discussions she has with her friends so you'll know exectly what they're all up to, you'll see what her friends are really like and be able to monitor all of this whenever you want!

I don't think anything happens in Bebo that doesn't happen in the real world. If her friends are swearing on Bebo, they probably do it in school too. If they're talking about boys on Bebo, they're most likely talking about that stuff in school too. At least on Bebo you could monitor it!

smemon

bebo is harmless.

it's the same as when camera phones first came out, all that privacy rubbish and people wanting them banned :rolleyes:

it's technology, live with it. it makes life easier and also is a fun way of communicating with friends, maybe friends you've lost contact with.

the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, no question about that. in a year or two it'll have died down just like camera phones and parents will be picking holes in some other fad.

there is only 1 person who can put your privacy at risk - and that is yourself. the potential problem lies with the user, not with bebo.

cars are dangerous and can kill people if used in the wrong way, so do we ban them all? no, we educate drivers, train drivers and highlight dangers. cars won't be done away with and neither will the likes of bebo. people have to deal with it, not complain bout it and try to get it shut down.

easy_as_easy

oh my god.

dlofnep

bax wrote:

Like many teenagers my daughter has her own Bebo website -- we suspect her to be up to no good -- what do people , especially Bebo users themselves, think of there parents/ teachers reviewing there sites ? Are teenagers boasting what they are actually up to, are there freinds/enemies planting stuff ? are they exagerating to look cool ? are other kids creating false sites for someone the don't like ? hard to know what to believe , as the main users are young teenagers .

Teen Privacy? It's a public website - What they advertise on their has nothing to do with privacy, if it was they wouldn't have it on there.

Let your children live, it's just a website. They are obviously going to type on their like they'd type to their friends and not parents.

chump

Don't be looking at what your kids write on bebo would be my advice.

Diarmsquid

easy_as_easy wrote:

oh my god.

The OP is your Dad?

Cake Fiend

Make sure your kid knows that anyone in the world can see their page - some of these kids seem to think that it's only their mates that will be looking at their info.

I work in an internet café and I regularly see men in their thirties and forties looking up profiles of 14-year-old girls and boys. Who knows what they do with the info they find? Creeps the hell out of me, anyway. As far as I know a Bebo profile can be set up so that only people in the author's 'friend list' or whatever can view it - that might be a good start.

Setun

Bebo's grand, just a bunch of empty boasts tha's all. I'd be more worried about them spending too much time on it than outside enjoying 'teh fantastic weather'.

PlayGirl

i myself have a bebo page and find it is a great way to communitcate with friends, as it is easy and cheap.. i dont understand why school teachers look up the profiles of there students, it doesnt really have anything to do with them tbh.. and as for the OP, make sure that u do not complete invade your daughters privacy as if she finds out she will never trust you, and dont get too wound up about what she writes on it, its only words.. it doesnt mean she actually does all the things she says she does..

PrettyInPunk

PlayGirl wrote:

i myself have a bebo page and find it is a great way to communitcate with friends, as it is easy and cheap.. i dont understand why school teachers look up the profiles of there students, it doesnt really have anything to do with them tbh.. and as for the OP, make sure that u do not complete invade your daughters privacy as if she finds out she will never trust you, and dont get too wound up about what she writes on it, its only words.. it doesnt mean she actually does all the things she says she does..

i completely agree with you..also if you go on her bebo homepage and snoop around to find there is nothing and she finds out there could be war.personally i think its a bit of an invasion but if your worried or whatever go ahead.

Rb

Angry Banana wrote:

Bebo = safer than the real world.

Bebo = crap.

And,
Bebo = frowned upon on boards.

Great way to summarise it

OP: Your daughter is posting her information on a publicly available website, if you're worried and want to see whats going on then have a look at her profile. She's posted it, she's then accepted that anybody is able to read it (including you, teachers etc) and if she throws a fit over finding out you looked at it, get rid of her internet access until she grows up a bit.

R0ot

Bebo like so many other things will die eventually, boards will live forever though!

Gator

All bebo users should die!!!

thebaz

it's a bit like snooping in some ones diary, some bebo sites are private and some can be accessed via google -- i got a bit of shock very saucy, and lots of talk about booze -- can't watch her all the time , but hope that the talk is bravado -- it would really worry me if it was all true -- is Dublin teenage life really like that film 13 -- what a depressing thought.

Tusky

bax wrote:

is Dublin teenage life really like that film 13 -- what a depressing thought.

no, its not.

Adam

A bebo page is set to only be viewable by direct friends by default, it has to be changed by you to be completely public.

@ OP

I really wouldn't worry, Bebo changes nothing. Unless you had worries before now about your daughters lifestyle/friends/activities then there is no reason to start because she has a page on Bebo, its all a talked up farce! Being part of any online community leaves you open to attack, for example I caould be trolling/flaming you right now, because you're part of boards.ie, so should your wife monitor your activity?

As for teachers reviewing the sites, I think that's just sad. Its just an exploitation of an online community because they can't do a decent job within the school that they have to take it outside the school.

lostexpectation

if you teenage daughter is smoking drinking and having sex well its got nothing to do with bebo an you should be able to deal with it without reading bebo or her diary.

Sparky

Gator wrote:

All bebo users should die!!!

So cloud should die?

homah_7ft

To the OP. Have you looked at your child's page?

Sully

Bebo.. What can I say? I have my own Bebo account, amongst the majority of the rest of us Irish. Its not a teen thing - college students use it too you know.

Bebo do a good bit to help protect people, but I never thought they did enough. Iv had to contact a person in support directly to get an account closed down casue it was impersonating a girl I knew and making offensive / inappropriate comments. Thats a big part of Bebo now - impersonation. People sign up pretending to be someone else they know - and make a fool of themselves.

Also there are a lot of girls signing up with the sole purpose to go around hunting for fellas through the site - and use fake pics / descriptions to "wheel em in".

Just check the profile briefly now and again - the ones that are inappropriate are obvious.

Slutmonkey57b

fade_to_grey wrote:

As for teachers reviewing the sites, I think that's just sad. Its just an exploitation of an online community because they can't do a decent job within the school that they have to take it outside the school.

No it isn't it's an example of tachers being more responsible for the children in their care than the parents.

andrew163

bax wrote:

-- is Dublin teenage life really like that film 13 -- what a depressing thought.

If it was I'd have sealed myself in a time-release safe that won't open until I'm 20 a long time ago...i'm 18

That was a baaaaad film... and Dublin teenage life doesn't even enter the same realm as it...

Anyways, I have a bebo page. Use it for talking to people from my secondary school that I never see anymore. That and drawing stuff on the drawing brick thingys that it has.

IceHawk

If a Bebo page is public, it's fair game. A public page is in no way like a diary. People have to choose to make theirs public, and in my opinion, if they do, they are accepting that anyone will be able to see it. Go ahead and trawl through it. Even though most of the stuff is probably bravado and rumour, it will at least give you some idea of the attitudes of some of your daughter's friends. I wouldn't overreact to anything I see on there though.

Naked Lepper

I found out alot about my younest brother from his bebo site, I am 21 and he is 15. I now know that he drinks and smokes hash.
I know that nothing I say will stop him from doing either and I cant really talk because I was doing the same thing at his age.
All I could do is try and inform him of the pros and cons of it and let him know that its not all fun and games. As my dad is dead, its a good way for me - the oldest of 4 to keep an eye on my brothers and sister and make sure that they arent doing anything stupid etc.

I check their pages on a regular basis to see what theyre up to as I dont live at home.

Bebo = good.

scojones

Bebo got me pregnant :eek:

thebaz

lostexpectation wrote:

if you teenage daughter is smoking drinking and having sex well its got nothing to do with bebo an you should be able to deal with it without reading bebo or her diary.

I never said i blamed Bebo for whatever inappropriate behaviour she is involved in , i just hope she in not involved in things that she is not at an age to deal with -- such as alcohol -- she is 14 . Bebo is a way i can assess whether she is involved in such action, but does involve snooping . Ultimatly i am her farther and want whats best for , and avoid her getting involved in actions she is not ready to deal with . She is a frequent bebo user, and i believe i will now access her page , and view whats she up to, bearing in mind there will be some bravado , that may not be true.

carbonkid

Hey bebo is a website set up so anyone can view your profile so its not like listening in on her phone calls or reading her diary...but do you really wanna know what your daughter is up to (like any girl her age)? And if you do find something how are you going to tell her you found out?

whats her bebo? I wanna perve at her.

Er.. I mean .. damn.

Bebo got me pregnant

H4X!

thebaz

Deleted User wrote:

whats her bebo? I wanna perve at her.

Er.. I mean .. damn.



H4X!

your username is apt.
she is 14 - you sicko .

elivsvonchiaing

Just tried to register GarryGlitter as username using his d.o.b. This was just for a laugh - it's already taken.

It seems to me this sort of site should authenticate age: e.g. have a pop-up question that only teens could answer before the time it takes to google the answer - that would probably keep out most paedophiles; or maybe I'm just naive :eek:

bax

bax wrote:

your username is apt.
she is 14 - you sicko .

Someone cant take a joke I see.

And what does having a boney arse have anything to do with perving?

amp

bax wrote:

your username is apt.
she is 14 - you sicko .

Hi, welcome to the Cuckoos Nest. You're a moron.

Doomspell

1) nicely put amp...now for the real issue
2) If my parents looked at my bebo I'd got mental, simply because at this stage I've proven myself to be responsable. Sure 50% of my friends drink and smoke (I'm under 18) but that doesn't mean I do. But think about it, do you really want to know what she does with her guy friends, cause if I was my parents knew, they'd probable be disturbed. Sure shes you 'little girl' everyone can understand that but if you look at her page....you might regret to, or you might find a page with her music interests her friend list and a few comments. i personally have a bebo page and.....its grand, I simply use it to keep in touch with school friends that I don't see in the summer:D