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The Illusion of Privacy
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 Facebook is full of posts lately about how Facebook has changed their privacy settings. The post includes instructions for you to go through a long drawn out process for each of your friends. It is accompanied by a threat of you being deleted from their friend list of you don't also comply. I bet I see two or three of these a day. If you have more than a hundred friends, the process can take you several hours to complete. The problem is that it doesn't make you any more private on facebook. It just keeps you from seeing your friend's facebook activity. Clare Washbrook of the IT security company Sophos says, "It's rubbish! It still doesn't stop your posts being broadcast. It's an illusion."
This illusion of privacy is like a Mardi Gras mask. If no one knows this is me, I don't have to worry about any consequences to my behavior.
Teenagers are especially vulnerable to this risk. The "responsibility" and "consequences" part of the brain isn't fully developed until the mid-twenties. I am sure you have heard a teenager say, "It won't happen to me." Add the illusion of privacy to a teenage brain and you have disaster ready to happen.
We have to make the following loud and clear:
 (McIlhaney, Jr., J. S., & Bush, F. M. (2008). Hooked. Chicago: Northfield Publishing.)
(Tooley, E. (2013, March 8). In the world but not of the world: Social media and the struggle to keep our children safe and pure. National Christian School Association Annual Conference. Oklahoma City, OK: Speaker's PowerPoint.)
(Washbrook, C. (2011, September 26). Facebook's ticker privacy scare, and what you should do about it. Retrieved from nakedsecurity by Sophos: http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/09/26/facebook-ticker-privacy-scare/)
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Social Media Presentation
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 Last week Eric returned for the second straight year to speak at the National Christian School Association Annual Conference.
Eric's presentation was
"In the world, but not of the world: Social media and the struggle to keep our children safe and pure."
The two PowerPoint slides and the information in the article above are from this presentation.
This presentation explains three ways teenagers are uniquely at risk in social media. It then looks at current studies showing the scope of the problem. The presentation concludes with several things parents, teachers, and youth workers can do to protect their children and teenagers.
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