Why Bebo is in for a whirl of negative publicity
Published March 5th, 2006 in PR in IrelandDespite numerous invitations from friends, I still haven’t managed to get around to setting up my own Bebo page. However this weekend, I did actually manage to make it to the website in order to see what all the fuss was about. It didn’t take long though to see that Bebo is going to get some negative Irish media coverage when the press finally put two and two together, figure out that it is hugely popular and claim that it’s a tool for paedophiles to target unknowing teens.
What gives me such grounds for such a claim? Well, when the Irish version of your homepage contains both of the following, a link to all Irish schools and colleges and a guide to staying safe online, it’s not going to take long for a journalist to spot an angle and play upon the fears of parents. The same thing applies for anyone viewing the homepage from the UK, US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Now if the journalist really had his thinking cap on, he’d also see that Bebo has joined forces with Skype which means that users of the site have more ways to communicate, other than cyber stalking by viewing all the various photos in people’s profiles.
Of course, if a company was watching all this unfold, it could take advantage of the situation and position themselves very nicely at the expense of Bebo.
Technorati Tags: Bebo, Piaras Kelly, PR, Ireland
5 Responses to “Why Bebo is in for a whirl of negative publicity”
- 1 Pingback on Mar 23rd, 2006 at 4:12 am
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There are a few things about bebo that make it less safe than it could be.
1. Peeping toms: You can browse people profiles and leave no trace, which encourages voyeuristic/peeping tom behaviour. It would be much safer if images/photos of recent visitors to your homepage are left behind as a sort of automatic calling card. This would be better for everyone.
2. Home Addresses and Phone numbers: Bebo was borne from the idea that you could put up your contact details ie phone number and address and update them as needed. This would mean that your friends etc will always be able to get your latest contact info with ease and it would save you from having to email loads of people with new information whenever you changed it. However, in truth, users tend to connect to people they barely know and often don’t know at all as ‘friends’. Therefore, this sensitive information is released to the wider public for use or abuse or whatever. There is a good article/experiment here done by an Irish guy who pretended to be a American gal living in Meath and how he managed to get loads of sensitive info from naive users of bebo
http://www.adamsrants.com/category/adam-investigates/bebo/
3. Cyberstalkers and cyberbullies: After observing the success of facebook, bebo has recently moved into the college high school field to boost membership. This is an interesting one. Facebook users feel safer on facebook because their main site restrict users to the pool of people attending their own college. Therefore, everyone on the site is someone they are likely to bump into around campus which dampens down any inclinations some members might have to engage in ‘iffy’ behaviour or messaging. People with inclinations toward cyberstalking and cyberbullying have much to lose in their communites if they are exposed or confronted, whether by school/college authorities or their peer group.
However, bebo does not have these benefits because it began in the open community and does not in any way limit the pool of users to the people that exist in any given users real world on the ground community. Therefore, those with a tendency to engage in stalking or bullying have little discouragement and in reality a greatly enhanced opportunity to engage in such activities with impunity.
Make it safer!
I think they could quite easily make the online social networking thing far safer for users. However, it appears that such changes would conflict with the progress they have made as a business. Nevertheless, until they do they are most certainly at risk of watching their users migrate to a service that does incorporate these safety features.
To see these security features in operation, visit ducky.ie
I am a frequent user of Bebo and have been for a few months and I am in 100% agreement with your views. However, at the same time I do not think that it should be the sole responsibility of social networking sites to protect their young users. Society must relaise that young people are desperate to grow up and get attention form new boys/girls in order to make themselves feel popular and as a reuslt do not want to be protected when surfing online. As a result of this the majority of young users on Bebo have opted NOT to make their page private thus meaning that anyone can look at their page, pictures, friends etc.
Young people must be better educated on the use of these sites but not in a condescending school teacher way but in a grown up way which makes them feel respected.This way they will not feel the need to rebel as much.
Deborah Findlay
All publicity is good publicity.
you cannot view a persons profile on bebo if you are not their friend or they are not a member of your school college etc, this means that to view a persons profile you would have to add them first, meaning that you can keep a track of who is in your ‘friends’ list and who visits your profile.
You can block users so that they can not send you messages or visit your profile which means that it is safer due to blocking stalkers etc.
People getting hold of your sensitive information, the address etc information is only visible to friends (easily hacked i suppose) but if you enter this information then it is your own fault, I don’t know anybody who enters it, because its common sense not to leave your contact details available on the internet for the whole world to see.
It is very easy to prevent cyber stalkers on bebo, it just requires a bit of common sense from the user. Not much to ask for it.