Kylie Lang: Wake up to the dangers of social media before it’s too late

IT’S the most revolutionary communications tool in history. But we’re risking our very safety by not understanding the dangers, writes Kylie Lang.

• Status update you don’t want
• Facebook targets fragile teens
• Don’t post those selfies

TEENAGERS don’t talk on the phone any more. They Snapchat and use Messenger and other online platforms to conduct “conversations”.

What’s particularly troubling about this is not that they might struggle to string two sentences together when face-to-face with someone — vale the art of conversation — but that in communications online, potentially everyone is listening.

Yet kids — and many parents — don’t seem to get it, or can’t be bothered changing the way they use what has become the most convenient communication tool in history.

It’s as if they don’t want to believe that creeps, paedophiles or criminals are lurking in the ether.

Well, they are. They’re active too.

Queensland police have mentioned social media — particular Facebook and Tinder — in their official reports into at least 20 violent crimes this past year.

We’re talking murders, rapes, assaults, domestic violence and a missing-person case.

Teenagers are opening themselves to exploitation, or worse, via social media.

Victims, including children, can be easier to groom, with social media also acting as a tracking device on a person’s whereabouts, interests and activities.

Incredibly, many people think their profiles are private – or shared only between “friends” – however with default settings being “public” they are fair game for nefarious types.

Schools are at pains to point out the pitfalls of oversharing on social media, but when parents are setting examples that kids shouldn’t follow, then it’s difficult to effect change.

Social media can seem like harmless fun, posting fabulous holidays, new purchases, “checking in” at a local cafe, but given what the experts tell us about the easy access others have to our profiles, some judicious pruning wouldn’t hurt.

On Tuesday, TV personality Kelly Landry said social media was all about public profile and was “something you would want the public to believe”.

Giving evidence at a court hearing on an application for an apprehended violence order against her celebrity accountant husband Anthony Bell, Ms Landry tried to explain why certain Instagram posts had been edited.

Cyber bullying - Teenage girl being bullied by text message on her mobile phone. Generic picture

Social media is more than an account of our lives, as scripted or glammed up as we may try to make them appear. It provides access to all sorts of information that may be used for purposes other than those we intended.

As Sarah-Jane Peterschlingmann, from cloud hosting company ATech, says, people mistakenly expect that talking freely on social media is the same as talking on a phone call … “and that no one else would have access to that information, but it doesn’t always work out that way”.

Facebook has been outed for using algorithms to exploit Australians as young as 14, by targeting them when they are at their lowest or feeling insecure.

Through monitoring posts, photos and exchanges, a confidential Facebook document says the site can determine when young people feel everything from “stressed” and “defeated” to “stupid” and “useless” and target “moments when young people need a confidence boost”.

Facebook has admitted the practice is wrong but the fact that it can happen shows how intrusive social media can be, and unscrupulous in certain hands.

The sooner people wake up to this, the better.

Kylie Lang is an associate editor of The Courier-Mail