Facebook is not only popular with students but also with their parents. The reasons are varied. Some parents are truly curious about the fad and its attractions. Other parents are worried about their children and want to keep tabs on them via this website. I may not be a parent but I am a teacher. As such, I do see things from the latter's perspective.
If Facebook is merely used to play game applications and chat with existing friends, the harm is not so great, though the exception is when violent games like Mafia Wars become part of the students' realities. The danger lies where there is acceptance of friend requests from strangers, despite the fact that the strangers may be friends of the students' friends, or where their privacy settings are not edited such that malicious strangers are privy to their profiles. This is especially rampant in America and a movie was made on it. This girl went to a chat channel out of curiosity and almost fell prey to a paedophile, if not for her mother's intervention.
Another type of danger is where they click on third-party applications which may unknowingly contain computer viruses that can either wreck their computer systems, or capture their personal information without their permission and cause their accounts to be hacked into. These third-party applications may also conceal pornographic or unhealthy links.
Of course, I understand why there is irritation in some students when their posts or comments are misinterpreted. They are done out of fun but as a conservative person, I frown upon them. Ever since a friend of mine talked to me about it, I have not been so rigid about it.
The writer of a letter on this topic mentioned how his parents insult his friends. I really hope it was not done on Facebook itself. That would be a big taboo. At the same time, parents would rather keep tabs on their children online because there is a possibility that the children would lie should they be asked. Also, parents are worried about the friends their children make because they don't want their children to get hurt from having made the wrong ones. It is out of love that they show anxiety. As a teenager, I was irritated when my mother kept telling me that my best friend was not a good person. I felt she did not understand my best friend. However, her instincts were correct. I fell out with my best friend and it got so bad that the principal was called into the picture. Through it all, my mother was with me and she was kind enough not to say, "I told you so."
Still, I concur with his view that parents should educate their children about the dangers of the Internet prior to allowing them to use it. Perhaps it would be a good idea if the computer were to be placed in the living room where the parents can subtly supervise their children's Internet habits.
