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Facebook, MySpace and Bebo are in the firing line from Cyber Safety Committee deputy chair, Alex Hawke, for allowing Australian children younger than 13 to use their websites despite a 13+ age restriction.

Hawke said that unless social networking websites show more responsibility, Parliament may be forced to impose regulations so there are effective measures taken to protect children and deal with online bullying.

He told Computerworld Australia that the options it is considering would include age verification laws which require social networking websites to verify the age of their users.

There has also been the question of an internet ombudsman as an option for people to have the ability to raise these problems with a central portal, he said. Were also encouraging social networking sites to open offices in Australia or at least have an arm which can be dealt with by Australians as a way of preventing regulatory response.

According to Hawke, Facebook is the only company to have appointed a representative in Australia.

He added that Parliamentary committees have heard the farcical suggestions from social networking companies that there are no children under 13 years of age on their websites.

The problem is these social networking companies continue to say `were offshore and there is nothing you can do about it when were dealing with profoundly young children using these sites and these companies really need to engage better with regulators in Australia, he said.

Hawke, who is also a Coalition MP, said that the Coalitions Online Safety Working Group is actively looking at the proposed regulations.

If we are returned to government, we will put in place policy in this area, he said.

Computerworld Australia has contacted Facebook Australia and is awaiting comment.

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Social networking websites may face government regulation

Social networking is one of the most inclusive and accessible forms of media on the planet. People from any country can be linked with one another and directly communicate free of charge, writes Logan Park High School student Micaiah Derrett.

There is no doubt that this fairly recent technological development has the potential to be of great benefit to human rights' causes the world over, in terms of global awareness and support gathering.

My main concern regarding this strange and contemporary phenomenon of groups, personalities and fan pages is its potential to be abused or misused.

For the purposes of making this article relatable to the common reader, I am going to use the example of Joseph Kony, and the viral video calling for knowledge of his atrocious actions, that has recently swept the earth in a matter of days.

Joseph Kony is the leader of a rebel Ugandan guerrilla outfit known as the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army). He has had his arrest called for by the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands, and is accused of kidnapping Ugandan children and forcing them into his militia, or into the sex trade.

He is alleged to have forced some of these children to kill their own parents. A charity group called Invisible Children released a documentary style video to the world exposing Kony and the LRA to millions of people over Facebook, Youtube and Twitter.

In this video the leaders of Invisible Children call for the public to appeal to the government for United States military intervention in Uganda to assist the Ugandan army with new technologies and methods that are necessary in order to catch Kony.

At a glance, this seems like a just and entirely reasonable cause to people such as myself with relatively limited knowledge of the situation in Uganda. However, what scares me is the fact that in the video Invisible Children provide no references to their statistics concerning the numbers of people killed by the LRA.

As well as this lack of evidence concerning the main purpose of the video, it is also deceptively selective in terms of what information it uses to inform the viewer. There are multiple graphic images of the mutilated faces of the LRA's victims, but no mention of the injustices conducted by the Ugandan military whose support they condone. This seems to me to be a deliberate misuse of the power of social networking.

I will not hesitate in saying that Joseph Kony is a despicable human being, but I would never in my most wild and fantastical dreams consider supporting a military regime, monetarily or otherwise, that is responsible for the "wilful killing of citizens, torture and mistreatment and arbitrary detention..."-(www.hrw.org) such as the UPDF (Ugandan People's Defence Force).

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The dangers of social network-based political action

Dr. Vincent Lepore, who specializes in breast augmentation and tummy tuck in San Jose, discusses new AAFPRS survey results that reveal an increase in plastic surgery patients' reliance on social networking.

San Jose, California (PRWEB) March 15, 2012

"Social networking such as Facebook and Twitter can be highly valuable for personal and professional communications," Dr. Lepore says. "However, when it comes to health decisions, such as whether to have breast enlargement in San Jose, I recommend that my patients use a variety of reliable resources, including advice and recommendations from board-certified specialists.

The survey showed that 42 percent of patients get their information about facial plastic surgery from social media. More findings from the survey can be found at http://www.aafprs.org/media/stats_polls/m_stats.html.

That statistic makes it clear that patients are using social networking to an extent that concerns me," Dr. Lepore says.

His concerns echo those of Dr. Tom D. Wang, president of the AAFPRS, who said in an announcement about the survey results, "We are encouraged by the possibilities Facebook, Twitter and other social channels offer for prospective patients, but we urge all patients . . . to ensure information is from a reliable source.

Theres a great deal of misinformation out there, and the best way to circumvent that is to consult an AAFPRS physician who is qualified, experienced and trained in performing facial plastic procedures."

In addition to providing accurate information, a qualified plastic surgeon will make sure a prospective patient is making the decision for the right reasons, Dr. Lepore says.

"I always ask patients to describe their decision-making process for the desired procedure, such as a tummy tuck in San Jose, he says. If they say they decided on a procedure because they read a lot of Facebook posts from people who had it, I talk with them about what they really want for themselves. That way, I can make sure the patients are making informed decisions and have realistic expectations.

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Patients Use Social Networking for Decisions on Plastic Surgery

Chennai, March 14:

Projects getting delayed? Employee productivity down? Blame it on social-networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

Salary.com surveyed around 3,200 people visiting its site from February to March to find out which sites they visit the most.

Of the people who took the survey, 39 per cent said they spend a mere hour a week or less on non-work related items. That's followed by 29 per cent who spend up to two hours a week wasting time on the computer at work, and 21 per cent who waste up to five hours a week. Only 3 per cent of respondents spend 10 hours or more on personal tasks while at work in a given week.

It came as no surprise that Facebook was the most visited site. The social media behemoth with nearly 850 million users worldwide is visited by 41 per cent of respondents. That's followed closely by LinkedIn at 37 per cent, Yahoo! at 31 per cent, Google+ at 28 per cent and Amazon.com with 25 per cent. Twitter ranked near the bottom with a measly 8 per cent. And even though Pinterest, an online pinboard, has been garnering a lot of media attention lately, only 4 per cent of the respondents currently use the service, said the survey. The US-based Salary.com provides on-demand talent management, payroll and compensation solution to help companies and people manage pay and performance.

A number of Indian companies, too, restrict giving access to employees to sites like Facebook and LinkedIn. Leave alone access to such sites, there is no Internet connection in some of the software development centres.

Systems are wired for coding. It is very confidential work as banking systems, for global banks are involved. There is no Internet access in development centres for security reasons, bugs and other threats, said an official of a Chennai-based software company who did not wish to be identified.

So if employees are wasting time instead of working, it stands to reason they might be doing it because they are underpaid, right? Wrong.

Of the top six reasons why employees waste time at work, being underpaid ranked dead last at 18 per cent. Most employees 35 per cent said they waste time at work because they are not challenged enough. That was followed closely by the 34 per cent who claimed they waste time because their hours are too long, 32 per cent whose company gives them no incentive to work harder, and 30 per cent who are unsatisfied, said the survey.

raja@thehindu.co.in

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Blame social networking for falling employee productivity

A recent Pew Internet study on how people are addressing politics in their social media interactions revealed some interesting points.

First of all, the study revealed that 74% of Internet users identify themselves as liberal. 70% identified as moderate. And, 60% identified as conservative.

The research concentrated on those persons who identified themselves politically. Some of those people said that they had received material from their friends on social networking sites that was political in nature. Among those people, the following discoveries were made:

10% of SNS users have blocked, unfriended, or hidden someone on the site because that person posted too frequently about political subjects

9% of SNS users have blocked, unfriended, or hidden someone on the site because they posted something about politics or issues that they disagreed with or found offensive

8% of SNS users have blocked, unfriended, or hidden someone on the site because they argued about political issues on the site with the user or someone the user knows

5% of SNS users have blocked, unfriended, or hidden someone on the site because they posted something about politics that the user worried would offend other friends

4% of SNS users have blocked, unfriended, or hidden someone on the site because they disagreed with something the user posted about politics

82% of SNS users have not taken any steps to ignore or disconnect from someone whose views are different or have not encountered any views that would prompt such a move.

67% of those who blocked, unfriended, or hid someone on a social networking site did it to a distant friend or acquaintance

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Social Networking and Politics: How Friends Interact