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Archives > Volume 7 Issue 74 - December 11, 2009 Facebook changes privacy settings...Uh, about that status update on Facebook last night...you may want to make sure that information isn't available to more than just your friends. Washington Post story here 
The popular networking site introduced new privacy settings on Wednesday that are supposed to give its 350 million users more control over what information they share and whom they share it with. (See more on this story at vol7_iss73.) But public interest groups are concerned that Facebook's default settings for how far that information can travel are too broad. They also worry that the new program could open up a user's personal profile information to anyone on the Web unless instructed otherwise.
"Granular controls are great and we support them, but this very well could drive less privacy on Facebook," said Ari Schwartz, vice president of Center for Democracy and Technology. Beginning this week, Facebook members can customize every piece of data about them on the site. They can control who sees personal information such as age, name, gender and workplace; and status updates and photos. In some cases, they can restrict access to photos to just one or two people or allow basic profile information to go out to the entire Web. The move is seen by some analysts as Facebook's attempt to compete with Twitter, a micro-blogging network in which users can broadcast any 140-character messages to the entire Twitter user base. The messages, in turn, can be accessed by anyone on the Internet. "We're asking our 350 million users to think about privacy for the first time," said Tim Sparapani, Facebook's director of public policy. (Post Co. Chairman Donald E. Graham is on Facebook's board of directors.) "We're actually giving our users control over their data and asking every single one of them to go through the process of deciding how they want to share." All Facebook users will see a pop-up window that prompts them to adjust their settings or stick with their old settings. The site's recommended settings will be the default, and some of those recommendations don't sit well with public interest groups. For example, status updates that were formerly limited to a user's network of friends will now be recommended for friends of friends. The default for profile information - including a picture, gender and age - will now go out to the entire Web. While Facebook users will be able to choose their privacy settings, the problem is that most people don't take the time to do so and may simply stick with the defaults. Others may find the process confusing and may not understand how to adjust those settings. Facebook said about one in five users currently adjusts privacy settings. video story here Perhaps the best advice for Facebook users? Post with care. See eGuide/MySpace and Facebook for tips on safely using social networking sites. Study: Teens More Anxious, Depressed and Paranoid Than Ever... Mental illness may be a sign of the times, a new study suggests. ABC News story here 
According to researchers, psychological problems among teens have been on the rise since the 1930s, and Americans' obsession with material gains and success may be to blame.
"We have become a culture that focuses more on material things and less on relationships," said lead researcher Jean Twenge, author of "Generation Me" and an associate professor of psychology at San Diego State University. Twenge said this focus is affecting mental health on a societal level. The study, which has not yet been officially published, analyzes data on the mental health and personality of over 63,000 high school and college students between 1938 and 2007. Drawing on self-reports from widely used psychological surveys, including the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, researchers found that over time, more and more students are reporting symptoms of mental illness. Eight-five percent of college students today fall above the average mental illness "score" of students in the 1930s and 1940s. Students today report they feel significantly more isolated, misunderstood, and emotionally sensitive or unstable than in decades past. Teens were also more likely to be narcissistic, have low self-control, and express feelings of worry, sadness, and dissatisfaction with life. Although self-reported symptoms would not be enough to diagnose mental illness in these populations, the authors suggest that changes in students' responses over time suggest a real change in mental health levels. The authors are also quick to point out that increases in these symptoms may even be underestimated in recent years because of the increasing number of Americans on antidepressant and anti-anxiety medication. In more recent times, they write, "those answering the survey might have had their mental state stabilized already by drugs." A study out of Northwestern University released Monday offers further support to this claim: researchers found that patients on the antidepressant drug Paxil experienced changes in personality, such as being more outgoing. As a possible result, they may have been less likely to suffer from psychological problems or relapse into depression. For more information on depression, see eGuide/depression. Meanwhile, a new study published in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology found that children with symptoms of post-traumatic stress had poor function of the hippocampus, a part of the brain that stores and retrieves memories. CNN News story here 
This is the first study to use functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to look at the function of the hippocampus in youth with symptoms of post-traumatic stress, researchers said. The findings are in line with what has been previously found in adults.
The study was led by Dr. Victor Carrion, and the senior author was Dr. Allan Reiss, both at the Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research at Stanford University School of Medicine. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a condition that children and adults develop in response to a traumatic event. Intrusive memories, increased anxiety and emotional arousal are some of the symptoms, and typically they begin within three months of a traumatic event, according to the Mayo Clinic. Of youths who have experienced a traumatic event, 3 percent to 15 percent of girls and 1 percent to 6 percent of boys could get a PTSD diagnosis, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. In other news... 
With momentum building in Washington for all 50 U.S. states to outlaw text messaging behind the wheel, there is evidence that the key demographic targeted by such legislation, teen drivers, will not pay much attention. MSNBC story here At least one major study has found that, with mobile devices now central to their lives, young people often ignore laws against using cell phones or texting in the car. The number of text messages is up tenfold in the past three years and Americans sent an estimated 1 trillion in 2009. Some police agencies, while strongly in favor of such mandates, say it's tough for officers to enforce them. The California Highway Patrol has handed out nearly 163,000 tickets to drivers talking on hand-held phones since mid-2008. But it has issued only 1,400 texting citations since January in a state of 23 million drivers - not for lack of trying. "The handheld cell phone is relatively easy for us to spot, we can see when somebody has their phone up to their ear," CHP spokeswoman Fran Clader said. "But with the texting it's a little bit more of a challenge to catch them in the act, because we have to see it and if they are holding it down in their lap it's going to be harder for us to see." Already 19 states and the District of Columbia ban texting by all drivers, while 9 others prohibit it by young drivers. Recent studies indicate that texting drivers are 23 more times likely to be in an accident and those figures are worse than drunk driving. CNBC video story here
AOL, Google, and Yahoo are teaming up with New York's Attorney General to identify the sex offenders lurking on their social networking sites and take them offline. The online giants will search the millions of members in the databases of 13 different networking sites for the e-mail addresses linked to 8,100 sex offenders. ABC news story here "Every time a social network goes up and attracts young people you're also attracting those who would prey on young people," said New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. "It's one of the major challenges of law enforcement going forward." Social networking giants MySpace and Facebook have already purged 3,500 registered sex offenders from their rolls in cooperation with Cuomo's office. More than 40 percent of those registered sex offenders in New York with known e-mail addresses were on Facebook or MySpace - meaning many were violating their parole or probation, said Cuomo. The push to get the state's sex offenders offline was enabled by the state's recently enacted Electronic Securing and Targeting of Online Predators Act (e-STOP). Under e-STOP, convicted sex offenders are required to register their online addresses and screen names with the state. That information can be sent to social networking sites to make sure New York's convicted sex offenders are not violating the terms of their parole or probation that limit online interactions. The importance of this is underlined by a new British report from the European Online Grooming Project, which shows that the grooming process by offenders using the internet is much faster. The Telegraph news story here Rather than selecting one vulnerable child to abuse, some offenders also appear to target numerous young people until they find someone willing to meet them. They are increasingly using social networking sites such as MSN and Facebook and are becoming technologically-advanced, often operating in communities sharing indecent images between countries, according to the research conducted by NatCen (National Centre for Social Research), Kingston University and Royal Holloway, University of London - which was presented at the UK Council for Child Internet Safety's (UKCCIS) first annual summit.
More than 100 alleged child sex offenders, including teachers and caretakers, were arrested in child pornography raids across 19 countries, European police agency Europol said. Fox News story here The raids were the culmination of a two-year international effort to target child sex offenders on the Internet, Reuters reported. Europol identified 221 suspects and made 115 arrests. The operation identified five children in different countries, between the ages of 4 and 12, who were victims of a sexual crime. "Child sexual abuse is one of the most horrific crimes so I am extremely pleased in having these offenders identified and arrested," Reuters quoted Europol director Rob Wainwright from a statement. "But most of all I am glad to see that vulnerable children have been identified and saved from further harm." Some of those arrested had close contact with children in their professional lives, working as teachers or caretakers. Austrian authorities led the probe after finding an Internet service provider being used as a distribution channel for child porn. Raids took place in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, Reuters reported.
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