Careless Social Networking.
By: Dr.Asmat Hayat ALVI.

Social Networking is really very popular among youngsters. Many Pakistani teens, youngsters and their parents don’t know there are countless risks of exposing too much on social networks such as Face book, MySpace and Twitter. It’s hoped more networks will come into existence and more & more people will join; with expansion of education and passage of time in Pakistani community at home and at abroad. It’s my personal observation; many teens, youngsters and their parents are unaware of risks of exposing on networks; especially when teens and youngsters make strangers friends. Most teens, youngsters and their parents don’t know how to block strangers to look into their personal data. I have seen; many teens and youngsters; sometimes old people giving out to mush their personal information on social networks. They have no idea; names, photos, videos, postal addresses, identity- card numbers, date-of-birth and phone-numbers can be misused by strangers. I am concerned that it’s really easy for an online predator to target such kind of innocent and ignorant people.

We cannot avoid social networks as these are beneficial, time savers and playing an important role in connecting people. If we take necessary pre-cautions and proper measures; social networks are good for us. 

We should be careful making strangers our friends. My best advice; never ever make a person your friend until you know personally.

Don’t put too much on social networks; until you know “How to block unknown persons to see your personal information.

Every Social Network provides necessary information, safety measures, precautions and time to time up-dates; study all necessary information and precautions carefully.  

“We must know; Do & Don’ts and what we can and cannot disclose online.

Last but not least, “I have written is not sufficient, “More should be done to teach our teens, youngsters and sometimes their parents as well.

Sep, 05, 2010.