By Marjorie Gorospe
INQUIRER.net
SOCIAL networking websites are now venues for people to widen their connections and to reconnect with friends. For some, social networks can help build self-esteem and even make extroverts out of introverts through pictures and blogs.
Social networks have given us the freedom to create our own network of friends. We can create our own profiles, post pictures and connect with friends that have been away or are elsewhere.
I am one of millions of people worldwide who enjoy the freedom given by social networks. During my college years, Friendster has been my way of updating friends about me. For the passed four years, I enjoyed using it until I found that there were three other false accounts in Friendster using my name.
I would not elaborate on what were written on these false accounts. But after finding this out, I immediately reported it to Friendster. There were several reporting options to choose from if someone was impersonating you. And I used them all. But to my dismay, nothing happened.
This recent incident brought back memories of people I had dealt with when I used to work in a show that helped abused women asking for help. What made my experience frustrating is that there are no laws against online bullying – now that I am a victim. The worse part is online victims like me feel very helpless from these Internet bullies.
In other countries, there have been recorded incidents of teenage suicide because of Internet bullies. Sadly, these suicides could have been prevented.
Because of this recent incident, I have become very curious about how social networks sites like Friendster work on complaints they get from users. I would like to believe that Friendster is not apathetic to complaints being sent to them.
Maybe Friendster can find a way to disallow anyone from grabbing photos from profiles of other people. One can apparently copy photos easily even if the profile has been set as “private.”
Social networks were created with the best intentions and it is so sad to see that some are using it to destroy or bully other people.
2 Feedbacks on "My nightmare with Friendster"
didang
A friend has been an injured party in Friendster too. An Account has been created with her name in it together with a guy she swore she doesn’t even have an intimate relationship with. She knew the guy as a plain acquaintance and has taken a casual pose with him in a camera taken by the guy’s friend. It was simply a “clean” picture.
Sad thing is that in the same account, there were still many more pictures with her face on it, with different guys whom she have posed with in some pictures. The account made it appear that she is such an easy catch evidenced with the different guys posted in her supposed account. It was done really with malice and intent to discredit her reputation. Ghastly captions were placed also.
Worst her pix were grabbed by a man claiming to be her boyfriend, when in truth and in fact, very much not true. Dreadful comments were sent to her.
This is a reality that the operators of Friendster must take a review. Friendster is really a superb tool in connecting with lost friends here and abroad but just like in many aspects of life, there are really those that do not know how to observe proper decorum in using it.
There are even innocent souls that became preys of ill-behaved users of Friendster. They have not restricted their profiles for they have no bad thoughts that their accounts will be “played upon”. They will just discover that there are a handful of offensive comments posted in their pictures. Before they will know it, many have seen it already. Thus, even if they will restrict the viewing of their profiles later on, damaged has been done and this is gruesome.
Santo Muerte
The act of grabbing photos from URLs is called “fuskering” & it can be done in many different ways & it can be done on most other websites aside from Friendster, like Photobucket or Myspace.
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