social networking

Facebook is loosening its controls on teenaged users. The social networking site says it will now allow the 13- to 17-year-old crowd to do most everything their older counterparts can, including sharing photos, updates, and comments with the general ... public. Teenagers will also be able to enable the 'Follow' feature, which allows friends and non-friends to track their Facebook activity. The changes also mean third parties, including advertisers, can track these young users' Facebook activity. Facebook says it has already initiated the change. But Facebook isn't dismissing all controls on its ... (view more)

Facebook says six million of its users have had their personal data exposed. The issue stems from a security bug that allowed email addresses and phone numbers to be easily accessed by a user's Facebook 'friends'. The problem is associated with ... Facebook's friend recommendation algorithm, which is designed to help users find old friends, family, and contacts and establish new relationships with them. Facebook uses uploaded personal data, including email addresses and contact lists, to find new 'friends'. This system can also be used to invite friends who are not yet Facebook members to join ... (view more)

In recent years online bullying has been a hot topic, with many teens and children reporting online bullying. In some cases, severe bullying has even pushed kids to suicide, garnering much attention from mainstream media. A new study, however, ... reveals that online bullying isn't as frequent as many fear. In fact, the report says it's less likely that kids will be bullied online than in real life. The study was conducted by the Pew Internet ... (view more)

Facebook has been criticized many times before for failing to protect the personal information of its hundreds of millions of users. But now the site faces a new challenge: explaining to users why their "News Feed" has been taken over by advertising ... for adult-mannered websites. As of late last week, Facebook users' home pages were bombarded with inappropriate photographs depicting extreme violence and supposed celebrities 'in the buff'. While situations like this are relatively rare, the scale of the recent attack has led Facebook to re-evaluate the safeguards it has in place. Facebook: ... (view more)

According to a new report, teens that spend considerable time using social networking sites are more likely to drink alcohol or smoke tobacco and marijuana. The study also provides some stunning statistics showing the extensive use of social ... networking amongst American teens. The report, which was produced by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) -- which is associated with Columbia University -- found that 70 per cent of teenagers between the ages of 12 and 17 spend at least some time on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter or another social networking site on an average day. ... (view more)

One of the primary reasons people buy a smartphone is for the ability to download all kinds of different mobile applications, otherwise known as "apps." However, a new study finds that many of these programs inevitably lead to the loss of personal ... data. The study comes to us from ViaForensics, a digital forensics and security firm. It tested 100 different applications found on both the Google Android and Apple iOS platforms, and gave each app a rating of either a pass [safe], warn [not-so-safe], or fail [dangerous]. (Source: betanews.com ) Failed Apps Neglect to Protect User ... (view more)

After being banned by the newly-formed Google+ social networking platform, hacking group Anonymous have apparently established their own social media hub. The group rose to infamy last year with in support of the controversial whistle-blower website ... WikiLeaks. (Source: google.com) Rejected Hackers Start AnonPlus It's reported that developers from Anonymous attempted to build a profile on Google+, the search giant's new social networking platform. Their profile was later suspended, which then lead the group to build their own, similar service, called AnonPlus. (Source: pcworld.com ) At the ... (view more)

Prepare to get your terrorism reports dished out via social networking sites very soon. The United States government says it's considering using Twitter and Facebook to announce changes in the terror-alert system, replacing the old color-coded ... ratings ranging from "Low" to "Guarded" all the way up to "High" and "Severe". Warning System Could Start This Month The report doesn't come to us from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), but instead the Associated Press, which says it recently learned DHS is considering April 27 as a start date for the new program. The Facebook and Twitter ... (view more)

A day after Facebook denied rumors that it would be shutting down permanently March 15, 2011, it appears social networking rival MySpace may actually be headed towards oblivion. The company recently announced it will lay off nearly half of its ... current workforce. The 2010 movie "The Social Network" chronicles Facebook's rise from dorm room novelty to global phenomenon. If you didn't know better, you'd think Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg started the whole social networking phenomenon. But before Facebook there was MySpace, which was drawing hundreds of thousands of members long before Zuckerberg ... (view more)