Getting real about virtual reality

Mumbai student Adnan Patrawala8217;s murder by the friends he made on a social networking site has stunned and baffled all Facebook and Orkut members in India. As an active member on Facebook, I notice a lot of my contacts have changed their privacy settings since this teenager8217;s tragic death. E-mail addresses, contact details, and personal photographs have suddenly vanished and, these days, questions on our privacy online is a hot topic for members.

For the uninitiated, social networking sites help people share photographs and form groups between members who have common interests, and meet more people through existing friends. It8217;s a great, unobtrusive way to keep in touch with school and college friends or ex-colleagues who8217;ve moved away, which is how older members tend to use it. However, Facebook adds on a 100,000 new users every day, most of them teens, tweens and college students, who use networking sites to meet new people. Research suggests that 41 per cent of these will reveal personal information like date of birth, home town and phone number to a complete stranger. There is no doubt that sharing this information makes them vulnerable to cybercriminals or, as in Patrawala8217;s case, even cold-blooded murder.

In a society like ours, which is full of contradictions, it8217;s not always easy to meet people of the opposite sex. The Internet provides anonymity and even allows us to tweak the facts, occasionally. Matrimonial websites are popular tools for people seeking partners, and are perfectly acceptable. Contrarily, networking sites are more for breaking down barriers and opening up a whole new world to members, usually in a positive way.

However, young adults and pre-teens are at risk because they may lack the ability to figure out if they8217;re being manipulated by new friends. In Indian metros most kids studying in private schools have grown up with the Internet being an integral part of their lives and spend a lot of time on chat sites and those like Orkut and Facebook. Since banning the computer is not an option, parental control has to be exercised and the dangers that lurk in cyberspace must be explained to all young users.

My Space, another popular networking site has several thousand paedophiles registered on it. Kids need to be vigilant and understand that everything is not as it seems online. There8217;s a huge price to pay for not being wary of strangers, even if they only exist on your computer screen.