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Ozob’s Tale: Clowning Around with Kids and FacebookMarch 18, 2010In February I was invited to be part of a panel presentation at Darien High School in Darien, Connecticut. The school decided to take action and confront some issues related to prudent use of Facebook following a betrayal of trust among a small group of students that spilled over from a private, off campus affair into a public situation on school grounds. Luckily it was a relatively minor issue and the school wisely decided to use the situation as a teaching moment. Joining me on the panel were Darien High School Principal Dan Haron and Sergeant Joseph Kennedy, head of the Stamford Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. I had the privilege of speaking on a similar panel with Sgt. Kennedy in 2007 under similar circumstances. His department deals with a lot of situations that parents should hear more about, including: violent confrontations between kids sparked by cases of cyber-bullying; production and distribution of sexual material by and featuring minors – otherwise known as “sexting”; and chillingly, 10 – 15 cases per month of grooming by sexual predators who engage young people through various online channels, including social networking utilities, and attempt (sometimes successfully) to make contact with their intended victim.
These are just the cases he knows about.
Shortly after accepting the invitation, and given the title of the program – Don’t Text it, Sext it, or Post it on your Wall – I decided to conduct an experiment.
After talking with Sgt. Kennedy to make sure I wasn’t violating any laws, and to be on the record in case anyone got suspicious and contacted the police, I created a bogus Facebook account using the name Ozob DeClown and created a profile indicating that Mr. DeClown was a member of the Darien High School class of 2010.
My alma mater established, I began sending friend requests to my fellow classmates late one Saturday night. I set a few parameters for my activity. The only contact I would make with the students would be the initial friend request. No messages to anyone, nor responses should anyone send me a message. I endeavored to keep my activities constrained to times of the day when students would be less likely to be online – usually during the school day or after midnight. I didn’t want to risk someone attempting to establish a dialog with me via Facebook’s instant message feature.
I posted updates to my wall, but nothing that would be offensive or directed toward any individual student. If anyone accepted my invitation, I wouldn’t rummage around in their account apart from looking at their profile.
I allowed myself the leeway of looking at profiles because I wanted to identify and adopt local flavor for my own profile. Fan pages for local bands, sports teams, businesses, political and community issues would give me the chance to enrich the façade of my legitimacy.
Feeling a little creepy, I sent my first salvo of invitations and got ready for bed. I wondered how many friends – if any – I’d have by the time I awoke. I didn’t have to wait that long as I had one trailblazer in my network before shutting down for the night; a young man who not only eagerly accepted my friendship, but sent me a crude (though amicable) greeting.
Encouraged, I rose the next morning, logged in, and saw that I had three friends and one message from a young lady who asked, “Do I know you?” This one challenge would be the only time a student would question my identity, and to her further credit she never accepted. Others did, however, and as my network grew I sent more invitations based on Facebook’s suggestions. The more friends I had, the more people it suggested I invite because of the number of connections we had in common. One student even invited me to join his network.
All told I actively pursued the expansion of my Darien High School network for a period of 18 days out of 23. It would have been more, but I tweaked the wrong Facebook algorithm on two occasions and was barred from sending invitations on a few occasions due to overly aggressive activity. By the time the evening of the presentation came around, I managed to grow the number of students in my network to a grand total of 71, or four recruits for each day of effort.
During the presentation, which attracted about 200 people, each panelist addressed a number of key issues based on questions asked by the moderator and we encouraged both the students and parents present to educate themselves about the underlying issues that had implications on their safety and that of their reputations. About halfway through the presentation, I gave the signal and projected Ozob DeClown’s profile page on the screen and identified myself as Ozob. There was a murmur and some stirring in the audience. I noticed a number of students rise and make for the exits as I discussed the ease with which I was able to create my alter ego and the implications of my experiment.
I learned later that a number of my "friends" were present, and the big reveal sent them hurrying out to unfriend me and tell their friends that the now infamous clown was a hoax. Text messages were also flying with the news, according to one parent who noticed his son's name on the visible list of friends and decided to let him know.
During the Q&A portion of the presentation I was reminded of something that should be an ever-present consideration for anyone who calls themselves a privacy professional: the vast majority of people I encounter whenever I address an audience of regular folks are overwhelmingly ignorant of issues that we take for granted. The questions I was asked had nothing to do with privacy policies, state law, or industry regulation. Instead, they were focused on things like the ease of copying images from an online photo album or wall posting, the propagation of false information and the persistence of unflattering or embarrassing information, the ways someone might gain access to so-called private information, and how to monitor their child’s activities.
I am far from expert on the use of Facebook, but as clumsy as my personal use is, I and my fellow panelists were able to help many of those in attendance gain a better understanding and appreciation of the implications of conveying one’s life online. I believe we do the public a disservice when we confine our discussions within our community of experts and fail to consider how to reach out to a public that are being bombarded with information that is often exploitative of the fear and lack of understanding that persists among consumers.
There was agreement among the panelists when I said that the purpose of the session was not to demonize Facebook – I’m a fan of both the service and the company – but to help folks gain a greater appreciation for the risks and to help them use the service in a more enlightened manner. That’s why, when asked what is Facebook’s most important security feature, I pointed to my head and said “knowledge.”
Posted by Mike Spinney at 10:22 pmAdd Comment (3 comments) Comments
March 19, 2010 2:47pm Nancy
Great article Mike! Sometimes I realize that I need to listen to my gut instinct more as an adult... something that obviously not a lot of kids have or if they do they ignore.. save that one girl that asked if she knew you and then did not accept invite.
(Agreed - it's worth the effort) - August 20, 2010 7:15pm Kate Summers
Yes I think it's a very overlooked issue. It can take a while to get on top of it all, but that's the price one pays for peace of mind. |
hi Mike, great article and teachable moment. I agree with you--we spend too much time talking and agreeing with each other rather than sharing our perspective with the rest of the community. Kudos to you! best, janet