By Sebastian Edassery, CFE, CHFI –
Last week Social Media was abuzz with a lot of fake news content being passed around, without batting an eyelid! Well, it did cause unwanted consternation. Totally uncalled for.
One such content that did the rounds on Whatsapp was that of Pope Francis having resigned. But the unfortunate part was that social media users didn’t realize that the video that was aired years ago on The Onion was a satirical news website that publishes satire, comedy and fake news.
Another video was that of Pope Saint John Paul II’s non-corrupted body being carried in procession into a chapel somewhere. This was also fake. Pope John Paul II’s mortal remains are in St Peter’s Basilica and hasn’t left the premises.
Early last year, recognising this dangerous trend, Our Holy Father Pope Francis went to great lengths urging users of Social Media to be responsible on Social Media. He advised them to build bridges instead of putting up walls. In his recent message while blessing a new Argentinian Radio Station, His Holiness said, “We all have a shared responsibility a deeper meaning while using social media platforms.”
So next time, you hit that button, take a good look at whether content is authentic, friend request is genuine, the Whatsapp message is from a credible source, etc.
Also read insighful ICM articles on the same topic:
ICM Busts Fake Forward of St. Anthony
The 10 Commandments for Responsible Use of Social Media
Countering “fake news” with the Good News
Why Do You look For The Living Among The Dead? #fakenews
As users of Social Media such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Google+, etc; we have a similar responsibility by not adding to the mindless clutter. “It is not technology which determines whether or not communication is authentic, but rather the human heart and our capacity to use wisely the means at our disposal,” the Pope offered the sage wisdom. This article explores the role of using Social Media in our lives as Indian Catholic Parents, and the care we must exercise when our children are on Social Media.
Social media, also referred to as “friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend sites”, or social networking sites draws it origin from traditional social networks that helped people connect to others, through referrals or known circles. The main purpose of these media being socializing, you will find on the Net, a host of such sites and services in various flavors and ‘avatars’, good and not so good, going side by side. These help users establish relationship based on different ideology or interests. It is a limitless enterprise surpassing boundary of class, clan, creed, caste or region and allow users post photos, video clips or information and offer some type of live or offline communication mechanisms like, forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, email, instant messenger etc.
Children and Social Media
Most Indian schools today use online bulletin boards or blogs to keep updating their students, teachers and parents and encourage students to integrate the same to academic and co-curricular activities. In addition to increasing their online visibility and connecting to new friendship circles, most children use social media as an efficient means of collaboration with peers and guides. It helps students to stay in touch, updated and focused on important issues, overcoming barriers of time and distance.
For & Against
While Social media can help enhance online visibility and act as a very effective tool for collaborations, it could also be a source of trouble, which is getting increasingly common off late. Irrespective of such difficulties, it is a general consideration for the young and literate to have an online profile. Be it politicians, film stars, athletes or even many common men – being a part of the social media seems to be the latest fad even if it courts controversies, at times.
One of the most disturbing facts about social media is the presence of predators and criminals, who flock and misuse social media and anonymously identify, track, locate and lure potential victims. Most of them, using simple hacking scripts bypass so called “security measures”. They operate in a cleverly masked manner and reach kids in chat rooms, blogs, email and instant messaging channels. Kids by nature are unsuspecting, unaware of hazards, full of vulnerabilities and afraid of reporting abuses. Criminals give their potential victims enough attention and care that they might not be getting from anywhere, show conviviality and present themselves as respectable role models. They will know all contemporary interests of children – music, movies, chat acronyms, curriculum and other topics of interests and attempt forming a bond in common. They will give a lot of their time and energy for building a relationship with the aim of getting that child out of the safety and security of their homes for various purposes ranging from pornography and prostitution to organized crimes.
Security Implications, Ethical and Legal Issues
Social media encourages to provide a certain amount of personal information. When deciding how much information to reveal, children may not exercise enough caution as they would when meeting someone in person. This is because:
- internet provide them a sense of anonymity
- there is a lack of physical interaction that gives a false sense of security
- they tailor the information for their friends to read, forgetting predators and criminals too can
- they want to offer insights to impress potential friends or associates
While most users of social media may not be a threat, criminals and pedophiles often use information posted to research and identify potential targets. With details posted like location, age, gender, hobbies, interests, friendships, comments, photos, videos etc., criminals impersonate and convince their targets to part with important information or doing an act that could be dangerous. Probably the most important challenge about social media is the permanence of information posted. Some of these, at times posted out of ignorance or without application of mind, might return to haunt and could become a source of embarrassment and trouble at a later stage of life.
How can you protect yourself and your wards?
Proverbs 18:13 says, “He who answers before listening – that is his folly and his shame.” Many a time we are quick to react and respond in the digital world of Social Media. Kindly go through the following guidelines which I suggest based on my experience:
- If it is on the Net, it is Not Private – Control personal information posted online. Do not post sensitive information. Ensure that information posted is not more than you would be comfortable sharing with your worst enemies. After all, for whom are you posting that information?
- Information you post can’t be taken back. Even if you chose to close your account, your posts, comments etc will remains on the accounts/ computers of other people.
- Be wary of strangers – The internet makes it easy for people to misrepresent their identities and motives. Consider limiting the people who are allowed to contact you on these sites. Remember to introduce the concept of “don’t talk to strangers’ to your wards.
- Be skeptical – Don’t believe everything you read online. People may post false or misleading information. Take appropriate precautions, before taking any information on its face value. There are occasions even a trusted account could be spoofed, and it will appear so convincing to doubt.
- You are accountable for your posts – do not forward messages that can have impact on social order and security. Spreading rumors or even facts that can incite violence or disorder are punishable by law.
- You are accountable for others posts – YES, if you are administering any social groups you are accountable for ensuring rule of posts that conform to reasonable security practices under Information Technology Act. Do a search on Google for “WhatsApp Administrators arrested” and you will find a lot of them in the recent past.
- Evaluate your settings – Every site has a lot of privacy settings. Modify and customize default settings to restrict access to your profile. Even if you customize and restrict access to your profiles or blogs to only certain people, there is a risk that even this private information could be exposed, so don’t post anything that you wouldn’t want the public to see.
- Use strong passwords – Protect your account with passwords that cannot easily be guessed. If your password is compromised, someone else may be able to access your account and pretend to be you. A strong pass word is:
- Of at least eight to 12 characters
- have a combination of alphabets, numerals and special characters
- not related to your personal or biographical information
- Use and maintain anti-virus software – Anti-virus software recognizes most known viruses and protects your computer against them, so you may be able to detect and remove the virus before it can do any damage. Because attackers are continually writing new viruses, it is important to keep your definitions up to date.
- Make it habit NOT to click links- Even if a mail is from a trusted source it a good habit not to click links indiscriminately. You must exercise discretion and care while clicking any hyper link on the net.
- Report instances of misuses and abuses – It may sound embarrassing for many to let others know of their follies and falling into traps of criminals. For the safety as a whole, one should report abuses. Otherwise criminals would continue to surprise many innocent victims with unexpected activities. However reporting of abuses, if spread out, will ensure that your friends would get to know about the modus operandi of various crimes and criminals and they would exercise caution in their activities. After all, one may not live long enough to learn from his own mistakes.
- Do NOT open or send picture or video based greetings – Criminals have created and made available to download enough such “Good Morning”, “Good Night”, “Seasons greetings” etc. Gullible users might not know about a trick called steganography which is used to hide Trojans within such “picture messages, that can pick up and send sensitive information from mobiles and computing devices and send to authors of such programs. By using such photos and videos you not only infect your mobiles or computers but that of the recipients too. Instead, if you just type and send a “Good morning” or “Seasons greetings” messages etc, not only is the data usage minimal, but also will restrict criminals from infecting and abusing your systems.
Protecting your Wards
Children are especially susceptible to the threats that internet and social media pose. Although many of these sites have protections based on age restrictions, children may misrepresent their age thereby depriving themselves of the embedded protections that those sites offer. By teaching children about internet safety, being aware of their online habits, and guiding them to appropriate sites, parents can make sure that the children are safe and become responsible users. Some of the recommended precautions are:
- Placing computer in central location in your home and never in the bed room of your child.
- Take “don’t talk to strangers” concept to the digital world. Children tend to believe any one.
- Get interested about online friends of your wards without disrespecting their privacy.
- Define personal standards regarding privacy.
- Become familiar with chatting tools and acronyms used by children. It will help your monitor your wards efficiently
- Talk to your child about dangers on the net. It is never too early.
- Keep an open door policy. Encourage children in trouble to approach you.
- Don’t blame it on internet & computers. It happens in real world too.
- Participate with your child in online activities. (Maybe you can visit several good Catholic websites and other online resources with them. This will help build up their Faith too)
- Encourage children to share their passwords with you.
Isaiah 54:13 says “All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great will be their peace.”
In conclusion, staying close to your children right from the start can help them avoid pitfalls of pride, fear, guilt, deception, falsehood, hate, solitude, and depression. Taking a leaf from our Pope’s plea, as parents, we have a duty and responsibility to guide our children on beneficial use of Social Media as well. The above pointers I’m sure will go a long way in helping parents and children on the responsible use of Social Media.
Sebastian Edassery is a Director with Deloitte India and a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator (CHFI), and a Master Trainer from INTERPOL on Information Technology Crime Investigations. He is passionate about safety and security of children and works closely with International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (ICMEC), USA and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for Law Enforcement training on investigation of computer facilitated crimes against children.
Prior to joining Deloitte in 2008, he was with the Central Bureau of Investigation for nearly 10 years and with the Indian Air Force for 20 years. In 2007 he developed a training program titled “Protecting Children on the Net” and conducted it in more than 900 venues, mostly in schools across India.
He is an MS in Cyber Law & Cyber Security and a qualified Aircraft Maintenance Engineer.