Experts raise network sites danger

Jan 4 2008 by David Williamson, Western Mail

THE best social networking site is not Facebook or MySpace but chat-friendly Bebo, according to a major report.

Bebo has legions of teenage fans but has fallen behind Facebook in the fiercely fought battle for audience share in the UK.

Yet Bebo’s features, which allow users to chat to each other in real time, won the praise of Computing Which? magazine.

Editor Abigail Waraker said, “Social networking sites are growing in popularity and, as the success of Bebo in our test shows, sites like MySpace and Facebook can’t rest on their laurels if they want to stay in the game.”

It awarded Bebo 79%, ahead of Facebook (74%) and MySpace (67%).

Last year the number of people using Facebook in the UK shot up by 1,574% to 8.7 million from just 518,000 a year earlier. Bebo users increased from 2.7 million to 4.4 million.

But the craze for social networking has been accompanied by growing concerns about the dangers to people’s privacy and the potential for identity theft and abuse.

Will Gardner of Childnet International – which exists to protect children from internet dangers – said the risks were real.

He warned that children had to be cautioned against putting up too much personal information and posting inappropriate images of themselves.

Mr Gardner said, “There are issues around cyber-bullying also.”

He said school children had created abusive false profiles of fellow pupils and teachers.

Persuading the website’s administrators to delete these could be a frustrating experience, he added.

“One of the issues, and it relates to the size of these organisations, is they can’t manage anything like a telephone line for people complain on,” he said.

Complaints usually have to be emailed.

“There’s always that feeling of, ‘I sent it off but has anything happened?’ he said.

“It’s never as quick as you’d like it to be.”

However, the magazine commended Bebo – founded by husband and wife duo Michael and Xochi Birch – for “working hard” to encourage responsible networking.

It commented, “Users can restrict who sees their information and block users, and there’s plenty of advice on security risks and how to avoid these.”

Bebo, which has more than 40 million users worldwide, who together spend 2.14 billion minutes on the site a month, has invested in new ways of keeping its core audience of under-30s excited.

It broadcasts a soap opera, KateModern, from which the characters contribute video blogs and postings.

Facebook’s growth is powered by an older audience aged 25-plus. Since January 2007 it has grown at an average rate of 3% a week.

Its Wales network yesterday had 232,323 members.

Of these, 37% were single, 4% claimed to be married, and 1% described their relationship status as “complicated”.

The three most popular movies among Welsh Facebook users were Dirty Dancing, Pulp Fiction and Anchorman.

Rugby was only the fifth favourite interest, behind music, football, reading and drinking.

A new generation of networking sites is targeting niche audiences.

Computing Which? praised Saga Zone, aimed at the over-50s.

It enables people in this age group to discuss issues including paying for personal care and the merits of CCTV cameras.

In 2008 investors will strive to find ways to make money from networking sites without alienating users.

In October 2007 Microsoft outbid Google to buy a 1.6% stake in Facebook for $240m – suggesting the company, founded in 2004 by Harvard sophomore Mark Zuckerberg, is worth $15bn.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation bought MySpace for $580m in 2005.

It was reported this week that Plaxo, a site that helps people keep their address books up to date, may soon be sold.

It is understood to have an asking price of up to £100m.