Safety on MySpace and Facebook

Facebook and MySpace presented at the open meeting of the Internet Safety Task Force at Harvard University’s Berkman Center on 9/24 to describe how they implement safety features on their website. Seeing these presentations in sequence drove home the point that they approach online safety in fundamentally different ways.

Chris Kelly (CPO of Facebook) presented remotely via video, because his wife was giving birth to their first child. As he pointed out, safety begins at home – a healthy home environment is the most important nontechnical measure a parent can take.

Facebook addresses safety mainly through the structure of the website. Kelly pointed out that less than .1% of profiles on the site are visible to any given user. Communities are segmented and users verified by peers. This community verification is a good example of how protective measures can be emergent, and integrate organically with the structure of a site. Users also have control over how much information is available, and to whom it is visible. Unfortunately, the safety measures implemented by Facebook cannot be broadly applied to the Internet itself, only to websites and other online technologies that are built. For one, it is based on a “real name culture” and eschews anonymity. The Internet is fundamentally anonymous, at least as far as the user layer goes.

Kelly revealed some interesting data about teen users. 72% had never seen nudity on the site – a relatively high number, there was a nearly 50%-50% split between teen members knowing a majority of friends from real life vs. those who had primarily online-only friends, and nearly 2/3 of youth (63%) reported using privacy settings.

Next, Hemanshu Nigam, Chief Security Officer for Fox Interactive Media, discussed the various efforts MySpace is taking to ensure that their users appropriately use the website. MySpace by comparison is more structurally open (non-members may view most profiles) but also addresses safety more broadly through a variety of efforts. His “big six” basic rules for online security on social networking sites are: review, check, remove, enforce, protect, and partner. Some examples of these efforts include “teachable moments,” where users are given a chance to reflect on their actions when they accidentally or intentionally violate the terms of service, and an anti-gang task force working closely with law enforcement. A “three rings or less” mantra is used for the phone hotline, through which members report dangerous activities.

Nigam considers these a “holistic” effort, but I remain unconvinced. MySpace’s long-term efforts to educate the community and work with law enforcement are worthy and likely effective in the long-term. However, a variety of efforts is certainly more piecemeal and less graceful than Facebook’s more structured approach. The takeaway from both Kelly and Nigam was that security on online communities can be approached through several different methods, equally legal and relatively effective.