One may wonder when the last time one actually read an entire privacy agreement before clicking agree. Today’s teenagers usually have more than just one or two social media accounts, and that is another part of the reason why the privacy agreements that include critical safety policies are left unread. Teens do not place enough emphasis on the privacy issues of internet safety, which has become a critical issue due to the high usage of social media in this age group.
Everyone that has at least one social media account has posted a picture some time in their life. Photos are the most common things shared in social media like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter. People love posting pictures of themselves and their loved ones on their social media accounts. A frightening statistic shows that “91% [of teenagers] post[ed] a photo of themselves” on Facebook in 2012 (Madden). This creates an easy source of private information for potentially dangerous social media predators to obtain pictures of young teens that they find attractive. If one accesses Instagram on a computer, one would see that the site even has a button to save a picture that someone posted, leaving supposedly personal image exposed. If one were to imagine people downloading one’s pictures every time one posts on a social media account, one might become more aware of what pictures should be posted.
Snapchat is another trending social media app that many teens use, yet its privacy issues are extremely abundant. In Snapchat, a prominent feature is one in which the pictures one sends can be viewed for only a certain amount of seconds after a viewer opens it; however, screenshotting still works on the app, and one is definitely able to obtain a permanent copy of a picture that the owner did not want to be saved. Another scary fact is that there are many apps that have the capability to intentionally hack into a user’s account in order to be able to view all of the user’s friends’ posts for as long as he or she wants, and allows for a “save to camera roll” option as well. One of the most notable apps for this function is a one dollar app called SnapHack, which was created by Darren Jones, to overcome the limiting capabilities of the app without the sender becoming aware (Cade). Now the entire purpose of the Snapchat app has been reduced to nothing, because the supposed disappearance of the post after a certain amount of time can easily be overridden. A large security risk comes up, especially for teens, when things they post might contain private information. The owners of the posts might think that this is safe because the posts are should be deleted in a matter of seconds, but viewers accessing Snapchat through apps like Snaphack will have unlimited access to their private information. The details in the post could very likely allow other users to stalk, cyber bully, blackmail, or even hack the owner’s account. Although apps like Snaphack will very likely be taken down by Snapchat, or maybe Apple, there will always be similar types of apps to meet the demand of the social media market. A much better solution to social media safety for teens is to let teenagers learn a proper restraint of posts on all types of social media, even self deleting ones like Snapchat that have too high of a security risk.
Another unconscious action that many teens do on social media is tagging the exact location of the place where a picture was taken. This is especially common on Instagram, where the location of the image is shown right below one’s username. The location can even direct a user to a page that displays the location on a map, which will display all the pictures taken that were tagged at that location. These almost instinctive actions of sharing location not only allows for potential social media predators to stalk the account’s owner and know exactly where the owner is at the time, but also give a list of locations that the owner visits frequently. There is a fact that teens with larger friend networks are “more likely to automatically include their location in updates” (Lenhart). In other words, the more followers or friends that one has on a social networking site, the more likely one is going to share information, such as one’s location. This data can gives other users a perfect source to create a profile of the owner.
An Instagram setting that proves many teens do not take the security of their social media accounts seriously is the capability of making one’s account either private or public. Even though most celebrities leave their personal social media accounts in public mode for anyone to follow them, it does not matter that much to them because the majority of their social lives is already public to the world. From perusing Instagram accounts, one is able to tell that between public and private accounts, public accounts always have more followers. It is common knowledge that many teens purposely make their personal Instagram accounts public in order to gain more follower, despite the fact that they are often accepting follower requests from users they do not know. It is a great way to make one seem more popular at school or boost one’s self-esteem, but it also strips one of the power to control who gets to view one’s personal pictures. Most teens are smart enough to figure this out, but they just do not take this issue seriously, and still take the risk of gaining unsafe followers in order appear more accepted. Leaving one’s account on public allows potential stalkers or predators to get an easy access into one’s account. This could as yet another security risk, especially if images of oneself and one’s loved ones is on the account. If teens took social media security a bit more seriously and prioritized that over short term esteem boosts or happiness, they could easily protect themselves against security issues.
A password is the most important firewall in protecting one’s social media from others. Having a strong password that is difficult to guess makes the job harder for any potential hacker. However, many teens place little stress on making original passwords, leaving their accounts seriously vulnerable. “21 percent of people use passwords that were created more than 10 years ago”, including adults too, who are supposed to be more knowledgeable at securing their numerous accounts (Morrison). Just imagine the number of teens’ social media accounts that are exposed due to feeble passwords. These worthless and unoriginal passwords are likely the reason why “two out of five people have had a password stolen, an account hacked, or received notification that their personal information had been compromised” every year (Morrison). Once again, the importance of putting emphasis on keeping teens’ privacy issues secret cannot be more safely secured by just putting some thought into a good reliable password.
Social networking sites are a trend that seems to have started with recent generations, as communication switched from a more interpersonal one to an online one. Professor of Communication at the Rochester Institute of Technology Susan B. Barnes writes that “social networking sites create a central repository of personal information”, and that is a point that many teenagers do not realize every time they upload pictures or personal information that everything uploaded to the web always can never fully be deleted. Data in today’s age is one that is so vast and uncontrollable, due to the vast capabilities of technology in the modern age. There is more information being shared by teens than adults due to the difference in how social media is used, too. For teens, social media is often used as “a platform for self-expression” as well as a method to “gain acceptance from their peers” (Swayne). A 2005 study by Lenhart and Madden found that 87% of teens used the internet daily, and that number has definitely grown in the past decade. The difference between an adult and teenager’s social media account is very clear, and it is apparent that teenagers spend a lot more time. It is crucial that teenagers take control of their accounts and privacy, especially when so many of them are using social media as a place to express private information that should’ve been left personal.
For the most part, security in social media for teens is limited, and maybe is overlooked altogether sometimes. On every type of social media, more than three quarters of social media users post at least one picture of themselves, allowing others, whether harmless or dangerous, match a face with a name. Snapchat’s supposed self destruction ability on posts can be easily overridden simply by clicking the Install button for apps like Snaphack, leaving a viewer with a permanent copy of a possible embarrassing or personal post that the owner did not want to be viewed for more than a couple seconds. The unconscious habit of tagging places and people provide a database of one’s frequently visited places and loved ones for possible predators. A public account might be fine for a celebrity, but for any teenager, that means one less defense against potentially dangerous followers or friends. Lastly, teens complain when their accounts get hacked, and wish for the security on the social media to be tighter. But more often than not, it is because the password one uses was too simple and made it an easy target for a cybercriminal. It is true that the security of every social media is not perfect, but there are simple ways for teens to be protected on social media. Teens slack off when it comes to being safe on apps like Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, but only a little effort and some common sense on what one posts can shelter one’s private information almost as well as any encryption.
Works Cited
Barnes, Susan B. "A Privacy Paradox: Social Networking in the United States." First Monday.
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Cade, DL. "SnapHack Permanently Saves All of Your Snapchats, No More Disappearing Pics."
PetaPixel. N.p., 14 Oct. 2013. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.
Lewis, Kevin, Jason Kaufman, and Nicholas Christakis. "The Taste for Privacy." Wiley Online
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Madden, Mary, and Amanda Lenhart. "Teens, Social Media, and Privacy." (n.d.): n. pag. Pew
Research Center. The Berkman Center for Internet & Society, 21 May 2013. Web. 23
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Morrison, Kimberlee. "People Are Still the Weak Link in the Password System [Infographic]."
SocialTimes. N.p., 3 June 2015. Web. 01 May 2016.
Swayne, Matt. "Teens' Approach to Social Media Risk Is Different from Adults'" Penn State
News. Penn State University, 17 Mar. 2015. Web. 01 May 2016.
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