The Online Community of Facebook: MySpace in the Making?

Facebook.com. Connect with your friends, and make connections with existing ones. Meet new people, and join groups that fit your interests.

What's wrong with the above statement? The phrase, "Have a stalker track you and your friends' every move." Was left out. Facebook's new controversial "News Feed" has made many different impressions on various people. Some people think it's a great new addition, and helps them stay on top of what is going on in their friends' lives. The vast majority, however, think this new news feed is a great way for stalkers to find and get a hold of people.

Let me explain. Facebook.com used to be a site specifically for college students looking for a way to connect with their friends. Now facebook has made many additions, allowing high school students, business organizations, and simply friends of people that should probably have no connection with facebook whatsoever, to join facebook. I'm sure many of you are aware of the problems MySpace.com has had in the past, and will probably continue to have in the future. For those of you who don't, children have been found by internet predators and tracked down to their homes, due to the insecure information about people that flows so smoothly throughout the net. More than one of these people have been kidnapped, and killed.

Now, all because of a stupid online blogging website? Yes, and due to recent additions like the news feed mentioned above, many parents sit back and relax thinking their children are safe on the net, when in reality, they really aren't. If facebook.com were restricted to college kids only, this may have never been an issue in the first place, but that's not my point. Many people have signed an ongoing petition that is trying to convince Facebook.com to allow users to remove the news feeds, and themselves from other people's news feeds. Why? Look at it this way. Here's a stalker, and he's a friend of your friend, who met the stalker online. Well, that stalker can look through your friend's "mini-feed" and see what you say to him and what he says to other people. Scary right? Well do something about it. There's a petition that you can sign if your a parent of a facebook child, and facebook user, even a concerned parent or someone that has no connection with facebook but is still worried about the problem. Sign it here:

http://www.petitiononline.com/faceb00k/petition.html