Anti-Social Networking?

Social networking is one of the most successful and popular tools to emerge from the Web 2.0 era. However, the increased interconnectivity and access to peoples’ personal lives and information has created a plethora of opportunities for the nefarious side of human nature to manifest. This paper categorizes and describes the major types of anti-social behavior and criminal activity that can arise through undisciplined use and/or misuse of social media. We specifically address identity theft, misrepresentation of information posted, cyber bullying, children and social networking, and social networking in the work place. Recommendations are provided for how to reduce the risk of being the victim of a crime or engaging in embarrassing behavior that could irrevocably harm one’s reputation either professionally or personally. We also discuss what responsibilities social networking companies have to protect their users and also what law enforcement and policy makers can do to help alleviate the problems. Keywords—Identity theft, misrepresentation, cyber bullying, online scams.