Social networkers worried about privacy

Press intrusion causing Facebookers concern

5 June 2008 11:48 GMT / By Katie Scott

There have been a series of high profile scandals when images of naughty nights out uploaded onto social networking sites have managed to find their way into the newspapers.

Obviously the people concerned aren't just regular Joes - one case was a call girl, one of whose clients happened to be a high profile American politician.

And then, on this side of the Atlantic, there was the example of a high-up civil government aid who featured in a snap from a university party with their face "blacked-up".

The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) has conducted a survey which revealed that these sorts of cases are making social network site users wary of their privacy.

The poll revealed that almost 80% of visitors to sites like Facebook would be more careful about the details they put online if they knew the media might use them.

And the PCC adds that a whopping 89% of the 1000 people polled wanted guidelines on what the media could use.

According to the Beeb, 49% of respondents said it was wrong for the media to use information they had posted on line without asking consent.

And 58% were fairly or very concerned about the lack of control about how they were depicted on websites, with 42% of 16 to 24-year-old relating that they knew someone who had been embarrassed by material which was posted without their consent.

The chairman of the PCC, which regulates the press in ths country, Sir Christopher Meyer, said that personal information - details as well as images - were being put into the public domain on an unprecedented scale.

And, he added, this has had serious ramifications for the PCC.

"This clearly has implications for the PCC, which has always had the task of deciding where to draw the boundaries between what newspapers and magazines may legitimately publish and what can rightly be considered private", he said.

"The challenge remains the same for online editorial content, including material taken from social networking sites."

"In the digital age, self-regulation, with its sound principles and speed of operation, has never been more relevant."