Friday, February 17, 2012

The Dark Side Of Facebook


The Dark Side Of Facebook


Facebook has more than 845 million active users; these users are constantly updating statuses and sharing their social relationships. Though Facebook is perceived as a fun and entertaining social media website, it may also have a dark side. Recently Facebook is becoming more involved in the motivation for murder. Murder has always been defined as a crime of passion and with more people being connected through online social networks they are increasingly becoming attached to the content being posted.
In September 2009, twenty six year old Sara Richardson was brutally murdered by her ex-husband Edward, due to the fact that after the divorce she changed her Facebook status from married to single. By seeing this status change Edward became jealous with the thought of her being available for another man. He then broke into her parent’s home where she was staying and stabbed her to death.

This video goes into more detail about the Richardson murder.

You can see now how psychologically damaging Edwards’s feelings could have been from his wife changing her status. The one reporter compared it to yelling off a rooftop that they had spit up. I’m sure Sara was not trying to humiliate her ex-husband, it seemed she had waited about a year to change her marital status clearly allowing enough grieving time.
There have been similar incidences where other women have been attacked because of actions done on Facebook. According to the Telegraph a European paper, they said, “ Reports of crimes allegedly involving Facebook have increased by 346 percent in the last year.” In other cases online predators are making false identities to gain trust of younger girls. In April 2010 Peter Chapman, made a false Facebook account and began an online relationship with 17 year old Ashleigh Hall. Chapman set a time for them to meet in person and raped and murdered Ashleigh.

As you can see from the two examples, the situations are very different but the outcome (death) and the resource (Facebook) are the same. The incident with the Richardson family is to a high extreme of how people will react to Facebook post/statuses, but is not the only incident. People have (been) murdered over being un-“friended,” having embarrassing pictures posted of them and ect… It might seem ridiculous that a person would get that up set over a quick post that another person didn’t even consider to be hurtful. The reality is Facebook and other online social networks are becoming more than just a website they are part of peoples lives.
Since Facebook also allows you to create numerous accounts allowing people to have false profiles. Its important to have your profile secure and make sure that your information is not open to the world. Also making sure you are not accepting friend request from unknown users. By taking these precautions you can eliminate the risk of harm and better protect yourself from the online dangers.

Reference
Unknown Author, Crimes involving Facebook up 346pc. The Telegraph. 02/17/2012.
Daily mail reporter, Number Of Crimes Involving Facebook Leaps 346% In A Year. Mail Online. 4/2/2010
Prime News. Facebook Status Murder. Youtube. 09/12/2009.
Unknown Author, 13 Craziest Deaths Caused by Social Media. Ranker. Unknown date.

11 comments:

  1. This is an extremely interesting blog. I have heard recently of a lot of crimes relating to facebook. I know some girls that complain when their boyfriends' don't write enough on their walls or the drama attached to being in a "relationship" with someone on facebook. Some people take facebook too seriously. It is a social network website. You can put whatever you want to put on it. Some of my friend's younger siblings are "siblings" with half the people in their graduating class. It concerns me that some people take things like facebook so seriously. It is also very scary to think that people are using this website to prey on others. My 13 year old sister has a facebook account and even though my mom monitors her usage it still is something that i am concerned with especially considering all these new stories going on.

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  2. This is an extremely unfortunate issue and I'm not really sure how I feel about blaming Facebook. I do hate that it is not how it used to be and now everyone can create an account and more than one, but at the same time people have to be careful how they use it. I completely agree with the one reporter though, i think he would have tried to attach Sara anyways. Facebook just happened to be the first thing that set him off. People like that, i think there is no way to predict when and what will set them off, they are just dangerous period. But in the case if the 17 yr. old that was killed, i think Facebook could do a better job monitoring can create pages and how many. I think in cases where we know or even think a person could be a threat, we should eliminate them from our page or monitor what he share.

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  3. I found your blog very interesting! I of course am on facebook and I never would have considered it a breeding ground to look for someone to murder! I heard a lot about people being bullied on facebook but never leading to murder. However, I can see how this makes a lot of sense. A few years ago I was dating this guy and we broke up so a few days later I changed my facebook status he freaked out claiming all kinds of things. I never feared for my life or anything like that from his anger but it is interesting to see how something as little as that could lead to murder. Ever since my brothers and I have had our facebooks my dad has always told us not to post were we are every second and to be weary of the information we provide to others. Although your profile may be marked private, somehow people always find ways to get in. I have definitely taken my fathers advice by not regularly posting where I am located or a great deal of personal information. It is scary how much you can find out about someone from their facebook!

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  4. I think that the best answer to this problem is increased vigilance and teaching kids to be cautious in accepting friend requests. I don't see Facebook going away any time soon, so I think that educating kids about what to post, what not to post, and about child predators would be the best solution. As for case of the woman being killed because she changed her status, I think he would have probably killed her any way. If it hadn't been Facebook that set him off, it probably would have been something else. While Facebook does make information about people more readily available, I think that if someone was motivated enough they could probably find a way to get information without Facebook.

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  5. I found your blog really interesting. I believe Facebook is a social media outlet which enables its users an opportunity to share information with their social circles. However, I respectfully disagree that it is a tool in murder. Although you presented that Facebook crimes have been on the rise, I believe an argument can be made against it. The same argument that guns do not kill people, people kill people. In the case of the divorced couple, this man would have been jealous and driven to kill his ex-wife without the "Relationship Update." If something that small led him to react in such a violent way, imagine what seeing her out with another man would have done. I believe everyone is responsible for what they share online and who they allow to see it.

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  6. This post is interesting in relation to the fact that I use Facebook every day. However, my Facebook "friends" are only friends that I know personally. I would never add anyone that I was unsure of due to the fact that there are several predators trying to add girls. I can see why it is so easy for predators to gain there information on different people. People are constantly updating their status and some people even go the extreme to tell people what they ate for dinner. Nobody needs to know everyone’s last move. It is dangerous and if I was a parent I would be monitoring my children’s activity just because there are so many crazies in this world.

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  7. this goes to show you that it is important to watch what you expose on social websites, and also be aware of putting private personal matters on their as well such as being married, single, or in a relationship. There are some people who are serious about what they see or read on facebook, twitter, etc. People just have to be careful if they are going to be active users of social websites.

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  8. I agree that Facebook can be a very dangerous place but i think it is only dangerous for those who are ignorant about the effects of sharing your life on the web and interacting with people you don't know. Im not saying in anyway that these women deserved what they got. In the first case i think that the woman divorced from her ex would have suffered the same consequences even without Facebook because it seems that only an unstable person would go to the extent to kill over a changed relationship status. In the second case i personally do not think that Facebook should even be open to teens under 16, i think that it is ridiculous that you can go on Facebook and interact with your 12 year old cousin or whatever. Being that young and online you are so intrigued by things that you cant help but to be curious.

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  9. This blog is very interesting. Facebook and other social media sites allow people to share almost every aspect of their life with the public. It's obvious that allowing people to access so much information about a certain person is dangerous. It seems quite ridiculous that this man would murder his ex-wife over her changing her facebook relationship status. I feel that he probably would have tried to murder her anyway even without her changing her facebook status. Clearly, he had deep-rooted issues before she changed her status. In the second case, young girls need to be very careful about who they interact with on facebook. They are very susceptible to people lying about their identity. I feel that Children who are under 16 should not be allowed to have a facebook prolife because this seems to be a reoccurring issue.

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  10. In my opinion, Facebook is very dangerous. People who use Facebook put up statuses of where there going or simply check-in to the places their at. I think that's completely idiotic of people. People could use this information to know that no one is at your house and simply break in without any interruptions and take whatever they find. I believe parents need to teach their children not to accept friend requests from people that they do not know. Just like your example in your blog, a guy created a false identity and killed the child when they met up. I think their should be an age limit for Facebook because believe it or not, people can be evil and prey on young children.

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  11. Nice blog. I have a related story:

    When I was a freshman at Ball State, there was a story that came out in our school newspaper about a freshman girl that was jumped outside of a party over a weekend in September of 2007. The article asked people to come forward with any information regarding the incident. The people that actually jumped this poor girl posted it as a facebook status the night it happened. The article wasn't published until about 4 days after it happened, so no one thought to look on facebook. Some friends on my floor contacted the police and pointed out the status. The girls were arrested later on that week. It's amazing how many people don't think about what they are putting on facebook for everyone (even the police) to eventually read.

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