Social websites.

Okay so just thought i'd start a debate if you like...

basically what's everyone's opinions on social networking sites? are they a good thing or a bad thing?

I personally think there all trouble some way or another which is why i hardly use them... i use facebook and facebook only and my account is private to keep no-gooders away.

Same. I also only use facebook and my account is also private. I keep a close check on my friends list to make sure there are only people that i can trust. I get friend requests from people I don't even know and they assume i would accept it just because we have mutual friends or they sit two tables back in my science class - but no. i'm perfectly aware of what people do and how they do it and i am generally against social websites. I also used a fake name which only my friends knew about until about a month ago when i finally decided to put my real name..but even though ive done everything i can to be safe on the internet, i sometimes freak out and delete my whole account and then my friends persuade me to activate it again..

I think the fake name thing is a good idea... i know a few people that use fake names so they can keep there real identity a secret - but if you do keep a close eye on things & keep the people you know you can trust then using your real name isn't really a problem.

Just yesterday i had to change passwords for several of my accounts on sites which was quite angerin as someone had tried hacking into my hotmail account as well as other accounts luckily facebook was fine. I tend to keep different passwords for all things i use.

I'm usually quite secure with my accounts though so that was quite disappointing.

Anyway another thing i think people should be aware with especially on facebook is mobile numbers, i don't have mine listed on there but if you edit your profile under contact information there is a space for a mobile number & if you do input it in the field it will show up for all your friends to see & if you have people on there you don't know your number could quite easily get in the wrong hands. Im sure most people would use there common sense and not fill that in anyway. Personally there shouldn't even be a field for a mobile number - im sure if people wanted others to have there number they would find other ways to give them that information.

Absolutely! To me that's common sense. Once my phone number got leaked in school by one of the people who had it and random people started calling me and sending me texts which really annoyed me so I changed my number straight away. I am ready to go real far for my security.