Social network sites push the boundaries

And that's unlikely to change as the surge in popularity continues to raise legal and ethical issues. E-Brief News reports that there has been a major clampdown on the biggest networking sites which have been accused of inaction after inadvertently allowing registered paedophiles to use their services to contact children. Many of these sites now have a filtering system to exclude sex offenders. But not everyone is impressed. The New York Times says young thrill-seekers are increasingly moving to new Web sites like Stickam.com, which is building a business by going where others fear to tread: into the realm of unfiltered live broadcasts from Web cameras. The site combines elements of more popular sites, but with a twist. In addition to designing their own pages and uploading video clips, its users broadcast live video of themselves and conduct face-to-face video chats with other users, often from their bedrooms and all without monitoring by any of Stickam's 35 employees. Other social networks have decided against allowing conversations over live video because of the potential for abuse and opposition from child-safety advocates. 'The only thing you get from the combination of Web cams and young people are problems,' said Parry Aftab, executive director of the child protection organisation WiredSafety.org. 'Web cams are a magnet for sexual predators.' The larger Internet companies have come under increasing pressure to make their sites safer for children and friendlier to copyright holders, so start-ups like Stickam are pursuing their own slices of the market, often at the price of taste, ethics and perhaps even child safety. Full report in The New York Times

In the UK, social networking sites may be ordered to play adverts for the emergency services on their pages under plans being considered by the Home Office. The tactic is one of a number of recommendations being considered by ministers in a document seen by The Guardian. The Home Office believes that advertising the 999 emergency number will encourage young surfers to report suspicious encounters directly to the police. 'Young people on the whole use the Internet positively, but sometimes in ways that may place them at risk of harm,' says the document, drawn up by a working group of representatives from the government, Internet companies and child protection organisations. 'Service providers should, where possible, request and validate personal information from users ... to minimise the risk of impersonation.' Full report in The Guardian

Copyright issues will also keep many networking sites under the spotlight in 2007. Fingers are being pointed at YouTube after it started the year on a sour note by missing a deadline to deploy a system to prevent piracy of copyrighted music on the video-sharing Web site. Creating and installing an 'advanced content identification and royalty reporting system' was at the heart of a precedent-setting agreement between YouTube and Warner Music Group in September. According to a Mail & Guardian Online report, YouTube vowed to have a piracy-prevention system in place by year's end as a caveat of the 'first-of-its-kind' alliance to sell Warner music and share the revenues. A contract posted for electronic signing on the Web site advised those interested in uploading their creations to YouTube that it 'shall be at your sole risk'. YouTube's failure to complete the key piece of anti-piracy software as promised could represent a serious obstacle to efforts by Google, its new owner, to forge closer relations with the media and entertainment industry. The Australian reports that Mike McGuire, a digital media analyst at Gartner, said there was likely to be little patience for missed deadlines. 'The technology industry really has to start living up to the media industry's expectations,' McGuire said. Full Mail & Guardian Online report Full report in The Australian