Online safety encompasses many different areas; one of these is the protection of your personal identity and your personal data. Children and young people are especially vulnerable in this area as they may not be able to judge the risks associated with posting personal information.
One of the risks that has been around for some time is the use of premium phone lines. This really took off a few years ago and continues today with premium text services. I’m sure we’ve all heard the stories where someone receives an unsolicited text and you have to reply “stop” to prevent the company sending you these texts again. Some of these were unscrupulous and “stop” actually meant “ah…so you’re a real number, I’m going to send you more,” and you had the privilege of paying a premium rate for each text you sent to stop the service. This corruption has all but gone away now as Ofcom have been quite pro-active in this area.
But, where one “service” stops, another takes its place! There are a number of services out there, some of which are a few years old now, where you text a question to a certain phone number; it could be about a person, a place, or pretty much anything else. On the face of it on could argue that it is quite innovative, but in the spirit of e-safety there is a risk.
Let’s say you text “Who is Joe Bloggs’ girlfriend who lives in Edinburgh?”. The company/service searches publicly available information on the internet. With the advent of social networking there has never been so much personal information available and it doesn’t take too long before Joe Bloggs’ girlfriend is found. A quick Google search, a trawl through Facebook and a Twitter search may well uncover a plethora of information. So, the texting service texts back to you, “Jill is his girlfriend, she has auburn hair and loves to ride horses.” Amazed at this, you text another question, you’re intrigued – or should that be enticed? Before you know it you’ve got a phone bill resembling a monthly mortgage payment!
There are two point to this post:
- These companies are doing nothing wrong legally, although one may argue there is a moral/ethical question; their terms and conditions are very clear and charges are completely transparent. But the free-flow nature of personal information across social networks is creating rich pickings. Some of these text services cost £2.50 or more per text. Children and young people are naturally intrigued; I know this from personal experience from one of my own. The near heart attack at opening up the phone bill!!
- The final and important point is the amount of personal data that is freely available on the internet put up there by children who do not understand (or who are blasé about) the risks. This has significant safeguarding implications and is also feeding these companies the data they need to make substantial profits at the cost to our children’s freedom. (I say children’s freedom because mine was grounded!!).
It is important that we keep re-iterating the message of personally identifiable information on the internet or on social networks. There are consequences!
Have you had experience of this or have any concerns? Let me know, I would be interested to hear.
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