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PNP warns parents about their kids' Facebook use


The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Thursday issued public safety guidelines on the use of Facebook, urging parents to monitor their children's use of the social media site. The PNP told parents to "learn to use Facebook to monitor the safety of their children" and to "take note of (other) adults being friends of your children especially if your child is still a minor." The police encouraged parents to set up their own Facebook accounts and to link to their children's accounts. "This will allow you to observe and identify the friends and activities (of your kids) without having to get (their account details)," the web page advised. "Check the information posted by your children. Sometimes (they can) become careless, unaware, and lured into giving information that will lead to being a victim," the PNP cautioned. The move comes just two weeks after the PNP issued a statement on the growing incidence of sex crimes in the country, facilitated by the popularity of Facebook and other social media. "They have networking, they have 'clans', they invite youths to join. Then they initiate them and included in this are sexual activities," PNP spokesman Sr. Supt. Agrimero Cruz told Agence France Press. Addi Mallari, a 22-year-old avid Facebook user, told GMA News that she had been a victim of online stalking, having been contacted repeatedly by an unknown person on the social media site. Upon closer inspection of her personal account, it was found that she had inadvertently made herself vulnerable to cybercrime by posting what seemed to be an innocuous piece of information: her birth date. "With the date of birth, you can easily track down people. You can easily track down the birth certificate, with full information on the family," explained Bong Oteyza, a senior security consultant at Prion Support Inc., a software solutions provider.
Complicating the matter is the fact that there is as yet no clear jurisprudence on cybercrime in the Philippines, making it difficult to assess the extent of such offenses. "We are investigating this because our laws are not yet clear on this. We just treat it as rape," Cruz explained. In a phone interview with GMANews.TV, PNP Information Technology Management Service director Sr. Supt. Angelito N. Pacia said that the advisory web page was a "proactive" measure. He said that they haven't received any reports of sex crimes that started with contact through Facebook, but has not ruled out that it has already happened because of the volume of interaction on the social network. "We just brought this out to warn (the public). In different parts of the world, this is already happening, kaya ina-advance lang namin (so we're putting this out there in advance)," he said. "It's a proactive measure, not only for the public but also for the police themselves." The rest of the PNP advisory dispensed practical tips on the use of Facebook that are relevant not just to parents but also to anyone who would want to stay safe on the social network. Some of these tips include:

  • Hide yourself from Facebook search results.
  • Limit your personal information.
  • Protect your picture albums.
  • Avoid chatting with people you don't know.
  • Never forget to sign out.
"The Facebook Company has no exact way of protecting our account. It should start from us to protect ourselves and children because the cyber criminal is just out there ever waiting for that opportunity," the web page concluded. According to Facebakers.com, an independent analyst of Facebook usage statistics, the Philippines has the eighth largest Facebook population in the world with over 16.8 million users. - HS, GMANews.TV
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