Social networking sites On Balance have had a positive impact on the United States

For this debate I clarify the following defintions on balance as net result or overall effect (www.investorwords.com/3410/on_balance.html) positive to be admitting of no doubt or irrefutable fact (American Heritage second College edition) I being the con must negate the resolution that on balance Social Networking sites ON BALANCE have had a positive impact on the United States. I am negating the resolution when I say that I am neutral. Meaning there are good things and there are bad things about social networking websites but neither can outweigh the other and with all things considered are equal and neutral. To clarify the word negate means to show to be false wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn By going neutral I am proving the resolution false. To begin the debate I concede all affirmative points 1.Young people don't know how much information they're putting out and no one needs to prove their identity, even sex offenders. According to a study conducted by the University of Dayton, 23% of college students intentionally misrepresent themselves on a social networking website to be funny. Not all people are pretending to be someone else for the sake of a joke. On August 22, 2002, as part of his official duties, Detective Frank Warchol of the Portsmouth, New Hampshire Police Department signed on to a chat room on America Online, posing as a fourteen-year-old girl. We all know what happened next. A man named Roland MacMillan also signed on to the chat room, and solicited what he believed to be the 14-year-old for sexual acts. Shortly thereafter Mr. MacMillan was arrested. Young users are often naï¿½ve about the information they put out on the Internet that is made public. Adults can send inappropriate pictures of themselves to minors. "A concerned parent" made the profile on Facebook of a 15-year-old girl who doesn't exist except for online. The girl joined many group dealing with sexuality and ended up becoming "friends" with some of the adults that sent her inappropriate pictures. 2. Social networking sites are unregulated On Social networking sites, there is an age requirement. They are usually 14 or 18. But who's checking who really is of age? There is no doubt there are 10 years old on these sites when they are not allowed to be on them. The sites trust users are whatever age they say they are by checking a box upon registering. Letting your children use a social networking site is like dropping them off in RiverSquare park at midnight and expecting them to be alright. 3. Social Networking sites hurt the workplace The Results of an exclusive MessageLabs survey conducted in September 2007, reveal that approximately 75% of companies said the number of visits their employees were making to social networking sites had increased over the previous six months. About 60% thought this had damaged productivity; while over. 75% believed corporate reputation could be seriously threatened if staff members posted negative comments about their organization online. No wonder over 70% of respondents said they were thinking of restricting employee access to social networking sites. (http://www.compliancehome.com...) 4. online social networking sites have become targets for hackers When you're online, your computer is under attack, and more hackers are hunting for prey on social-networking sites. For the past three months a virus dubbed "Koobface" has targeted Facebook's 120 million users. It uses the social network's messaging system to infect PCs, then it tries to raid your personal information. "If you're connected to the Internet, you're almost always under attack," said Brad Lindsay, KSL system security expert. From an infected computer, Koobface sends notes to friends. You may get a message from a trusted friends account with a subject header like: "You look just awesome in this new movie." It directs you to a Web site and instructs you to download an update of Adobe's Flash player. At that point, you're infected and you get sent off to contaminated sites "Some of the really bad ones can actually take over your computer and be used to attack other computers. Others will sit quietly, record information and send it back to the hacker," Lindsay said. (http://www.ksl.com...) Once these sites were virus free zone, but the same thing can not be told now about these websites. So, social networking websites are now vulnerable to severe malware or virus attack as proven. It is obvious social networking websites are an easy hunting ground for all these malicious viruses. The danger is real, according to a study conducted by CA and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA). In October, the alliance issued its first social networking study examining the link between specific online behaviors and the potential for becoming a victim of cybercrime. 67 percent of people who use social networking sites admit to worrying about becoming a victim of cybercrime. Therefore with the affirmative acting as the counter balance and proving why they are positive I stand neutral on the REsolution Social Networking sites on Balance have had a positive impact on the United States.