Although teens make up a large percentage of social networkers, they
aren’t the largest user segment. In fact, millions of adults and seniors
are also active on social networking sites. Some social networking sites
exist for very specific purposes — such as creating business contacts —
but most of the popular sites offer a wide variety of functionality. These
sites are likely to host blogs, photo and video albums, classified ads,
forums, e-mail, instant messaging, and entertainment.Social networking sites allow people to build and maintain online net-
works of friends and others with common interests. They open up great
new opportunities to share, communicate, and meet new people.
However, social networking products and services have widely different
levels of protections for consumers, and it’s important that you under-
stand the safety and privacy protection of any service you choose to use.In this chapter, you discover some of the things you can do to stay safe
as you roam social sites.Overview of Collaborative and Social Networking Sites
Although you may think kids are the most active group using social
networking, you can see from the table in Figure 8-1that it isn’t the
case. In fact, persons 35–54 years old make up the largest segment of
social networkers.There are several types of sites where people collaborate or communi-
cate socially. The following definitions may be useful:➟ Wiki:A Web site that allows anyone visiting to con-
tribute (add, edit, or remove) content. Wikipedia, for
example, is a virtual encyclopedia built by users pro-
viding information in their areas of expertise. Because
of the ease of collaboration, wikis are often used
when developing group projects or sharing informa-
tion collaboratively.164
Part II: Using the Internet While Dodging the Risk