Social Platforms’ Privacy Issues
Privacy Issues
Social media platforms have become a fundamental factor in the way modern individuals develop their worldviews and socialize with others. While adults can rely on personal experience and filtrate the information they receive either in the educational or relationship context, children are less secure when facing never-endless streams of posts, be it Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter. I have chosen this topic as long as the issue with the rising concerns about privacy within such a daily habit continues to gain more supporters and evidence-based claims. One of the latest pieces of news allows emphasizing this dilemma as a broadened question that touches everyone from a child to a governor that has to be responsible for its safety.
At the beginning of October, the Washington Post reported on Facebook whistleblower’s statement regarding the platform’s leaders’ priorities. For example, Frances Haugen wishes lawmakers to consider how the company’s system chooses profits over users’ security, affecting their well-being. When it comes to children, they result to be the most threatened audience because of being inexperienced and dependent on social effects that form their personality and opinions. She believes that it is impossible to stop saving only a seemingly major number of children. Haugen demands the government finding a way to do it for all of the children surely. It implies doing more than improving the control over the psychological harmlessness of social websites. It includes a call for a certain action of concentrating on governmental care about children in the first place.
One can ask why children’s social activity has to provoke more worries than people’s online life in general. The answer is that children are the future of society. Adults have to foresee how the next generations will lead the world. However, when there is a high risk that children’s socialization methods can have a negative impact on their psychology, self-esteem, or morals, it is difficult to expect the upcoming leadership generations to be ethically correct, merciful, or capable of preserving social happiness and harmony. While social media demolishes the concept of privacy, children can lose an opportunity to maintain a righteous vision of what a human soul means and why it requires respect.
If authorities take action
However, there is still a chance to ground trustworthy governance and social platforms’ developmental strategy if the authorities start investing in safety programs as much as needed. Haugen accuses Facebook of channeling resources away from such practices because of encouraging platform tweaks and fueling growth instead. The same conditions allow concluding that the brand has enough money to solve privacy issues. Moreover, until the expanding popularity of social websites is a stable phenomenon, there is no need for Facebook to facilitate it on purpose. The platform will not lose its audience if it cuts financing in this sphere. It would be logical to attract users by promising them all security measures.
Summary
Finally, I think the case with an undermined users’ security and children’s mental formation has two opposite ways of decision-making. If the company ignores safety programs and the government allows even the minimal part of children to struggle because of incoherent social platform activities, companies like Facebook will gather an inadequate influence over the population. Nonetheless, the government can still conserve its power and care about children’s moral needs, forcing social platforms to direct investments into security challenges.
