Originally Posted by
Hannah Montana
...I'm a bit confused about how showing a profile picture can endanger someone. Surely your safety depends upon who you talk to? And if you're willing to meet strangers in real life. I think that in order to protect people, there should be more of an emphasis on only adding and accepting friend requests from people that you know...
Yeah, what Hannah says there.
People aren't going to follow the advice that this police force are giving. I think it's a cop out (haha). People are going to continue using internet sites for much the same reasons that they use drugs - the perceived advantages seem to outweigh the perceived risks. The answer might to be campaigns aimed at reducing the risks (we have safer sex campaigns and marm minimisation drugs campaigns), rather than just saying "don't do it", when people who use Facebook responsibly get a lot of pleasure from it.
Yes of course, governments and their agencies are right to be spotlighting the ways in which Facebook gives permission to third parties to access your information without making it clearer that they are doing this.