Experts identify Nexopia as an area of concern for teens. Nexopia is a Social Networking Site that is very popular among teens. Since few adults visit the site, teens feel they can be very “open” and “expressive” on the site, with personal information and photos.
You do not have to be logged-in to Nexopia to view profiles or use the search utility. A person can view a list of users in specific towns and areas and view their profiles (which often include pictures that may be more revealing than most parents would be comfortable with).
Although kids can change the permissions of their profiles, they seldom do, as Nexopia makes it appear…
…as if the information is needed when they sign up for an account. Open permissions are also quite open by default on Nexopia, making the limiting of permissions an extra step which many teens do not bother with.
When teens sign up for an account, they are asked several questions, and their answers appear in their profiles and are then visible to anybody who chooses to visit their profile. Some of the questions that teens are asked when they sign up have to do with hobbies, likes, dislikes, living situation, dating situation, and more. It is very easy for kids to fill in details, as they are provided a very easy checklist of preferences. These details, combined with photos and location information, make Nexopia a veritable “pedophile candy store”.
There are some warning notices on the bottom of the main page, but kids often either do not read these notices or do not feel the warnings pertain to them.
Almost as soon as an account is generated, kids are contacted through their inboxes by other kids and by those posing as kids. A notice that a local teenager placed on the search profile of her profile says quite a bit about the type of contact she has been receiving: “Will not go on cam!!!!” She has obviously been asked more than once to go on camera (and she is obviously annoyed by the regularity, and perhaps the nature of the requests she has received).
In May of 2009, Teachers, Avi Luxenburg and Alissa Pratt, offered a workshop for Grade Seven students. In the workshop, the students were asked to pretend that they were pedophiles looking for “prey”. With adults looking on for support, students visited Nexopia, and noted that they did not have to log-in to view the profiles of others.
The look on the students’ faces were quite horrified when, as a group, we brainstormed what we were looking for in a victim. We thought that it would be best to look for somebody close but perhaps not in the same town; somebody who seemed troubled so that we might comfort them and make friends with them; somebody who stated that they like to “party” would be good… and the list went on. This was a substantial wake-up call, even for students who thought they were careful online were making plans to change their profiles on MySpace or Facebook.
It is sometimes difficult for young people to feel like the warnings pertain to them. A good hands-on wake-up call can do wonders, but sites like Nexopia are also very good reasons for parents to know what their kids are doing online and to stay connected with their children about their online activities.
