March 2010

US Gov’t Pro Social Media, Law Enforcement Asleep At The Wheel!

by Mike Vallez on March 29, 2010

The US Department of State has jumped into Facebook amid a growing number of federal agencies that are doing the same. Other federal agencies involved in social media are the National Security Agency, US Army, US Navy, US Coast Guard, The White House, and many others. The federal government is clearly becoming a leader in communicating their message through “social networking” sites. But is the federal government setting the standard on how to be involved in “social media?” How about from a national security perspective? There are not a lot of private national security companies for obvious reasons. However, law enforcement is in the business of national security particularly post 09/11. So why is law enforcement so slow to respond to the obvious?

The obvious is that social networking sites offer law enforcement a new way to communicate to their consumers, constituents, and others. The “others” category is a group of people who transcend the the geographical area of a law enforcement agency and consist of web users, the world wide web. Typically law enforcement only communicated to their local citizens by television, news paper, or radio, which was geographically limiting. The web allows for a much broader audience even an international audience. Additionally, it must be assumed that a certain percentage of a law enforcement agencies local constituents are also involved in social networking sites. But, why would a law enforcement agency care to broadcast information to anyone other than their local citizens?

Because prior to the “blow up” of social networking sites in the last few years the web was primarily a reference tool to gather information and was not used as much for “social” online communication. The change in culture that has occurred is epic and is not a fade. People are consuming news from Facebook, Twitter, Digg, and other websites that were not typical news outlets, but are now. We all can agree that how people are accessing information has changed. A quick stat that supports this, “more than 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week” on Facebook (Facebook Statistics). It is no wonder the federal government is getting on board with social media. By setting up communication channels on social networking sites they are to reaching out to a growing number of people who are gathering information from places like Facebook and Twitter and not from newspapers or television.

Hopefully law enforcement will see the value in getting their message out through social networking sites. Be it a press release, wanted person information, missing person information, crime prevention information and so on. The US government has invested in communication through social networking sites, specifically from a national security perspective maybe law enforcement will take this cue and get involved as well. Just to be fair, not each and every law enforcement agency is oblivious to using social networking sites. There are some using social networking sites to further their communication, however, in general law enforcement has not overwhelmingly jumped into the conversation just yet. Mike Vallez

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Post image for Banning Sex Offenders From Facebook, Twitter, Long Overdue!

Banning Sex Offenders From Facebook, Twitter, Long Overdue!

by Mike Vallez on March 12, 2010

A recent article from Southern California Public Radio touts a couple of California state law makers that are attempting to pass a law to make it illegal for sex offenders to use social networking sites that children, kids, teens may frequent. I applaud Assemblywoman Norma Torres for getting legs on this topic, but reading this article leaves me wanting more.

Banning “sex offenders” from Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites seems like common sense. If we are going to pass laws that prohibit a convicted sex offender from coming within X amount of feet from children then why not have the same standards for social networking sites for these scarlet letter criminals? In my opinion it is much easier for a sexual predator to manipulate a child/young adult online from the privacy of their own home, where no one can see their activities. Sexual predators use social networking sites on a regular basis (pedophiles online ) to cultivate leads for offline conversion of their illegal sexual activities. While not all “creeps” on Facebook are sexual predators, seems like a no brainer to enact a law that requires sex offenders to register with all social networking sites as sexual predators.

I know what your are thinking, you are thinking “what if the sexual predator” makes up a false name? Yes, they could surely do this and it would be hard to enforce. In fact even if the proposed legislation passes, how is it going to be enforced? As stated in the article by the Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters “it would be a deterrent for registered sex offenders.” That is true, but include the registration or “no fly social networking list” for sexual predators and change the penalty from a misdemeanor to a felony. For heavens sake, a misdemeanor for stalking a child or young adult to rape or worse kill, quite unbelievable. The enforcement of sexual predators not to violate the original laws of a sexual predator registration (do not go X feet from children, etc) is also difficult to enforce. In fact most laws are only enforced in a reactionary manner. However, the more provisions we can place on sexual predators to prevent them from making more victims from our children the better.

Parents, the best advice I can give you as a former law enforcement officer, now social media strategist is to keep tabs on your kids social networking. Know who they are communicating with, what is on their status update threads (read over their status updates), and ask them where they are going, who with, where did you meet them if it is someone you have not heard them mention before. Social media is changing our world and social networks are filled with criminals who are going to take advantage of opportunities. Mike Vallez

http://www.michaelvallez.com

http://www.crazymikesapps.com

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Department of Defense social media policy change on social media Five-O

DoD Takes On Social Media | Gets All Branches Under One Policy

by Mike Vallez on March 5, 2010

The Department of Defense has implemented an encompassing “Responsible and Effective Use
of Internet-based Capabilities Policy” last week to get everyone under their large umbrella on the same “social networking” use page (http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Web-Services-Web-20-and-SOA/Pentagon-Loosens-Reins-Over-Use-of-Facebook-Twitter-Web-20-Apps-448094/). As one could imagine the DoD was going to have to do something sooner than later to get the different organizations under their jurisdiction under the same policy.

The trouble began last year when the US Army banned the use of several “social networking” sites for their organization. The US Marines followed up with a much harsher version as I wrote about in August of last year “Marines Ban Social Media, But Can They.” The Marines banned the use of all “social networking” sites from all US Marine network computers.

The DoD is the protector of the United States of America and the job involves at most times a high level of secrecy and security around operations, procedures, and intelligence. Naturally, the banning of “social media” by the various organizations in the DoD was as a precautionary measure to protect national security, i.e. the United States. But, apparently after some study and consideration the DoD feels comfortable enough to allow use of “social networking” sites by their massive employee base.

Could the DoD successfully, have banned social media? Perhaps, but policing this would be a very difficult process, one that might take up an inordinate amount of time and take away from the more important mission of protecting the this country. The policy allows for use of “social networking” sites, wiki’s, etc, but there is some wording that allows the DoD to put the “kabash” on” social networking” if necessary. The cause for revoking “social networking” access is mostly common sense based on abuse or “bandwidth” issues.

I applaud the DoD for stepping up and taking the “social media” bull by the horns. An organization this large, especially one that deals in national security may have just set the standard for “social networking” use for the rest of the government and private sector. It ought to be interesting to see how other agencies, corporations, and other government entities deal with the same issue, people using “social networking sites” at work. MFV

http://michaelvallez.com

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