by Stephen Cuomo

Created on: January 30, 2009

Facebook, a popular social networking site is used to by authorities to solve crimes, whether you think it's private or not... the bottom line is anything you put on the internet can be seen by anyone who wants to work for it. An incident involving a student at my high school a few years back regarded him posting threats towards staff and students in my school. A hit list, if you will. The date he was apparently going to act on his threats was the anniversary of the columbine shootings, and he wrote all of this on his Facebook page. Well, 4/20 rolled around and nothing happened. Guess how he got caught?

The popular social networking website is an absolute haven for monitoring everyone in the community. It allows users to post what they are up to at the moment for crying out loud! Police around the world are using it to track down criminals, people who have defaulted on loans, etc. "Facebook was very, very handy, and it's a good little tool,", a police sergeant tells his local news paper regarding a crime solved through Facebook.

Police are now posting security camera footage on the popular website and because of the vast majority of the population in modernized countries utilizing the site for networking, at the very least, one person will be able to identify the culprits and give the authorities a lead.

With the rise of technology such as cell phones and digital cameras it is now even more likely that good simaritan by-standers will be using the afformentioned devices to documents crimes in progress. Perks, such as the internet, that civilians see as a wealth of information, a neccesity which make life easier also happen to make police officer's around the worlds job a bit easier aswell.

People also often brag about being gang members, selling illicit substances, robberies and owning fire arms on social networking sites. Profiles on these such websites can also be used as evidence in court, as long as the authorities can prove that they were not tampered with. Some say all criminals are stupid, but I'd say only the ones that post evidence on something EVERYONE can access. It is important to note that when suspects who are being tracked down by police, sign on to Facebook, that the administrators of the website can find their whereabouts through their IP address and report where they are to the authorities. "When you enter Facebook, we collect your browser type and IP address."

As more people sign up for Facebook, the easier it will be for authorities to nab these criminals. What is written on Facebook can be used against a suspect in court and these days it probably will be. This may raise some ethical questions about privacy, but then again, is crime ethical?

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