Tuesday, July 13, 2004
The darker side of SMS
It's sad to see that technology is not always put to the benevolent uses that are envisaged for it. This week's reminder of this comes from a report in The Times on the spread of bullying by text message. The reach of this new medium, which ordinarily makes it a powerful, enabling, and inclusive form of communication, is being abused by a minority who have found it the perfect way for them to spread their harmful messages.
Something I learned from this report is that it is possible to spoof text messages (ie make it look as though a message has come from somewhere it hasn't) using easily accessible web sites. I'm not surprised that this is possible - SMS is hardly the most secure technology around - but I am surprised to find that it is quite so easy to do. The most harrowing story was of a girl ostracised by her friends who were convinced she had been sending nasty texts to one of the group, when in fact the messages were being spoofed by someone else.
So, a cautionary note today: new technology = new forms of communicating, but that doesn't mean the communication will always be pleasant.
It's sad to see that technology is not always put to the benevolent uses that are envisaged for it. This week's reminder of this comes from a report in The Times on the spread of bullying by text message. The reach of this new medium, which ordinarily makes it a powerful, enabling, and inclusive form of communication, is being abused by a minority who have found it the perfect way for them to spread their harmful messages.
Something I learned from this report is that it is possible to spoof text messages (ie make it look as though a message has come from somewhere it hasn't) using easily accessible web sites. I'm not surprised that this is possible - SMS is hardly the most secure technology around - but I am surprised to find that it is quite so easy to do. The most harrowing story was of a girl ostracised by her friends who were convinced she had been sending nasty texts to one of the group, when in fact the messages were being spoofed by someone else.
So, a cautionary note today: new technology = new forms of communicating, but that doesn't mean the communication will always be pleasant.
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(c) 2003-2005 Russell Beale
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