Introduction:

Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned

by Facebook, Inc. Users are able to add friends and updates their personal profiles to
notify friends about their recent activities. Additionally, users can join networks
organized by city, workplace, and school or college.

Problem Statement:
1) Several cases begin to arise when misuse and abuses with social networks such
as Facebook start to occur, including security and privacy problem, application
addiction, and thus resulting Facebook being blocked / banned in several
countries such as China, Vietnam, and Iran. Is there any better way of solving
the problem than just blocking it?
2) Social networks, who serve to connecting people, have becoming a tool to
generate income for certain people. What is the role of social networks when it
involves money?

Objective:
1) To explore advantages and contribution of social network such as Facebook to
the students and the society.
2) To explore disadvantages and problems caused by social network such as
Facebook to the students and the society.
3) To seek a balance point between the advantages and disadvantage of social
networking website, and proper usage of these websites to avoid possible
problems that caused by it.

Article Review:
[1] Origins of Facebook (www.wikipedia.org):
Facebook, the website's name stems from the colloquial name of books given at the start of the
academic year by university administrations with the intention of helping students to get to know each
other better.
Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook with his college roommates and fellow computer science
students Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes while he was a student at Harvard
University. The website's membership was initially limited by the founders to Harvard students, but was
expanded to other colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It later expanded
further to include (potentially) any university student, then high school students, and, finally, to anyone
aged 13 and over. The website currently has more than 350 million active users worldwide.
The original concept for Facebook was borrowed from a product produced by Zuckerberg's prep
school which for decades published and distributed a printed manual of all students and faculty at the
Exeter, NH-based boarding school.
Facebook has met with some controversy. It has been blocked intermittently in several countries
including Syria, China, Vietnam, and Iran. It has also been banned at many places of work to discourage
employees from wasting time using the service. Privacy has also been an issue, and it has been
compromised several times. Facebook settled a lawsuit regarding claims over source code and intellectual
property. The site has also been involved in controversy over the sale of fans and friends.
Article above was partly quoted and only the main points are extracted. It shows
the background of Facebook and its initial purpose as a student’s private social
network, and expands quickly to the whole world.
Several critics about Facebook arise as it grows, resulting Facebook being
blocked by several countries. The article below shows one of the largest population
countries that shuts its door on Facebook, China.

[2] China’s Facebook Status: Blocked (www.abcnews.com):

ABC's Emily MacDonald reports from Beijing [July 08, 2009 9:22 AM]:

The Chinese government is not shy about censoring the internet. As tension rose over Tibet before
the 2008 Olympics, sites like YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and even Wikipedia found themselves blocked.
After the Olympic frenzy, the government seemed to relax and many sites become accessible again.
YouTube and most major blog sites, however, were re-blocked this spring when a video of a Buddhist
monk being beaten surfaced.

Now, in light of the riots in Urumqi, Xinjiang, which the media is calling the next Tiananmen, or the
Tibet of 2009, the government is refocusing on internet censorship. The latest casualty? Facebook.
When you try to access Facebook in China, an error message appears saying “Network Timeout.” This
means that Chinese residents are without YouTube, Twitter, and other sites where content is
predominantly user generated.

Interestingly, the Chinese equivalents of many of these sites (i.e., Youku, the Chinese version of
Youtube or Xiaonei, the version of Facebook) remain available. One possible explanation for the choice
to block major foreign sites and not their domestic equivalents is that the Chinese government might be
more concerned about international criticism than internal tension.

The official statement from China government was to protect the national
information security. But here we can see that even China fears the information
spread brought by Facebook, resulting they have no choice but to shut its door from
Facebook to control the international flow of the information, to avoid any heavy
international criticism that brought by Facebook.

[3] Facebook Crime and Punishment (www.switched.com):

As we're sure you're all aware by now, Facebook, when used recklessly, can get you into
trouble. Firings, break-ups and general forehead-slapping missteps are no strangers to the social
networking site. But Facebook trouble can be much more grave than all that. Look behind the break and
catch a glimpse of Facebook's dark criminal underbelly, if you dare.

Blackmail
Sending any personal info or incriminating pictures to someone on Facebook is a huge mistake for
many reasons. One of the worst possible outcomes is getting blackmailed for money, sex, or, well,
anything these sickos dream up. Really, whether they're using a fake profile or not, it's a horrible idea.
Read up on the story of an 18-year-old who blackmailed 31 male classmates after he posed as a girl and
asked for nude pictures. That's lesson enough.

Impostors
 Sure, it can be harmless to impersonate a celeb online or create a fake profile for a movie
character. But seriously, there's a definite line you shouldn't cross when pretending to be someone else
and it can lead to dire consequences for you. Maybe it's not as extreme as the Moroccan man who was
jailed for 43 days after creating a fake Facebook profile of a prince, but you never know. Just steer clear
of it.

Self-Incrimination
Do we really have to explain this? Just look up the shoplifter who posed with her stolen
merchandise, the many photos of drunk underage teens, and, most recently, the album featuring a couple
who killed and ate an endangered iguana in the Bahamas.

Suicide
Social networking sites have been blamed for a lot of things, fairly and unfairly, but in our opinion,
the worst offense has been their indirect involvement in suicides. Obviously, there are a lot of factors
responsible in each case, but there does seem to be links between social networking and a rash of suicides,
and obviously there's the tragic case of Megan Meier, who killed herself after a classmate's mom
impersonated a teen boy and harassed her over Myspace.

Murder
We've reported on numerous incidents of people getting in trouble because of their online
behaviour. Now, people are becoming victims because of what they're doing on the Web too. In England,
a man was convicted of murdering his estranged wife after she changed her relationship status to "single."
So, be careful of who can see your profile and what you're doing, no matter how harmless it seems.

Nigerian Scammers
Oh, you thought this only happened via poorly worded emails, right? Wrong. Once people got wise
to their old ways, these con men started turning to social networking sites for new targets. Now, they're
hacking into people's accounts and impersonating them to ask for money, usually with some weird sob
story. You can check out a transcript of one of these conversations here.

This article is a good summarize of all the possible crime that can be conduct
through Facebook directly or indirectly. However, the examples above are just some
special cases from Facebook, so it isn’t just good for nothing. There are still some
dramatic cases from Facebook that showed in the next article.

[4] Father and Daughter Reunited on Facebook after 50 years apart

(www.dailymail.co.uk):

A father and daughter who have not seen each other for nearly 50 years have been reunited after
meeting on Facebook. Frances Simpson, 51, last saw her father when she was just three-years-old after
her parents separated. She had spent 33 years trying to find him with no joy until a friend researched her
family tree as a surprise.
 Frances discovered for the first time she had a half-sister called Kim Macnauton whom she never
knew about. She looked Kim up on Facebook and sent her a message in which she wrote: 'This is going to
be a bit of a shock... but I think I am your sister.' By chance, the two women's father Tony Macnauton,
now 72, was sitting by Kim's side when the message arrived.

Stunned Kim, 19, immediately wrote back confirming they were indeed related. They exchanged
phone numbers and Frances spoke to her father for the first time in 48 years. The pair have now met face
to face in an emotional reunion. Frances, from Market Drayton, Shropshire, said: 'It's unbelievable; I'm
absolutely over the moon. 'I don't have the words to describe how I'm feeling, it's amazing.

'After all these years I've finally got my dad back.'

She has now introduced Tony, a retired lorry driver from Poole, Dorset, to the five grandchildren
and great-grandchild he never knew he had.
Truly touching. Cases like this can’t happen at all without the huge network
traffic from the social network in Facebook. Well, that was in the United Kingdom,
back in Malaysia, the local police was advised to trace crime and solve cases by using
Facebook. The next article will show what the local police can do with Facebook.
[5] Police Advised to use Facebook to Solve Crime (www.mysinchew.com)
PETALING JAYA, Dec 18 (Bernama) - It has been suggested that the Royal Malaysia Police
(PDRM) use Facebook, a social networking site, as an alternative approach to solve criminal cases.
National Key Result Areas (NKRA) for crime prevention laboratory leader Abdul Aziz Md Noor said the
website which is widely used by the community could help the authorities fight crime.

"We previously used the short-message service (SMS) through the Rakan Cop programme (to fight
crime), but with this new approach we hope to solve cases faster. For example, by displaying photos of
suspects on Facebook, the public could indirectly channel information regarding the case to the police."
He said after presenting the results of the NKRA for crime prevention laboratories at the Government
Transformation Programme (GTP) Open Day held at the Sunway Convention Centre here today.

Besides helping the police, he said the social networking site would also help foster a closer
relationship between the PDRM and the people. Abdul Aziz said the public could also file reports and
complaints on crime to police through the website. "It is difficult for the police to control crime without
the help and support of the community. If the public helps to report all criminal activities to the police, we
believe the target to reduce crime by 20 per cent by the end of 2010 is possible," he said.

At the same presentation, members of the public were urged to register as Rakan Cop members to
facilitate police obtaining information quickly."They no longer need to go to the police station or see a
police officer to give information... this can be done through SMS now," said Abdul Aziz.

Imagine having everyone in the Facebook network as the eye of the police
force, criminal have virtually no place to hide around. Theoretically if this happens,
crime rate could drop exponentially because we are watching each other and stops
crime from happening as a whole society’s responsibility, not the police’s
responsibility alone.
Methodology:

In this research, there are 2 major groups of people that involved:

1) The people who currently working in the society.
2) The students who currently learning in school / universities.

Method to Commence Research:

1) To approach these groups to obtain data about what they think about social
networks such as Facebook, questionnaires are given to 30 respondents in each
group.
2) Interview with respondents when they have extra feedback and information
regarding the topic.
3) Review literature from different media source such as news, blog, internet,
article, book, and seek opinion from the international stage.

Case Study Location:

1) Literature from internet such as article, news, and blog.
2) Students from the local universities (UPM, USM, UM, and UTM).
3) People who working in the Serdang, Petaling Jaya, and Kuala Lumpur area.

Gantt Chart:
W2 W3 W4 W6 W7
Topic title selection
Topic title approval
Data Collection
Questionnaires
preparation
Topic title revision
Literature review
Proposal discussion
Writing proposal

When the data collected was analyzed. Appropriate graphs, charts and tables
were used to present the data in the data analysis. Some statistical calculations were
also made in order to visualize the data collected.

Discussion among group members is also done to draw conclusion between the
survey data collected with the article found.
References:
1) Article (Facebook History)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Facebook
2) Article (Facebook Crime)
http://www.switched.com/2009/07/09/facebook-crime-and-punishment
http://www.switched.com/2009/02/11/couple-arrested-for-eating-rare-iguana-on-facebook
3) Article (Reunion of Father and Daughter)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1246102/Father-daughter-reunited-Facebook-50-
years.html
4) Article (Advantage and Disadvantage of Facebook)
http://ezinearticles.com/?id=2051514, http://ezinearticles.com/?id=2051505
5) Article (Malaysia Police Advice Solve Crime Using Facebook)
http://www.mysinchew.com/node/32957Article (China Blocked Facebook)
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2009/07/chinas-facebook-status-blocked.html
6) Article (Facebook Criticism on Status Change)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8405334.stm