Facebook

Facebook. Friend, or foe? There are more than 400,000,000 active users on facebook who access the site every single day. All the people on facebook spend more than 500 billion minutes on facebook collectively every month. Whilst this can bring people together, it can also be used as a tool for harmful acts.

One such example is Nona Belomesoff. She was promised it all, a dream job, money, and a prosperous future. Instead, the 18 year old was lured to her death by a 'friend' on facebook pretending to work for an animal welfare group.

The alleged killer, James Dannevig spoke to the teen on the social networking site and as Nona Belomesoff was doing a animal studies course at TAFE, he posed as a WIRES boss. ''He said he worked there and he could get her a job,'' Mr Belomesoff said. ''She loved animals and saw this as an opportunity to follow her dream.''

Mr Belomesoff said that the killer told Mrs Belomesoff that she would have to join another carer on an overnight camping trip at Campbelltown. ''She said she was going camping to look for injured animals,'' Mr Belomesoff said.

''Nona said if she didn't go she would lose her job and this job was her dream. So she just went and that was the last time we saw her.''

Police found Nona's body in a creek bed near Waminda Reserve about 9.40pm on Friday.

Nona had allegedly arranged to meet Mr Dannevig at Leumeah railway station on Wednesday morning. When she hadn't returned as planned on Thursday morning the family contacted police. The family also reportedly called WIRES but the animal welfare group knew nothing of Mr Dannevig and said they didn't hold overnight training camps in the bush.

Det Supt Peter Crawford of Taskforce Argos was the man in charge of Nona's case "If you use social networking as a closed network of friends that you know and only share photos and information among that small close-knit group, then the risks are very much reduced," he said.

"I don't think kids need to have a profile photograph on the internet."

The shocking murder comes as anger mounts over new Facebook features that allow certain websites to view and store the Facebook profile of visitors.

Facebook members have to proactively opt out of the new "Instant Personalisation" feature which the websites say will "personalise their web-surfing experience".

The alleged killer has not applied for bail, the 20 year old was charged with the Murder of Nona Belomesoff.
Mr Dannevig's legal representative has requested a 10-week adjournment pending scientific, medical and other related information.

The case will be heard again on July 28 at Campbelltown Local Court.

Another Australian, Sarah Elston, 22 from Brisbane also allegedly suffered the same fate in June of 2008.
Sarah was allegedly talking to an ex boyfriend on Facebook and after a short chat they decided to meet up, her family was shocked to find out that she young talented artist had been found dead after being brutally murdered.

The street where she was murdered was a very loud street with several disturbances throughout the nights, because of this, the neighbours didn't report the screams they heard because it was just another party.

Some of Sarah's friends described her as being the kind of person who would alwsys give someone a second chance. They said she was happy and excited at the thought of seeing her former flame again.
"She hadn't seen him in a long time but then he contacted her via Facebook," friend Danae Walker said.
"She could always find something positive in everyone," she said

On Tuesday the 4th of June, 2008 they found her mutilated body in her Bdighton Rd house where she had previously lived for a year. She suffered multiple injuries and imemediately, an investigation was raised which lead to the arrest of a 28 year old Bowen Hills man the following day.

Ms Walker said she was left feeling "cursed". "I just keep hoping Sarah will run around the corner with a big smile on her face and say `this is a big joke'," she said.

Several of Sarahs friends gathered at the Rumpus Room bar on the West End, a popular hang our for Sarah and her friends. They remembered the colorful behaviour of Sarah such as weaving her house keys into her dreadlocked hair.

"Sarah epitomised West End," another friend, Shaun van Zyl, said.

"She organised art jams all the time where a big group of us would sit around and draw and create," he said.

A former resident artist at Indooroopilly State High School had named Sarah Elston the top artist in her final year.

Her parents have set up a website as a tribute to their daughter whos life was tragically cut short.

Here is a quote which sums up Sarah perfectly, as found on her website which is http://www.skitl.com/

Also known by her art name, Skitl, Sarah was a creator of beautiful things from an early age. She grew up in an environment where music, books, pottery, craft, art and artisans were her everyday surroundings.

At her core, in her heart , she was a content, fulfilled human being and from that love of life beamed kindness, understanding and love. Friends will tell you of her generosity, many times spending hours, even days making an intricate bracelet or necklace, then just giving it away to an admirer without a second thought.

There were several memorials posted on the young Australians MySpace page. Some included "Missing your wise words and your amazing positive energy. I'll remember you forever," and “We must not fret because it is you, our pet, that is jamming in that big cloud in the sky,"

I spoke to Sarahs mother, Jan Elston recently regarding this article. I sent her an email about the information in this article and she replied;

"I am afraid that the information about her being contacted on Facebook is not correct. Although this is what was reported by the newspaper here, there was no evidence that she was ever contacted on Facebook by the man who killed her. He contacted her by mobile phone and from a nearby phone box. We know this as we have heard the recorded messages he left on her phone and have spoken to the close friend who was with her when he rang to make contact for the first time in 2 or 3 months. It was the close friend who had moved away from Brisbane, who had contacted her on Facebook to arrange to meet up. Which they did that same day. Hence this may have caused the confusion."

Based on this information, and the fact that most of the top news programs and newspapers state that Facebook is responsible for her death, one would assmue that the media simply wants a story.

Why let the truth get in the way of a story?

I will tell you why. As stated previously, Facebook is used by over 400 million people world wide, imagine the stir it would cause if this simple means of communicstion was used as a way to prey on unsuspecting, innocent people? Think of the ammount of people that would read the story, more importantly, think about the amonut of people that would buy the story. More people equals more money.

As terrible as murders are, their are hundreds of murders every year in Austrlia and only few of those are made into stories by the media...

According to www.femail.com.au, an Australian survey showed that 55% of people use Facebok while at their place of work. This is compared to 20% of workers in the UK, 12% in France and 11% in Spain as well as 10% in Germany and 6% in Italy.


Employees admitted:
1 in 3 (28%) hid their screens from their boss so they could use their social network sites undetected.
24% of 18-24 year olds confess to avoiding additional work tasks to make time to use social network sites
17% skip lunch breaks to justify the time they spend on social network sites
8% explained that they had been in trouble after being caught on social network sites
66% believed that Facebook is for play as well and they accepted friend requests from work colleagues.

With regards to whether facebook is helpful or a hazard at work, I refer to www.readwriteweb.com. Most people, throughout the day, either on their breaks or when they should be doing work, use Facebook, or other social networking sites.
"87% of respondents basically said their time on Facebook at work had no business-related purpose."

But in a contradicting story by Dr Brent Coker, he found that "people who took small breaks between tasks were 9% more productive than their colleagues who did not. "It gives them a chance to reset their concentration," says Coker. That means that companies who block access to social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook are actually inadvertently decreasing employee productivity"

With all the above negatives about Facebook, what about the positives? For starters, 400 million peole use this website for a reason, theres a good chance that 80% of people you went to school with, or worked with, have a Facebook page. It is VERY easy to communicate with old friends that through whatever reason you have stopped communicating with in the past.

Another raeson it is (for the most part) virus free. Some other websites such as MySpace and Bebo often have links etc that are posted (via friends) by bots. This is an amazingly rare occasion on Facebook, which eliminates the risk of people downloading and broadcasting virus' on computers. Which can often lead to very important information being leaked.

Facebook is very easy to use, it is very simple to sign up, simple to post videos, pictures, updates, friend requests and anything else. Nothing is difficult on Faceboook.

Overall there are several pro's and con's of using Facebook, or any other social networking site for that matter. The way I see it, is Facebook is simply a means of communication. The fact that the press is blaming facebook for the crimes mentioned previously is somewhat laughable. If I messaged you from my phone, and then proceeded to kill you, would anyone blame my service provider?

I think not.

Cheers
Joseph Rigby
0407 782 058