Do you think facebook messages and other social network sites should be monitored closely?

[Phoenixxx]

I've been thinking that criminals must plan a lot of bad stuff using these sites but if their messages were being monitored then they wouldn't get away with it.

If it means lives are being saved, why not? I know there's a lot of messages to look through but they could easily scan using keywords or something, right?

[Johnny DJ]

Yes. Also I think all conversations should be monitored, after all, talking, even whispering, could be criminals up to no good.

If you see two people talking, report them to the police immediately?

Someone using a phone? They are obviously calling fellow criminals and organising a crime wave.

[Jack]

You are touching on a debate that the entire developed world is currently engaged in: whether or not mass surveillance (esp through the Internet) to protect citizens is worth the loss of privacy. To that end, you're going to get wildly different answers on this.

My opinion is that it should NOT be monitored. Doing so would basically be punishing innocent people for the actions of others, but more importantly it puts innocents in a very bad place if the government-in-question turns malevolent later on. For example: Let's say you disagree with your government about some new policy they make, and you wish to use your right to express your disagreement publicly on the Internet. What if the government saw your post online (because they were allowed to perform mass-monitoring) and decided to silence you for it? It's a hard thing to think about because right now your government is largely benevolent... but what about ten years from now? What about twenty? Once you give away your right to privacy it is incredibly hard to take it back.

There's also the fact that it wouldn't stop as many criminals as you'd think. Most criminals (at least, the ones that are truly dangerous to us) are smart enough not to discuss their plans plaintext on a 3rd party internet service. They use encrypted messaging and other anonymizing technologies that are a lot harder to break through than people seem to think.

[jesus_disciple777]

If you aren't happy with current internet safety then stay away from it.

Most people don't seem to understand that their posts on social sites can be read by anybody, not just their friends. Re-educating the public about internet safety is paramount.