Social networking websites have never been more popular but how do parents know their children’s safety is not being put at risk? A Brunel University graduate believes his site has the answer; by offering a service exclusively for the under-16s.
Former Brunel student David Strugnell, 23, created the website Jellysnap.com as his final year project, to provide a social networking tool for an age group otherwise forgotten in the wideness of the web.
With social sites like Myspace and Facebook being restricted to over-16s, many children are illegally signing up to fit in with the latest trend, leaving them exposed to unsuitable content and at a risk from preying adults. Jellysnap cleverly does not allow photo-tagging or adding of people without their specific e-mail address, providing a safe environment for children to socialise with their friends.
Dr Emmanuel Tsekleves, lecturer of multimedia technology and design at Brunel University said: “Parents should feel safer knowing that their children are actually networking with their friends rather than strangers.”
Mr Strugnell got the idea for the project when he noticed children of a similar age to his 11-year-old sister pretending to be 16 to join social networking groups.
He said: “I saw kids lying about their age and realised there was a gap in the market, Jellysnap gives them another option.”
The site features ‘snapbooks’ where friends can privately share photos with each other. Users can communicate with ‘comments’ and ‘messages’ features.
Since members are forced to invite friends to join using only their e-mail addresses their profiles are safe from the eyes of strangers. Mr Strugnell, who is now working as a media designer for IBM, said requests for an instant messaging feature is something he is considering. However, he described the site as a, ‘chicken or the egg scenario’, where he needs interest if he is to afford the time further changes will demand.
http://www.jellysnap.comI found this story on the press-release page of the Brunel University website while I was working at the Uxbridge Gazette. As it was only one person who created the site it was not hard to perform the interview with him. Due to his location it was forced to be a telephone interview. I also had him email me a photo which was used with the story.
I chose the social networking for children angle as that humanises the otherwise technological piece. Also as Facebook and other social networking sites are often in the news, along with child safety online, I thought it an up-to-date and relevant case.
I was limited to around 300 words as not only did my editor request that but also if the story had gone on for too long it may have become too technical for local paper readers to appreciate, losing the human angle. For this same reason I tried to keep the vocabulary relatively low-tech and punchy so older readers could both understand and relate to the story.
My editor did not want the story without a photo and David Strugnell didn’t want to give one which proved challenging. I convinced him the story was in his best interests and therefore so was a photo, which he agreed to. The only other worry was by mentioning Facebook as a source of child danger might incur legal ramifications. For this reason I worded it “sites like Facebook”.
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