Social networking isn’t all poking people and sending gifts. This is demonstrated perfectly in the case of an unnamed 14 year old boy from Canada who used Facebook to start a group with evil ends involving redheads.
Inspired by a South Park episode the boy (who we will call “John” to make things easier) set up a Facebook group whose aim was to encourage people to kick a ginger. This group was set up purely as a joke, almost as a tribute to South Park. However, it would appear that you can’t say anything these days without someone taking you seriously. The group grew to around 5,000 people, and a date was set to initiate this ginger-kicking-fest: the 20th of November.
November 20th came and it moved beyond a joke and over the line into the realms of the serious as gingers of school age in Canada suffered from a day of being the victims of serial “kickings.” In fact, one school in Vancouver had to send 20 pupils home for the aforementioned offense sparking many parents, teachers, and victims to raise the issue to the public eye.
The group has since (unsurprisingly) been deleted, and “John” has apologized stating that it was only a joke. That was not enough for some people who have started up groups not only against what happened but against the original group organizer. Nevertheless, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have launched an investigation and there could still be charges against the people behind this. However it will be hard to put the blame on one person: is it “John” for initiating this “hate crime” or is it the vast number of idiots who took his joke seriously and acted upon it?
This is a sign of how times have changed. People are willing to follow the lead of someone they have never seen or met and to do things which are unacceptable in a civilized society. It also shows how effective this type of communication is, not only for meeting people but for starting new ideas and getting people to do things: the outcome of which is often not nice.
Source [PCPro]
As long as we take general precaution, things wouldn't turn out bad. It's people who have negative motives that we should be wary of, not the social networking sites that only intend on connecting people through the advent of technology.