Online Journalism News

Public wants guidelines on use of personal info online, says PCC survey

Nine out of ten (89 per cent) web users are in favour of the introduction of guidelines about the type of personal information that can be published online so that they can more easily seek redress if material is wrong or intrusive, a study has claimed.

The research into public attitudes to social networking published today by the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) also revealed that 42 per cent of web users aged 16-24 know someone who has been embarrassed by information uploaded on to the internet without their consent.

The question on guidelines asked all age groups in the study:

To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following? There should be clear guidelines about the type of personal information that can be published online (e.g. about pictures taken of people in private) so that people can complain if material published about them is wrong or intrusive.

Ipsos MORI conducted the survey on behalf of the PCC by asking 1000 web users aged 16-64 about their attitudes to social networks.

Forty nine per cent of respondents said they strongly agreed with the statement. Another 40 per cent said they agreed with the statement.

Journalism.co.uk wrote to the PCC last week highlighting the ease with which sensitive and personal details could be accessed through Google search and asking if it would consider issuing specific guidelines to journalists about their use of information found on social networks.

The PCC issued a statement today saying it had ruled out making any changes to its current code of practise in order to handle complaints against newspapers as a result of their use of information from social networking sites.

Sir Christopher Mayer, chairman of the PCC, said the current code was able to handle complaints in this area.

"Social networking marks a huge cultural change in the way in which people communicate. Personal information is being put into the public domain on an unprecedented scale. There is a need for public awareness about what can happen to information once it is voluntarily put into the public domain," said Sir Christopher Meyer, chairman of the PCC.

"This clearly has implications for the PCC, which has always had the task of deciding where to draw the boundaries between what newspapers and magazines may legitimately publish and what can rightly be considered private. The challenge remains the same for online editorial content, including material taken from social networking sites.

"In the digital age, self-regulation, with its sound principles and speed of operation, has never been more relevant. That is why I expect our current Code of Practice to be able to handle complaints in this area; and in the process to enable the Commission over the coming months and years to define through its decisions the boundary between the private and the public."

The study also revealed that 78 per cent of adults web users said they would change information they publish about themselves online if they thought the material would later be reproduced in the mainstream media.

The research found that only half of web users (55 per cent) considered before posting personal information to social networking pages that it might later be used by third parties without their consent.

The study also quantified the huge popularity of social networking sites in the UK, finding that 83 per cent of 16 to 24 year-olds online and half of adult web users had used social networks.

This is reflected by both Facebook and Bebo - the most popular social networking sites for UK users - registering record user numbers this country last month.

Figures from ComScore showed that Facebook reached 14.4 million unique users in April, a year-on-year rise in popularity of 262 per cent.

Bebo record around 12.03 million unique users in the same month, a growth of 40 per cent from April 2007.

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