Myspace users tell porkies

ALMOST TWO THIRDS of social networking site users are worried about the safety of their personal data and 31 percent of them lie to protect their identities, claims new research.

The emedia survey shows that more than 30 percent of Myspace, Youtube, Friends Reunited, Facebook, Linkedin and Bebo users regularly lie about themselves online. Respondents think social networking sites are useful for business purposes including networking (65%), exchanging ideas (58%), getting advice (44%), recruitment (43%), research (35%) and selling (31%).

But if a third of them are lying about who they are, one has to ask the rather obvious question: "If you're so insecure as to worry about your personal details appearing on these sites, why on Earth do you use them?" Swiftly followed by the logical next question: "What's the point of these sites if the information on them is rubbish"?

Imagine the trauma caused to a 40 year old spinster who believes she's been having torrid email intercourse with the hunky captain of her old school's football team, only to find that his details are completely fake and that she's been sharing her innermost lusts with a 25 stone trainspotter from Hull who still lives with his mother and has multiple alternate IDs, most of them claiming he's a 13 year old girl, fond of ponies.

Please, please, please, just turn off your bloody computer, wash under your armpits, put on some clean underpants and go out into the real world and meet some real people. Mac users need not apply. µ