Ahmed+N.+focus+group+report

Ahmed N.

To: Social Networking Team From: Nawaz Ahmed Subject: Social Networking Focus Group Report Date: March 22, 2010

Here is my report on focus group I ran with five college age males on their concerns about hackers and predators on social networks. I was able to cover four of the five questions created by our team. Most of my colleagues reported they were worried about privacy and used social networking to connect with friends and families.

Social networks are increasingly subject to attacks by hackers and predators. Hackers are now targeting users by sending messages to their social networking sites impersonating their friends, and predators who frequent these sites have been charged with kidnapping, raping, and even murdering young women. Our team wished to determine how these threats affect Gen-Y’s use of social networks and whether males and females view these threats differently. Information from these sessions will allow Proximity clients to promote the safety of their social networking sites when targeting Gen-Y users.
 * Focus Group Rationale**

The 45 minutes session was held in Towson University’s library on March 23, 2010. The male colleagues were:
 * Setting and Participants**
 * Sajjad, 23, a UMBC senior mechanical engineering major
 * Zain, 20, a CCBC sophomore accounting major
 * Gundeep, 22, a Towson University senior business major
 * Faizan, 24, a Towson University junior accounting major
 * Farhan, 23, a UMBC junior economics major

The following four topics were covered during our session.
 * Session Topics**

__Privacy concerns__ Only one of the participants, Faizan, did not have any concern about privacy. He said that he is not very active on social networking sites therefore he does not place himself in danger of getting attacked. The other four participants indicated that privacy is a major concern for them. They said they don’t want others to see what is going on in their lives therefore, they had made their profiles limited to public. All the participants stated they spend limited time on social networking sites to keep in touch with their families and friends. They expressed that since their families look at their profiles, therefore they do not want any strangers to look at their profiles and post inappropriate things.

__Provide the type of information__ Everyone stated that they provide reasonable and true information to their friends. They believed any false and misleading information could bring up issues in their life because their friends are going to read their information. Zain said he had once provided false information on his Facebook account which was read by his parents and caused a problem for him. They wanted to give their friends limited access to their profile.

__Hackers attack and online predators__ None of the participants had encountered predators while online. As far as concerned with viruses, Sajjad and Gundeep had never experienced them from Myspace. Zain, who is a Facebook user indicated that he had never downloaded viruses from Facebook. Farhan said that he had experienced viruses from advertising sites that were placed on social networking sites.

__Use of social networking sites as a dating portal__ None of the participants indicated that they use social networking for the purpose of dating. Their religion does not allow them to date women prior to marriage. They mainly used social networking to connect with families and friends.


 * Findings**

The session revealed that the male participants
 * are very concerned about privacy
 * use social networking primarily to connect with their parents and friends
 * provide limited and true information to their friends
 * are not worried about hackers because they spend limited time on social networking sites

These findings should be compared with the results from our other sessions of all male participants. Although the religious beliefs have kept the participants to use these social networking as a means of stay in touch with families and friends, the modern time in this era could change their views to use them as a dating portal. This view could make them spend more time on social networking sites compare to now.