Net security: Adnan murder sparks debate

Mumbai teenager, Adnan Patrawala's shocking death sparked a debate among those addicted to the world of social networking websites. Orkut, the site where Adnan is said to have met his kidnappers, has already been in controversy for the darker side of net useage - porn, prostitution, soliciting and hate groups. At a Pune rave party many young software techies were caught in March. The police claim the rave networking was done through Orkut. But sites, Orkut, Facebbok and MySpace say they offer many options to filter out misuse. Like a report abuse option for online harassment - an option that few tend to use. ''I feel that Orkut filters are not that strong as it is just a social networking site and not a business site. Also people are not using the filters often enough,'' said Vijay Mukhi, Co-Chairman, E-Securities, NASSCOM.''It is very difficult to impose a ban as it is an international site governed by international regulations. People shoulld get more cautious about the use,'' Mukhi said.But there are ways of building in some checks. Sites like Facebook are stricter and less cluttered in comparison as a user can only browse through another user's profile once his friend request has been approved.''You know sometimes it becomes the fashion to add new friends. Like I have 900 friends and you say I have only 90 friends,'' said Saurav Ghosh, Net surfer.''It's the fashion to add new friends and you basically boast about it. But there is also a con to this, when you add new friends someone might have a fake thing, he might exploit you in some other way,'' Saurav said.But the fact is on all social networking sites taking on strangers aboard is the done thing. An online experiment conducted by security firm Sophos found over 40 per cent of Facebook users accept a ''friend request'' from a complete stranger.