Young web users warned over details they post online

THE Press Ombudsman has warned young people that material they publish on social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter could be accessed and used by journalists.

Professor John Horgan said the details they post about themselves online was unlikely to be protected by any privacy rules.

Speaking at the publication of the annual reports of both his office and the Press Council yesterday, Prof Horgan said many such website users failed to activate any security measures to prevent general access to personal information.

As a result, he warned few would be likely to successfully complain that newspapers should not be able to access such information.

In his annual report, Prof Horgan said that blogs featured prominently in articles that were the subject of two complaints last year.

“Both of these complaints, and their outcomes, underline the risks run by members of the public who blithely put material into the public domain, heedless of the potential consequences of media interest in their activities,” said Prof Horgan. “The web is, by and large, rarely a private space.”

Mr Horgan said the number of complaints to the Office of the Press Ombudsman in 2010 at 315 was largely unchanged from previous years. They resulted in 53 complaints being subject to a formal investigation, of which 34% were upheld. The majority of cases related to issues concerning accuracy and privacy.

The chairman of the Press Council, Daithí Ó Ceallaigh, expressed hope that web-based publications would in time come to see the value of quality control and best professional practice. Mr Ó Ceallaigh said the traditional press now had an independent regulatory system which is wholly absent for the internet.

Mr Ó Ceallaigh said there was evidence to suggest the establishment of such a system had already resolved complaints which would in the past have ended up in the courts.