Social Networking Sites

Because many types of grooming include at least one type of online contact, we felt it was helpful to divide up the types of social networks.

These categories are somewhat arbitrary, and we have no doubt that fashions for each will come and go, and that new ones will appear.

The way we deal with problems and how we stay safe will be different for each. This is a start point, therefore, for building a better understanding on online grooming.

This resource is being built out, but is online to help people understand the complexity of the online World and as a startpoint for our work in this area.

Social networking and interest-based networks

Social networks: A social network site is a social media site that allows users to connect and share with others.

In short, social networking sites encourage users to post, share and respond to each other’s content. From blogposts to infographics and beyond, just about any form of content is welcome. They allow people to directly connect with others, including unknown people.

Although dating sites would probably fall into this category, they have been excluded from this list and will be addressed separately elsewhere on this site.

Examples:

Generic: Facebook, LinkedIn

Interest-based: Goodreads, Houzz, Last.fm, MumsNet, Myspace, MeetUp

Microblogging  (This term is increasingly less used. ) Users post short written entries, which can include links to other sites. These get posted on the ‘walls’ of everyone who has subscribed to (follows) that user’s account.) The prime example is/was Twitter, but this group also also includes Tencent (QQ), Sina Weibo and more.

Review sites and ‘social shopping’: Polyvore, Etsy, Fancy

Anonymous social networking and interest-based networks

These sites are very like the above, but mostly anonymous.

Examples: Whisper, Ask.fm, After School

Bookmarking and content curation networks

These sites allow users to save and organize links to any number of online resources and websites. A great feature of these services is the ability for the user to “tag” links, which makes them easier to search, and, invariably, share with their followers.

Examples: StumbleUpon, Etsy, Digg, Flipboard, Pinterest

Social News sites

Social news sites allow users to post news links to outside articles and other items.  Users then vote on these items, and the items with most votes are most prominently featured. 

Examples: Reddit, Crowdfire

Media Sharing sites

On these sites, users share different types of media, such as pictures and video. Most also offer social features, like the ability to create profiles and ability to comment. Some include voting up/down options.

Examples

Photo/image sharing: Instagram, Moments

Video: YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook Live, Periscope, vlogs (video blogs), Tik Tok

Others:  AudioBoom (voice), Slideshare (presentations)

Blogs/blog comment sites

Comments can be posted relating to the subject of a blog.

Examples Blogger, Wordpress, Tumblr, Medium

Closed networking

Closed networking sites tend to be invite only ‘groups’ by invitation or subscription only.

Examples: Xing, intranets (such a work or organisation), Trello

Gaming Sites

Gaming sites cover everything from the X box through to online Scrabble games.

Most have some way of contacting and engaging with other players.

Discussion forums and Chat Rooms

Discussion forums do what it says on the can, for the most part. Some include voting up/down options.

Examples: Reddit, Quora, Yahoo Answers

Peer to peer services (closed messaging apps, Instant Messaging)

These services allow a direct connection for conversation/communication with one or more other people, over the Internet

Examples: Email, Apple Facetime, Whatsapp, Telegram, Snapchat,Twitch

‘Sharing economy’ networks

These platforms allow people to share resources with each other directly.

Examples: Airbnb, Uber, Taskrabbit, Freecycle

Dark Web

Sites on the dark web are not indexed by regular search engines like Google. They are only accessible by means of special software or specific software like Tor. They allow users and website operators to remain anonymous or untraceable.

Examples: Dream Market, AlphaBay, DeepDotWeb and sites ending in .onion.