By now most of you know that I don't believe that social media privacy exists.
I believe that no matter what precautions you take, ultimately whatever you put on Facebook or any other social network is public and leaves a trail.
This is why I do not bother with limited profiles, security settings and all those fiddles. I simply assume that everything that's on Facebook can be seen by perves in caves, my mother, and the Bishop, so as far as friends go, I accept all and sundry but if you bug me, I'll block you once and for all.
You'd think that five years after its birth, with 600 million profiles to its name, and over 100,000 reported Facebook crimes a year, most would have figured out that Facebook is not a free for all lawless space, and yet, people are still getting arrested for crimes they commit or admit to on Facebook.
Only last week a man was jailed for posting his ex-girlfriend's nude photos on his wall. Ravshan "Ronnie" Usmanov said that he did what he did because he was hurt when his girlfriend broke up with him. So as one does in such situations, Ronnie posted six, very explicit and very nude photos of his ex and then emailed her saying 'some of your photos are now on Facebook.' He was sentenced to six months in prison.
A quick search into cyber world revealed that Ronnie is not the first stupid person to get nailed for a silly Facebook crime. Here's a list of the juiciest ones I found:
Back in 2007 a certain Dylan Osborn(37) was jailed for seven days for adding his estranged wife on Facebook. The wife had a restraining order against him and instead of accepting his request she reported him the police. Osborn claimed that Facebook had sent an automatic friend request to everyone on his mailing list but the Judge was having none of it.
In 2009, Shannon Jackson (25) violated an order of protection by poking her petitioner. Whilst poking is usually the harmless equivalent of smiling at someone in a crowded street, when the other person has a restraining order against you, it can land you in jail.
Later in 2009, Vanessa Starr Palm and Alexander Daniel Rust were arrested for posting pictures eating an iguana. The two Americans were on holiday in the Bahamas where iguanas are an endangered species.
In 2010 Adam Mann (30) was jailed for 24 years for murdering his ex-wife Beverely (30) over Facebook taunts. After having won a case for child support, Beverley wrote on her Facebook :
'Now whose laughing? U've got done big time by the CS, so now leave us alone for good, your son hates u and so do I."
The next day Adam went to her house, beat her to death with a hammer and then slashed her neck with a knife.
Paul Franco (38) was found guilty of holding his ex-girlfriend's Facebook account hostage. He changed her password, changed her status details to say that she was interested in women, and demanded cash for the new password. She reported him to the police and he was arrested.
Corey Christima Adams (19) used Facebook to try to hire a hit man to kill a woman who had accused him of rape – a crime he later admitted to. His status read:
"I got 500 on a girls head who wants that bread? Hit me up anyway possible."
He now faces 11 to 22 years in prison.
Mark Musarella who worked as an emergency medical technician responded to an emergency call in Staten Island and later posted a mobile picture of a 26 year old who had been strangled. He was fired from the hospital he worked at, had to complete 200 hours of community service and was banned from ever working as an EMT again.
If the world of status updates, walls, private messages, tweets, photo tags and pokes still confuses you, there's one very simple thing that you need to remember,– 'don't do unto Facebook what you won't do in the streets'.
Simples!