Editorial: Stalking on FB would be missed

Gee, it seems all of our fun gets taken away from us.

Facebookers have been sent into panic mode this week with talk our ability to snoop other people's sites undetected may soon become a thing of the past.

The social networking site has announced it will soon let users see who has been snooping through their pages.

The move is expected to dramatically cut the browsing habits of hundreds of millions of users. Myself included. There's nothing more fun than Facebook stalking. Admit it. We all do it.

From people checking out an ex's new partner to singles trying to suss out if a person they have a crush on has any public photos - Facebook stalking is rife.

In our job, it's considered research. When we need to find someone urgently, Facebook is usually the first place we look.

There are times when we wouldn't want people to know we are trying to hunt them down.

Thankfully the change to the website at this stage only applies to group pages, meaning users can see who has visited any group which they are a member of.

But already there are suggestions that Facebook may widen the technology across the site, meaning all snooping will be revealed. On a more serious note, police in Rotorua have this week warned locals about what they put on the social networking site as their comments could land them in trouble with the law.

Their concerns come as a Rotorua woman chased down burglars at her home, found out who the alleged thieves were and publicly outed them on Facebook.

She posted their names on the social networking site, attracting a flurry of comments in support.

Extended family members of those she had named and shamed even commented, apologising for their behaviour.

But police have warned information put on social media sites could jeopardise investigations as well as breach court orders. There is also the risk of defamation.

So it seems whether we are snooping people's profiles or saying things about others we shouldn't, we will soon need to be more careful. Facebook stalking will be missed but it's best we rein in legally dodgy comments - no matter how interesting they are to read.