Mejab

(Reviewed by request)

This is one of those venues that inevitably leaves the older generation shaking its collective head and wondering what the world is coming to. This is most definitely not your grandmother's website.

It's promoted as a venue for older teenagers to do stuff which isn't allowed or welcomed elsewhere: rant, curse, swear, argue, moan, and generally vent their frustration that on the whole, life isn't a comfortable place for teenagers.

As such, perhaps it wouldn't be a bad idea. If it kept anger out of other places, it would be doing the online community a service. Unfortunately it goes beyond that and into the realm of serious violence and easy access to shock materials. Anyone can go here and browse through member-uploaded videos, which range from endless clips taken from the execrable "Jerry Springer Uncut" through to many clips of real street fighting and extreme violence, teenage depression and suicide. I didn't watch the "suicide on webcam" clip I came across so I can't tell you if it's real or not. It shouldn't be here, regardless.

The site has around 2000 listed members, each of whom posts a profile which anyone can read, member or otherwise. Membership is split almost 50/50 male to female, though of course you can't be entirely sure who you're communicating with and I saw member photos that were of the opposite gender to the profile description. As this is a broadly teen community, there's an online dating feel to it. Making new friends is encouraged, though it's a little disconcerting that lots of angry people might be getting together to meet lots more angry people. I just hope they do it somewhere distant from me.

Obviously appropriate as a venue for the MySpace crowd, the whole thing could be taken as a relatively harmless joke. The outpourings of hate which are prerequisites of the teenage rite of passage aren't necessarily all that serious or long-lasting, and although the site encourages you to bring your bad temper with you, it doesn't openly seek out the real nutcases out there for whom anger is the first step to something very much more dangerous.

The message here is "get mad, but have fun!" and I would like to have laughed, but the more I saw of the content the more unpleasant the site became for me. Regardless of my age, which I freely admit has gone somewhat past teen, I'm concerned about the level of visual violence on display to minors. The uploading of real-life street fight videos is encouraged and it's a sure thing that the younger brothers and sisters of members here are going to be exposed to this material.

For me, this is a sleazy reality show that I don't want to watch, and wouldn't want my kids to watch either. Sure, it's easy to find shock material, violence and pornography all over the web if you go looking. But that's not the same as having it delivered to you at a venue so appropriate to young people.

Now then, before someone else reviews this site from a more sympathetic viewpoint and observes that the Terms Of Use state clearly that members must be 18 years of age or older:

1) I was able to register with a birthdate in 1993. That makes me 16 years old. In fact the registration form clearly indicates that members may be 16 years old.

2) There are many, many 16- and 17-year old members already using the site.

3) There is no hotlink to the Terms Of Use in the registration form. You are required to tick a box stating "I accept and agree to the user agreement", though you will not find any document by that name on the site. The "user agreement" is presumably the Terms Of Use, and you'll only find that if you look at the small print at the very end of the page. And it's the longest Terms Of Use I think I've ever seen, since it needs to separate the site from any responsibility for anything whilst committing you to considerably weakening any rights in the content you upload:

"You agree that any Content you upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available via the MeJab Service is non-confidential and that MeJab shall have a perpetual, worldwide, fully paid, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use any such Content in connection with the MeJab Service and MeJab's (and its successor's) business..."

Note the "and it's successor's business". You're handing over content not just to MeJab, but to any company which takes over the site subsequently. And they will be free to do what they like with it, as the information will then be subject to a different set of terms, if any.

"You also hereby grant each user of the MeJab Service a non-exclusive license to access your Content through the Website, and to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display and perform such Content as permitted through the functionality of the Website and under these Terms of Service. The submission of any materials to MeJab irrevocably waives any and all "moral rights" in such materials, including the rights of paternity and integrity."

This is a big catch-all. Any member of the site may copy your content, distribute it, alter it, and generally do whatever they like with it. You have no claim to it any more. Of course, in turn you can also help yourself to other members' information at no risk.

Let's step back a bit and see what is meant by "Content", legally:

"BY UPLOADING, POSTING, SENDING OR SUBMITTING PHOTOGRAPHS, PICTURES, IMAGES OR ANY OTHER CONTENT INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, GRAPHICS, VIDEO, DATA, TEXT, FILES, LINKS, SOFTWARE, MUSIC, SOUND, ("CONTENT") TO MeJab YOU ARE CONSENTING TO BE BOUND BY THESE TERMS OF USE."

So the meaning of "Content" here is "everything" and therefore includes your personal photos and any other personal material or information that you provide. And any and all of that may be handed over to any business that succeeds the current owners of the MeJab service.

Moving on to the "Privacy Policy", we see that:

"MeJab reserves the right to transfer personal information to a successor in interest that acquires rights to that information as a result of the sale of MeJab or substantially all of its assets to that successor in interest."

And

"If... we are going to use users' personally identifiable information in a manner materially different from that stated at the time of collection we will notify by posting a notice on our website."

And they would be using your information "in a manner materially different" for what purpose, I wonder?

Lastly:

"we limit access to member information to those employees who need access to perform their job functions, such as customer service personnel and technical staff. Please note that we cannot guarantee the security of member account information."

So, it's essential that you understand what you're doing before giving the site any information or content of any sort. You may not then want to tick that "I accept and agree" button.

Everyone knows that, regardless of terms and conditions, teens add a few years to their true age when they sign up for social sites. Please don't try to convince me that every 21-year old on MySpace is truly 21, we all know this, and we know when we're pitching a site to young people even if we say otherwise. There's a duty of care which a responsible business should recognize. It concerns me when a business goes to such great lengths to distance itself from that duty of care and gives the impression that its' own rights are more important than those of the users. I would have much preferred to see the current owners of this site promise not to hand over personal information to anyone, successor or not, and to make at least some token effort to protect at least some of the uploaded content, at least that of a personal nature. I don't believe there's a need for employees to be able to access user login details without the permission of the user; I know my ISP won't get into my account without requesting my password. Because it's known, as a result of many breaches of security in the past, that employees who can collect saleable data and resell it on, sometimes do exactly that.

This is not a site I'm likely to return to, because I'm not comfortable there. If it's the right place for you, you'll know it when you see it. But even so, read the small print. Create an email address that you're only going to use for this site alone. Don't give away anything personal unless you're sure you don't mind what happens to it. And be really, really careful out there.