Facebook's dark side - 'Don't involve police unless threat is real'

WHETHER or not you are one of the half a billion users worldwide who use it, it's getting ever harder to ignore the social phenomenon that is Facebook.

Directly or indirectly, the networking website is changing our lives - although unfortunately for most of us, not in the same way it has that of its 26-year-old founder Mark Zuckerberg, who has made a staggering 9 billion fortune.

Subtly, it is changing the way the rest of the world, particularly the younger generations, communicate with both friends and with strangers.

Zuckerberg himself insists his creation is a force for good, creating a more joined-up world, and there is no doubt that it has helped spread much friendship and fun.

But our story today highlights a darker side, too, and that is something everyone using such sites must be prepared for.

If you do make part of your life at least semi-public on the internet then you are opening yourself up to risk. If you invite people to make comments, then some of them are going to be nasty and you just have to deal with that.

In most cases, this takes just a few clicks of a button, especially the one marked "delete". So don't involve the police unless the comments pose a real threat.

They have enough to do without getting involved in what is often just hi-tech name-calling.

Screen dreams

THE Odeon in Clerk Street has a special place in the hearts of many Edinburgh people.

Film stars Sir Sean Connery, Dougray Scott and Ewen Bremner lead a star-studded cast who have campaigned on its behalf since it closed in 2003.

But now crunch time is approaching for the various plans that remain on the table for the much-loved art deco building.

Everyone would love to see it open to the public again, but we have to be realistic about how that might happen.

Our recent story about the decay that has set in shows just how much work is needed simply to restore the building.

The owners then need a plan for it to pay its way and that certainly won't be as the charming, stand-alone cinema we once knew.

It is clear some compromises will have to be made, but let's hope all involved can now find a way to allow the Odeon to thrive again.