Facebook And Syphilis? What’s The Connection?

A seemingly outrageous suggestion has recently been made about the popular social networking site Facebook and its possible impact on the rates of sexually transmitted disease in parts of the United Kingdom.

The charge is that in those parts of the country that Facebook is 25% more popular (Sunderland, Durham and Teesside) than others, a resurgence of STDs such as Syphilis has been noted.

It is social networking, particularly Facebook that offers the means for people to connect and engage in casual sex. So FB is thought to be the culprit for enabling more random sexual encounters, which therefore results in higher incidence of sexually transmitted diseases.

Facebook has labeled the allegations as ‘ridiculous’, but when you think about it, it does not seem all that ridiculous. FB officials may protest that their 400 million users know, their website is not a place to meet people for casual sex – it’s a place for friends, family and co-workers to connect and share,” but that is not going to prevent people from misusing the service.

And certainly FB gives people access to interact and connect with others (friends of friends for instance) in a way not available before. It may not be Facebook’s fault; pedophiles targeting children through Facebook is also not the fault of the website. But the fact remains that it offers a new means.

Source: Flash news