Online communities have been around for quite a while now, becoming a popular trends in the middle of the nineties.
They exist to bring people together in the form of a certain type of social networking.
They have become quite prominent in recent times over the Internet, and almost everyone who is familiar with the Internet is aware of the presence of Facebook and MySpace.
Social networking is not just about meeting people on the Internet.
It is also about keeping in contact with friends and tracking down old work colleagues and classmates that you may have lost contact with over the years.
Although originally particularly popular amongst younger people, social networking of one form or another is used by a huge number of the population, regardless of the age, social background or experience of the Internet.
Generally, anyone who uses a popular social networking website will create a profile with some information about themselves and attach some pictures to it if they wish.
Profiles can usually be viewed by your mutual friends who you choose to keep in contact with.
Therefore, anyone who sees your profile, does so with your consent.
There also chat channels on offer and a number of groups on different subjects where people can get together and meet others of like mind.
People tend to invite each other to join their friends list and when this happens, both parties will be able to see each other's profiles and updates and keep in touch with what the other is doing.
Unfortunately, there has been a considerable amount of misuse in recent times of various social networking sites.
For example, some people have impersonated others and caused a great deal of problems and breaches in personal privacy.
Partly because of this and other factors, there are many who are very concerned about the safety of children using social networking sites.