Social Networking for Social Workers

While social networks may exist in e-mail form such as lists and newsgroups, most people think of social networks being more technologically advanced. Such networks include text, photos, graphics, audio, and video, or a combination of all of these. I need help describing the benefits and disadvantages of such networks for a social work practitioner or educator. What are the confidential and ethical concerns that could be associated with social networks? On balance would you recommend their use and in what ways? I also need scholarly references on this 'social work' topic, but I cannot seem to find any.