Having shared connections with other people (through your schooling, home town, religion, hobbies, and so on) is normally a very good thing if people act appropriately.  When people use these connections to exclude others you can have problems.

A side issue that arises in this report is the protection of the privacy interests of juveniles.  I suppose we can leave that for another day.  But I would suggest that adults be very careful when they participate in marketing campaigns that put children in the public eye.  The Internet does not leave much room for do overs.