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The Facts About MySpace
What You Need to Know Before Your Kids Sign On By Kimmy Powell
Even
if your children don’t have an account, they’ve certainly heard enough
about it through word of mouth. The latest hangout for tweens and teens
isn’t the mall in downtown or any particular club, but rather the chaotic
world of cyberspace, at a website called MySpace.com. As the hottest
social networking site on the web, MySpace has accumulated an estimated 54
million users in just three years of existence, with many users falling
within the teen and twenty-something crowds and approximately 19%
under
the age of 17. MySpace is a wonderful place to meet others of like mind
and interest, but with this sharing of interests come other dangers that
are heightened by the unregulated nature of the Internet and the ready
availability of personal information online.
Why MySpace?
Teens are constantly looking for places to hang out, away from parents and
school. MySpace gives them just that – a place to socialize with others of
similar interests and tastes. The biggest attraction in using MySpace is
its ease of use and the number of friends one can meet online.
Setting up an account in MySpace is free and easy. The only
requirements are that users must be at least 14 years of age. The
information needed to start an account includes:
• Valid e-mail address
• First and last name
• Password for the account
• Country
• Zip code
• Date of birth
• Whether or not to make the date of birth public
• Agree to Terms of Service and Privacy Policies
Once
users agree and provide the requested information, they are invited to
create personalized profiles. Profiles can include pictures, videos, or
music. Members can link their profiles with other “friends” on MySpace.
They can create shareable blogs (journals). Friends or strangers can post
comments to these profiles, with users doing likewise on other profiles.
Members can form buddy lists with groupings of friends and interesting
people.
Kids who otherwise have trouble socializing with their peers on a
school campus will like the appeal of MySpace, where there is no
face-to-face interaction required, no popularity contests, no need to hide
behind a mask. You are who you are, or who you think you are.
The Dangers of MySpace
While MySpace is great for making new friends and promoting oneself, there
are several drawbacks in allowing your children to roam freely online
within the MySpace framework.
First and foremost, MySpace profiles are
public. Anything posted on a public profile can be read by other members,
and anybody in the outside world can get to a MySpace profile. Children
often disclose too much personal information (i.e. – name and addresses,
school names, classmates, teachers, birthdates, favorite hobbies) on
profiles, which attract child predators lurking on the site. These
predators seize upon details left in blogs, comments, and personal
profiles to take advantage of these kids when parents aren’t home, or when
kids are at school.
Secondly,
teens love to gossip. The same problems that torment kids at school are
magnified tenfold on MySpace. Gossip, malicious rumors, bullying and
racial slurs are posted on a public forum to an audience of millions. This
can seriously lead to problems in the future where there is a possibility
that a college denies admission or an employer looks elsewhere in
recruitment. Saying anything now can hurt later on.
Thirdly,
people aren’t who they say they are. A valid e-mail is the only
requirement for membership on MySpace and any other identifying
information can be faked. There are no controls in place within the
MySpace system to actively check the validity of current members. The only
time somebody is caught is when MySpace explicitly catches someone
violating its policies. Thus, child predators can masquerade as teens,
gain their trust, and use it to their advantage. Likewise, teens lie about
their ages and get access to materials otherwise denied to them.
The lack of parental controls and the relatively easy access to
inappropriate materials have prompted some parents and schools to entirely
remove access to the site from home and school computers.
Parental Involvement
Increasing
surveillance or outright banning your kids from using MySpace may seem
like a safe bet, but it can breed rebellion and worse. Kids with existing
accounts can hide profiles so that parents can’t access them. If your
child wants to access MySpace, your child will find a way. So, how do you
prevent your kids from becoming unwitting victims to the murky waters of
MySpace?
CyberTipline, an organization that works to prevent the exploitation
of children, recommends establishing lines of communication and trust with
your teen and educating yourself about the world of MySpace. In fact,
awareness is the key to prevention.
Communication
• Make sure kids are aware of issues of online safety.
Discuss with them what they can and cannot do online.
• Provide an open environment where your children can share and report what
they encounter online. If you react negatively and take away their Internet
privileges at the slightest infraction, you’re not creating a place of
trust. Kids will be afraid to come to you with legitimate concerns if they
feel they cannot trust you.
• Be reasonable and try to understand the issues your children are facing.
Remember, parents were once children too.
• Tell your children to avoid putting personal information onto profiles or
online blogs. Let them know that leaving too much personal information can
come back to haunt them.
Education
• Find out everything you can about MySpace. Educate yourself on the
features and potential hazards of having an account.
• Monitor what your kids do online. Search on Google by email address,
name, nicknames or school names and see what you find.
• Turn the online experience into a family adventure. Ask your children
about the latest happenings online. Have them show you the hotspots on the
net and what topics they’re currently interested in.
• Don’t believe the person behind the profile. Make sure your child
understands that anybody can create an account on MySpace and lie about
who they really are.
Communication with your children is the best way to make
your child aware of online dangers. Most kids avoid doing things online that
draws unwanted attention. Instead of banning children from the site when
they do something wrong, sit down and talk about common sense. By keeping
open channels of communication open on both sides, you’ll be happier for it.
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