Dangers of MySpace.com

[TallyCatholic]

I am a college grad now with a growing family of my own and i use myspace to keep in touch with many of my friends from all over the country. And without myspace I never would have re-established contacts. I do agree that myspace CAN be dangerous but let me give you some reason on why its not if your smart.

1. You don’t have to use your real name. There is no way for someone to actually get your full name. Try searching for people you know on myspace with their full name and you can’t find it, because a lot of peopel have “screenames”.
2. You can lock your profile. So only people who you approve to view it can. This automatically gets rid of any predators or unwelcome guests. (some of you may say that it can be hacked through, but so can everything else on your computer).
3. If you help your teen or relative make their page you can show them how to make a nice page without really devulging any personal information. Honestly, if you list your favorite TV shows, and someone gets a hold of that list, who cares? Its the kids who put extremely private things on myspace who are at risk. But if you work with your child in creating their myspace page you can monitor their page.

The best idea is for the parent to create their own page, just real quick and make it a false profile. Just join the site so you have access to other people’s pages. Then help your child in creating their page, and make sure their page is locked. Then have your child add you to their list, and that way you can constatntly check their page and all of their friends’ pages, granted they are not locked or you are added as a member.

This is obviously not going to stop your child if they want to, to create an entirely different page that you do not know about, but the whole idea here is that you trust your children.

Myspace itself (the idea of a website where people can make their own little page about themselves) is not a harmful idea (I know tons of people that have their own personal websites to communicate and share photos with family members). Its the people who use these things for wrong purposes is what makes it bad.

Just trying to clear the air because people on here have a tendency to generalize things. Hope that helps. The internet is an incredible place to communicate, just BE SAFE. I believe there are plenty of great resources already listed above about ways to do that.

 

[TrishaW]

Our son has never had internet access in his room, I am amazed how many parents give their kids and teens an online computer in a bedroom. Keep the computer in a public family space, only allow your kids online when you are home -

Never put a picture of your kids on a web site - you never know WHAT kind of monster could end up with that picture.

The presenter of this session blew the whole “my child only has people they allow” myth right out of the water. These are dangerouns places! Keep your daughters and sons away from them. They really CAN contact friends on the phone or in person - not having a myspace page will NOT damage a child, having one just might…

I wholeheartedly agree with this! I cannot believe the number of parents who allow their children to have computers with internet access in their room! Our computer is in the living room and will stay there. I look over my kid’s shoulders to see what they are doing on a regular basis.

God bless,

Trish

 

[lotusblossom]

I believe this site should only be for adults. Like a previous poster mentioned, unfortunately, kids tend to be way more computer/internet savvy than their parents. This leaves way too much room for danger, esp. if they’re posting personal and inappropriate things on their page. I tend to do the monitoring for my parents since neither know too much about computers and the internet.

I am a recent college grad, and I use facebook to keep in touch. It has a lot less room for inappropriate things to go on there, although you are able to put up plenty of too-personal info. However, because it’s more structured, I find it much easier to read and keep in touch with others and you can’t really hide much on there.

 

[mommyof4]

All this personal info on line just seems creepy to me. You can look at people’s babies, their families, their home lives–why do we need to be putting all this out there for the world to see? I understand sending pictures and letters to friends and family but why should strangers see it? It’s just asking for trouble. Maybe I’m just paranoid, who knows?

I totally agree

 

[mystified]

Okay. I admit it. I do not understand MySpace. I don’t even use the internet and/or my computer to the greatest extent possible because I haven’t figured them out.

My 15-year-old, influenced by some of the “lesser common denominators” at school is addicted to MySpace…four to eight hours at a sitting. She is receiving failing grades in two subjects, despite “doing her homework on MySpace”, Her friends reinforce the idea that getting poor grades is “smart”. She is refusing to formally apply for a summer job that she was offered, because she would miss her “friends”, who have told her not to accept a near-minimum wage job plus room and board five days a week, because it doesn’t pay enough. And MySpace might not be easily available.

I have reviewed some of the stuff she’s doing on-line. She has been smart enough to use an alias and has been careful about what goes out that might be traced back. However, I do not believe that she has “close friends” in Minnesota, Spain, and Veracruz; a native of Southern California, she has never been more east than New México and El Paso, nor further into México than the vicinity of Guadalajara. Some of the material she receives is embarrassing to me, and I was in the Army, and in a civilian occupation where one comes in contact with the seemier side of life, and it takes a lot to shock or embarrass me.

My question is: Given my limited abilities with a computer, and not wanting to create more family friction than is “normal” with a teenager, I am wondering if there is some way to limit access to MySpace and similar operations.

 

[didymus]

My son’s friend has a blog on livejournal.com. I occasionally read it because I know this young lady. I am certain her parents don’t read it, because if they did she would probably be put in a convent. The language she (and her friends) use is shocking – and believe me, I’m not that easily shocked. They brag about engaging in all sorts of immoral activities – whether they actually do or if it’s simply false bravado, I don’t know, but it’s pretty graphic stuff. My son has not posted any comments to her journal – he doesn’t think too highly of the whole thing, and for that I am glad.

This young lady & everyone lese who uses sites like these should be aware that employers regularly Google applicants, so if what comes up is a Myspace or Facebook pagefull of lurid braggadocio . . .

Her journal includes her photograph, and she is a pretty girl. She would be easily tracked down because she’s posted her phone number on occasion,

Absolutely insane.

and she regularly posts her schedule so a predator could find her anywhere including her home, her school, the coffeeshop she frequents, the mall she frequents… Certainly she must know that her journal is accessible to the entire world.

Teens think they are bulletproof. This girl has painted a great big bull’s-eye on her back and doesn’t know it. I would tell her parents about the blog, not because of the content but because of the safety issue. She doesn’t have a clue and they obviously don’t either.

For parents who allow their kids to have such journals, please read them regularly. MONITOR what your children are doing.

'thann

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