Computers & Technology >
Internet Security & Safety (Other)
Get a Widget for this title
RSS FeedIs MySpace a safe Internet venue for teens?
Results so far:
| Yes | 48% | 679 votes | Total: 1406 votes | |
| No | 52% | 727 votes |
Yes
Write now
Print
Invite a writer™
Add to FavoritesMySpace is like any other website where users interact directly with each other. It was created as a way for people to keep track of their friends, make new friends; for people to network with each other and artists of all kinds to make their works known. But why does MySpace stick out among so many other social networking sites in existence? Users create a profile and use that to interacts with others that are also a member of the website. Quite plain and simple or is it?
Like any other website, there is always a lingering danger of users creating fake identities and using them with malicious intent. One of the common dangers is people using their fake identities and luring a nave underage boy or girl into lewd acts or agree to meeting with someone they've never met in real life. The other, of course, is phishing and Trojans. However, anyone can avoid these dangers simply by education teenagers on these facts. One can also take it a step further and actually keep track of who is on their teen's friends list, even create a profile themselves and add their teenager to their list. Now, some may ask: wouldn't this be considered spying or stalking your own child? Well, isn't there also a chance you may recognize a possible threat that your child may not?
The reason why MySpace has received such a notorious reputation is because of its immense popularity; it's one of the biggest cyber fads. Like all major fads, they meet with criticism when it faces trouble and meets the most media scrutiny because of it. When you are prepared with the knowledge to protect yourself, you are safe from the scum that hang around. The same goes for any and every website out there. As long as you use common sense, you are perfectly safe.
In fact, MySpace offers a wide variety on security measures such as the use of CAPTCHA when one intends to add you to their friends list. This keeps bots and spammers from, well, spamming your profile with annoying, sometimes inappropriate content by requiring users to type a series of letters and numbers from an image presented. Among the neat little features is you can set your profile so that only your friends may view it. You can even block messages from people at certain age groups. The rest of the features may be activated based on your settings.
The combination of common sense and the MySpace crew's hard work in security features, will be sure to make one's membership of the site a safe and fun one. All major socializing websites function in the same principle of safety. The people at MySpace work diligently to provide the latest security updates and announcements to make it as safe as possible. With all these features, MySpace is certainly a safe cyber venue for teenagers.
Learn more about this author, Karla Aguirre.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
No
Speaking as a teenager and former Myspace member, I am well acquainted with the problems and dangers Myspace presents.
The concept of a site on which teenagers are encouraged make 'friends' with other users at the click of a button in order to augment their friend counter (over 80 and you're a social butterfly; below and you're a social leper), without the bothersome, obligatory talking that would have normally facilitated mum and dad's relationships, back in the day, is a shallow and childish one at best.
Unsurprisingly, therefore, Myspace is a popular area for children. And, while Myspace has rules that prohibits under-14 year-olds, and automatically makes profiles of 14 and 15 year-olds private, the amount of children that I know in person that bypass these rules is innumerable. Even those that are old enough to create profiles resent having the social retardation of the 'under-16' ball-and-chain, resulting in too many '17 year-olds' flaunting pushed-up, underdeveloped breasts and heavily made-up, doe-like eyes.
The allure for both young girls and boys - although, in my experience, this is largely a female vice - of casting off a perceived nerdy/unattractive/u npopular skin and metamorphosing into whatever they want to be is a huge one. Almost every pre-adolescent to adolescent female I know that has a Myspace account makes a point of taking barely recognisable pictures of themselves that change on a day-to-day basis. Commonly, these involve images taken by the girl with the camera pointing down on her, banishing any trace of double chins and swelling the appearance of the bust, put through Photoshop to further disguise 'imperfections' or featuring part of a girl's face and body. A forehead and a nipple. Fantastic.
Is is any wonder that Myspace is such a hotbed for paedophiles and sex offenders?
And, when it is the young girls selling themselves, the onus shifts not onto the sex offender, but onto the girl herself, rendering child protection laws quite useless. As was the case with a family in Texas last year, who attempted to sue Myspace for negligence, fraud and misrepresentation when their 13 year-old daughter was sexually assaulted by a man she had met via Myspace. The judge dismissed the case. Why? Because she had entered her age on Myspace as 18. Children are making adult decisions and, consequently, are being held responsible.
The judge in the case was reported to have said "If anyone had a duty to protect Julie Doe, it was her parents, not MySpace." This presents another problem. A parent's control over their child's Internet activity is limited as it is, as many parents will testify; add to that the issue of many parents' lack of concern over self-styled 'child-friendly' sites such as Myspace, and the problem is compounded.
It does not help matters that the Myspace authorities are lazy, insensitive and money-grubbing. Why else would a site allow people from ages 14 to God-knows-what communicate?
Luckily, I have not had any such experiences with sexually-deprived, balding, 40 year-old men, but then again, I always made sure I only accepted people I knew and made my profile private. While I am sure many others do similarly, the format of Myspace is quite at odds with this minimalistic approach, with its aforementioned 'friend counter' impetus.
I have, however, found the rules and 'safeguards' on Myspace to be grossly inadequate. On one occasion, I was actually racially harassed by a number of girls on my school forum on the site. I showed it to my school authorities and they deemed it unacceptable, advised me to call the police if it continued and even talked to the girls involved. However, when I reported it to Myspace, despite the site's alleged 'prohibition of anything offensive that promotes racism, bigorty, hatred or harm', I was sent a machine automated message that read that Myspace could not find the incident. When I sent the url (location) of the incident, I never heard back from them. Similarly, when I complained that the forum moderator, whose job it is to oversee such issues, does not even check the forums (having left the school years ago), I was sent another automated massage that read 'it is unclear as to the reason why you are contacting MySpace support'. So much for Myspace support!
Myspace is not going to take responsibility or help you or your children if they are bullied, interfered with or assaulted. That's not how they became successful. If the too easily manipulated 'rules' are broken, which, in my opinion, the whole set-up of Myspace encourages, it is, ultimately, your children that will pay the price.
Learn more about this author, Sarah Jayne Kipling.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
Difference of opinion? Debate now.
- Internet Security & Safety (Other)
- Should Internet community sites allow complete freedom of speech or should content be regulated for inappropriate material?
