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| Yes | 48% | 680 votes | Total: 1411 votes | |
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Add to FavoritesMySpace, while it may be full of people who are most definitely not teens, it is also a great means to expressing yourself through blogs, as well as getting to know people who may be near by to you, ontop of allowing you to keep up with friends which you may not be able to talk to otherwise. All you see on TV, or hear about from parents and other worried people is the fact that some people have used MySpace to attack, or that they are open playing grounds for people trying to get hold of a child or teen.
I find it sad, however, that some of these parents view this sort of thing as if its evil, like MySpace is to blame, and not the fact that you are not educating your child about what should and should not go on. Don't know? Learn. The fact is, the world is a place full of these sort of people, who hate, insult, and will otherwise try to harm your child. Your child needs to learn that, and eventually, if you hold them in you will find little jenny and johnny are not the little angels you thought they were.
Teens now, even if parents think they are oblivious, are far from it. Everything you say gets through, rather they act on that or not is not due to them being unintelligent, as believe it or not. The average child, despite popular belief is more capable in the streets then they are with a book, knowing what to do to protect themselves, or learning how to handle the stress of many of the problems MySpace may cause, are just as prevalent within the schools they go to.
Its up to the parent to educate your child on what to do, and what not to do, while they browse online. MySpace is great, but there should be a definite limit on just how much personal information you share, pictures? Fine. Keep them tasteful, don't tempt people who would already insult you with things to make it worse, also, try not to give people which may be potential child molesters the chance to look at you with googly eyes.
Keep in mind. There is alot of good to MySpace.
1. ) Family and Friends, all of these people can communicate by MySpace, swap pictures of your pets, children, heck, even friendly jokes. For some people this may be the only communication you have with some of your family members and friends, and it is better then nothing.
2. ) Make new friends. Sure. Its the virtual world, but that does not mean that it makes the person your talking to any less real, after all, in this day and age where teenagers spend more time texting their friends rather then talking, whats the difference anyways?
3. ) Branch out. Comedian? Artist? Singer? Dancer? Other Professions Inserted Here? Well. Then my space is a great place to put up your varied works, get feedback, even connect with some big names if you are dedicated enough. Chances are, if you are great? People will notice.
4. ) Let it out. You have a blog, you can set it your profile to friends only, remember emotions are less harmful if they are expressed, and by spilling your heart out in your writing, maybe you will feel a little better then you did before.
5. ) Not into the whole Dear Diary scene? Well. There are other uses to express your creativity and emotions in your blog. Try writing a story, a poem, a song, anything that you can let your feelings out into. Don't want someone to know how you feel? Convey it through means of a character, its usually fun!
6. ) Groups. Groups are a big part of MySpace, ranging from hobbies and passtimes, on up to the people you went to High School with. Who knows, someone you forgot about from the past may just have a MySpace!
Even though the bad may seem hectic, with anything you do now a days online a certain degree of risk is taken. However, with MySpace there are four key things which you can do to prevent alot of hassle.
1. ) Never. NEVER EVER. EVER EVER EVER! Share your password, and ALWAYS make it something complex yet so you can remember. Things such as Social Security numbers, Addresses, Birthdays, so on, are VERY BAD EXAMPLES. Do not use these things, instead, try to think up a number word combination which is easy for YOU that does not involve any personal information which friends or family may know. ( You'd be surprised what some people do when they get angry at you. ) Remember. You may like, and be liked by said person one day, but the next you guys could be worst enemies.
2. ) Personal Information. There is a degree which is fine for you to share, things such as City, State, First Name or Nick Names, Favorite Things, Things You Dislike, so on with things of similar nature are fine, but there are things which you do not want to give out. This generally includes middle names, addresses, phone numbers, zipcodes, social security, passwords of any sort, all are bad. Stop and think about it. Can someone use this against me? Can someone use this to harm me? Can this possibly cause harm someone close to me? If you can answer yes to these sort of things, then its probably best if you did not put it up.
3.) Pictures. Contrary to popular belief and use, pictures which encourage people to treat you in a certain manner, will of course, cause them to treat you in a certain manner. Do not expect to put a picture up with breasts almost falling out, and showing off more flesh then a school would allow, and not have people look at it as if you want more then friendly chat. Try to keep your pictures tasteful, clothing you like, but not the sort of clothing which shows off more flesh then a playboy bunny suit would.
4. ) Finally. The easiest way to ensure you have a better time on MySpace is the easiest. Set your profile to friends only. It is simple, precise, and to the point. To add onto this, make sure you actually look into who you are approving as a friend before you approve. Don't just click the approve all button.
With a little common sense, and of course, learning what to do and what not to do while you are online, its quite easy to get along fine. The Internet is not an evil place, it is a communication tool just like phones, mail, and casual chat. Be safe and have fun!
Learn more about this author, Roger Hodge.
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No
You've got to be kidding me. How can it be? Ask yourself honestly how any network that is public is safe first, and secondly any network where people are encouraged to spread their private information for strangers to see can be for any teen or adult (but especially teens who WANT to be seen and known and unfortunately, will share a little too much by mistake usually when they get too emotional).
Myspace has had *numerous* situations where they've been under-fire for everything from pedophile rings to drug running and shootings. They recently had to go and eliminate a few hundred thousand accounts or so that they were aware of which had either known content promoting child porn, drugs, and other crap or were registered sex offenders. Now tell me this, how can a network which encourages the world to interconnect on all levels keep your child safe? It can't. Because for one, they can never keep everyone out. You can always go onto myspace and create a bogus account with someone else's pictures any day of the week, make "friends" that you don't know or have never even seen, and create an otherwise seemingly "legitimate" profile that really belongs to one of the offenders they kicked off, or someone who is soon to be on that list. You can't stop your kids from trying to avoid the age limits either - no one can prove what their age is in cyberspace (outside of using a stolen credit card for verification purposes?), and because of that and the availability of adult content like wildfire...no. There is no way that myspace can be a safe internet venue for teens unless they are closed off from the world, in which case they'll probably end up seeking out exactly what you try to tell them not to.
Myspace frequently has bulletins from "friends" which encourage people to put their personal information out there on surveys. Sure, they may seem fun to do when you get bored, and they may be harmless to most of the people that you do or don't know on there...but they can be perfect for a predator to use to compile information on you right before they move in for the rape or the kill. It is easy for scammers to get information on you and your teen to use against you if they can get things such as the teen's (your) mother or father's name, maiden name, birthdate, birth place, street name, address and other sensitive information that can be used to get things such as social security numbers, find out where you live, and then use social engineering upon your son or daughter to find out who will be home and when. The sky is the limit. And that's not all - ask Vanessa Hudgens and a few other thousand teens who have their tits and their naked bodies shown all over the net by ex's, hidden cams, and hacked accounts with private photos if they still feel safe on myspace or not!
Myspace has installed captcha characters to try and avoid the spammers who might promote their bs and make it unsafe for your kids with their adult content, but really...myspace isn't so concerned about that. They're more concerned about whether or not the promotion of third-party contents will upset their advertisers and hurt their revenue (the REAL reason that msplinks were set up on myspace) rather than the security of your kids.
Only a handful out of every dozen are actually screened and corrected, and due to the overpopulation of accounts there, it takes forever for human and automated systems to even get around to it.
And if you have a problem, good luck contacting support and hearing back from them promptly! It's taken MONTHS for them to respond to situations where I reported spammers, porn, and other crap that should not have been on myspace that was posted on a teen's profile. Again, Myspace does NOT care about your kids, your teen's safety, or even about the quality of the users and content.
Myspace International is owned by Rupert Murdoch, NOT Tom Anderson who stole the idea for it from Friendster. All Myspace has ever cared about is the money, and...as much as I hate to steal Chris Crocker's claim to fame with a quote...
"All you people care about is more, more, more, more, MORE!"
They just want more.
More content, more ads, more spam (even though they fight some of it, they are paid off for the rest of it!), and more people to keep using their system so that they can make more money off of the ad revenue and product sales that come from it via commissions.
So yes, I know your teen and your child is precious to you. But to Myspace? Unless court-ordered or worried about a lawsuit, they really don't give a damn. Sorry.
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It's important that you talk with your child or teen about the pros and cons concerning myspace before you turn them loose on it or any other social network. As a parent you may not be able to prevent them from using such services that may be dangerous for them...but it is your responsibility to at least let them know and make a decision with foreknowledge if they are of age to do so.
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Learn more about this author, James Wasil.
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