Get a Widget for this title
RSS FeedIs MySpace a safe Internet venue for teens?
Results so far:
| Yes | 48% | 680 votes | Total: 1408 votes | |
| No | 52% | 728 votes |
Yes
Write now
Print
Invite a writer™
Add to FavoritesThere is nothing inherently dangerous about Myspace, especially for teens. Dangers arise in how teen users use their Myspace pages. Myspace has many guards available to help protect the privacy of it's users, especially teens.
1.) Teenagers Myspace pages are automatically set to private. This means that you have to have this particular person add you as their friend in order to view their site. Unfortunately, if you lie about your age (as many teenagers on Myspace do) this safety guard can be prevented. Adults also have this guard available to them on the setting page. My personal page is set to private at the request of my friend who has posted some pictures of her kids on my comments. Also, you must be 14 in order to create a Myspace page. Of course, many of my friends' younger children lie and make themselves older, but it is a precaution that Myspace has put into effect to help protect our children.
2.) Sexual Offenders and individuals currently facing sexual assault of a child charges are not allowed to have pages. Simply report them to Myspace, and they will verify your allegations and delete their account.
3.) If someone contacts you or tried to add you as a friend, you can always deny adding them, ignore their message, or even block them so they will be unable to contact you in the future. Of course, you can always unblock someone if you are angry with them and then circumstances change.
4.) If someone leaves you a comment or message that is inappropriate or makes you feel uncomfortable, it is very simple to report them to Myspace. Myspace takes these reports very seriously. You can also simply delete the message or comment and block the user sending it.
5.) If someone else is posting bulletins that are offensive to you, you can always simply ignore it. You don't have to read every single bulletin posted by your friends. Also, if they continue to post bulletins that you find offensive, you can delete them from your friends or even block them from contacting you.
Myspace has many security precautions in place to keep teenagers as well as adult users safe. Of course, these security precautions are only has safe as the users use them. Someone who lies about their age or background can get around such precautions. That's why it's up to the community to make reports. And it's up to parents to keep an eye on their children's Myspace pages to keep them honest and make sure they're not putting too much information about themselves out there.
Learn more about this author, Mary Anne.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
No
Currently we live in the age of information. With the rise of the Internet we can find information pertaining to all portions of our lives; the news, current stock prices, and even the weather outside (which is useful for the coach potatoes out there). Information about people, where they live, who they are, and their favorite activities have become increasingly more common. The rise of 'friend spaces', sites like MySpace, TagWorld, LinkedIn, and many, many others have made meeting new people and making new friends exceedingly easy. However, not all the side effects of these sites are positive.
When someone is technically literate, that being: they know how to effectively use a computer, it shows. They can find information pertaining to their lives quickly and easily, send email messages to friends and family, and even buy food over the Internet. For many parents the full power of the Internet is not understood. To many it is a research tool that they never had as a child and are, sometimes, quite jealous. What these misinformed parents don't know is that many of their children post extremely personal information about themselves on Internet friend spaces.'
While teens enjoy the privacy of Internet friend spaces' due, impart, because many parents haven't heard of MySpace and similar friend spaces', they fail to realize the consequences of their actions. The private information that teenagers publically put into their profiles, which parents are uninformed about, kidnappers can easily find. Because of this friend spaces' and Instant Messaging services, such as AIM and MSN, have led to a dramatic increase in teenage kidnappings. Sadly, many times kidnappings, especially when the victim is female, can turn into a sexual assault.
The cases of sexual assault linked to friend spaces' is staggering; the state of Connecticut alone has launched more than a half dozen investigations on MySpace's role in teen kidnappings. I can also recall an incident where a 16 year-old female was coerced overseas to meet a friend' met on MySpace. Furthermore, a man by the name of Jeffery Peters was arrested after admitting to having sexual relations with a minor he met on MySpace.
The disturbing thing about many of these sites, MySpace in particular, is that to be at risk one does not need to put any personal information into your profile; friends can do that for you by putting -your- information in -their- profiles. It is not uncommon for a MySpace or facebook user to put pictures of other people in their own profile; usually with a label about who is in the picture. Furthermore, many users post information about parties, study sessions, or other social activities on their profile. Just as often, a reply will be posted as a comment on the hosts' page. If any of the participants' pages are unprotected, a user could be at risk.
Users should also be wary of threats they can receive on friend sites.' At a high school, which shall remain nameless, two sophomores created a fictitious profile. Using their alias the two threatened to, to be blunt, bring a weapon and kill students and teachers. Though this was a hoax, there is the possibility that users will face similar threats in the future; sadly, the perpetrators could follow through with their plans.
Finally, as a user of MySpace I would like to come to its defense. In my opinion it's a useful service which can be used to make new friends and stay in contact with existing ones. It just happens to be a target of predators which prey on unsuspecting teenagers. I certainly hope that MySpace becomes a safe and enjoyable place for teenagers, but for now I can only suggest that if you use the site avoid putting personal information in your profile and ask your friends to do the same!
Learn more about this author, Greg Vernon.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.
Difference of opinion? Debate now.
