by Lisa Phillips

Created on: May 28, 2009   Last Updated: June 06, 2009

As a mom of two teenagers I feel that protecting them in this age of technology is becoming more difficult by the year; it is almost as if the world is shrinking. I felt that I monitored the internet usage well, putting safeguards into place to protect them from predators and from the adult content. My oldest had a My Space account, and I was her "friend" on there - and had access to all people she chose to communicate with on a regular basis. We had a reminder that our information is never completely private through my own teenagers my Space account.

My daughter's account was hacked and her password was changed as was her email account. Several friends in her school also had similar circumstance, with pictures put onto their accounts that were similar to the ones posted onto my daughters account. She never gave out her password, so we are not sure how it happened, but My Space was not helpful in eliminating the disgusting items put onto her account for all to see. She could not even close the account because she did not have her password, as the hacker had changed it. The background on her My Space was changed to parts of dead people from crime scenes. There were what appeared to be male anatomy parts - torn into pieces in one area of the page. Due to the fact that My space management would not communicate with her or with me for several weeks, she simply told her friends not to go to her My space account any more. This was two years ago. The account is still open for anyone to see and set on public. My space management never took the pages down. The support systems within My Space are not going to protect children or teenagers from those who want to take advantage of youthful naivety. In this particular instance the negative content was simply ignored by the teens that were victims.

Communication within a family can diminish the effects of the internet predators, routinely checking on your teenagers knowledge of potential predators is also a deterant. Teens are not able to understand the full consequences of making information available to the public, and often want to have as many friends on My Space or Face Book as possible; leaving them at risk for approving people into their circle that have potential for negative impact on personal lives. Our family experience with My Space left me feeling that it was not the appropriate venue for teens to communicate with one another on the net.

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