by Sarah Kipling

Created on: April 11, 2008

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/unpopular 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

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>