danger of myspace

56kar78 · 03-09-2007, 01:00 AM

I became aware yesterday that my son had an account on Myspace.com (without our permission)so I got his user name and password and logged on. The site was filled with pictures, videos, surveys and a whole lot more. As I clicked on the related sites of my son's friends, I saw that pornographic sites have the abilility to enter kids' sites under the guise of being a friend and that website redirects to a webcam or some pictures of and videos of "live teens".

I've have known about the danger of myspace if we all especially our kids and teens, not be careful of it. Read articles here. The most important is talk to your teens, explain to them the extent that what might could happen to them and guide them not to make such wrong decisions and give them constant reminders.

Weiser · 03-12-2007, 10:24 PM

It's not just myspace either. Hi5 is another site that this happens on all the time. There are some others, but I can't quite remember what they are. Basically, most sites like that (except facebook) are like that.

__RavErz__ · 03-29-2007, 05:28 AM

How old is your son. I believe parents over react with the wole My Space issue. Kids on myspace have their profiles automatically set to private and depending on how old your son is it would stay on private and he would not be able to change that. This means that only people he has accepted as a My Space friend would be able to view his profile. Although I admit that people can still add your son if he accepts but just talk to him and say not to accept people he does not know from school, sporting clubs, or other activities he attends. My Space is nothing to worry about and can be a good social networking site for children.

RandomSkater · 03-29-2007, 09:37 AM

I have myspace and recently got a facebook.

I think facebook is a lot better for being in contact with people who you already know and have been using myspace less and less.

Scott · 04-18-2007, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by __RavErz__

How old is your son. I believe parents over react with the wole My Space issue. ....... My Space is nothing to worry about and can be a good social networking site for children.

HMMMMMMMmmmmmmmm........well, a lot of things can be good.

Frankly, I'd MUCH rather my kids have Friends IRL and "Network" with them on the soccer field, in a chess club afer school, in church youth groups, or at the YMCA.

Why? Well, as adults, we know that everything that is written is not true. Kids can be very impressionable. I'm not necessarily talking about adults that might intrude upon their world through Myspace, but OTHER KIDS. Twisted adults were once pretty messed up kids.

I really want to know who my kids friends are. I want to meet them. I want to meet their parents. On Myspace none of this "screening" is possible, therefore it is banned in our house.

Duke · 04-19-2007, 04:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott

HMMMMMMMmmmmmmmm........well, a lot of things can be good.

Frankly, I'd MUCH rather my kids have Friends IRL and "Network" with them on the soccer field, in a chess club afer school, in church youth groups, or at the YMCA.

Why? Well, as adults, we know that everything that is written is not true. Kids can be very impressionable. I'm not necessarily talking about adults that might intrude upon their world through Myspace, but OTHER KIDS. Twisted adults were once pretty messed up kids.

This is a good point because its far healthier to have your child out and about than sitting at home on a computer.

I'm in a bit of a different situation because I'm forced to spend mountains of time online (for obvious reasons). This value becomes somewhat inherited as some of my "online worktime" overlaps my "family time" as well. During these times, I get b00ted to the crap computer while my daughter takes over my main rig and she either plays the Sims2, listens to music (online) or works on her website.

The cool thing is that I never see her surfing any nefarious websites but even if she were to visit them, she's smart enough to identify that it's not a good place for her to be. She also knows (as I've drilled it into her) that the web is not the most "kid friendly" atmosphere in the world and NOT TO TRUST ANYBODY SHE MEETS ONLINE. This may sound odd being a webmaster but at the end of the day, you really don't know who may be at the other end of your internet line so taking unecessary risks is just plain stupid.

I will say though that internet friends are no less real than real friends, their just real friends you haven't met yet. I would caution everyone though that internet friends can live behind a wall of lies so they must adhere to far different standards than friends you can see. I've been online for several years now and I can say that even though I know literally hundreds of people, I consider only a small percentage of them to be actual friends and an even smaller percent to be friends I'd ever meet.

She also knows that it's unsafe to give out any personal information of any kind. I can't stress how important this point is because lots of kids just don't realize that predators lurk around every corner. The best thing you can ever do as a parent is talk to your children about the internet and be present while they surf. I'd strongly suggest having the computer in a family room, that way you can monitor all access indirectly without ever looking like a security guard.

You can also do as Scott does and set clear boundaries of what your children can and can't do online. In my case I'm not comfortable creating stringent rules too much because as a child I know I'd break the rules once just to see if I could get away with it. To think my child is any different is simply stupid. I'd much rather have her bump into whatever she bumps into, question me on it, discuss it and learn from it together.

I want to state though that I'm lucky because my child really doesn't do stupid things in general. She knows she's always got my full attention if she wants it and if she doesn't have my full attention, she'll pester me 'til she does. The computer is not the vehicle she uses to make time pass when she's here, it's what she does when I'm online so we can sit next to each other and be a family even though I'm working.