Is myspace.com harmful for children? What are the dangers and how can we warn parents to protect their kids?

Question

I'm writing an article in my local communicty newspaper about this topic. It seems that many parents, especially first generation, have no idea what the internet or myspace.com is capable of. There is no real age restriction, and I've heard of little girls age 10 years old on the site meeting strangers and sharing their pics all over the world. 1 in 5 children is sexually solicited on the web. I am worried, and I want REAL opinions on what to put in my article. Thanks all!

Answer 1

There really is no way to stop it unless the parents monitors every single thing the child does on the Internet. Either don't allow small kids on, or hope they're mature and sensible enough to not do anything so stupid. Then again, my Mum met up with some guy 100 miles away and divorced my Dad and moved in with him.... hahaha. (I'm 16).

Answer 2

In and of itself, MySpace isn't harmful to anyone. How it's used is an entirely different matter, however.

Although the law stipulates that personal information cannot be collected from children under 14 there is no way for a website to verify the age of the person sitting at a keyboard possibly thousands of miles away. It's a "feel good" or "look what I did to protect our children" law for the politicians to bandy about at election time but is utterly meaningless and unenforceable in the real world.

There is ONLY ONE WAY to control sites such as this and that is IN THE HOME! Parental involvement and monitoring are the only effective means of controlling what our children are doing -- on line or off.

No law or software package will take the place of parental responsibility. The law prohibits the use of alcohol by anyone under 21 in the US, yet plenty of under 21s manage to get their hands on it. Excluding the 10 - 20 group, the only effective bar to alcohol use is parental involvement. The same thing goes for on-line activities.

Some parents want to be their childrens' "friend" but forget that they're not there as buddies and pals, but as PARENTS. The do their children a severe disservice when they shirk their parental responsibilities.

Others hide their head in the sand, often claiming that computers and the internet are beyond their comprehension. This is a copout, pure and simple. If their kids could figure it out on their own, so can they. There's nothing magical about it; sit down at the damn computer and get going. Or ask your kids! Odds on are they'll LOVE teaching YOU something.

Finally, there's the group that think that their little angel couldn't possibly be involved in anything illegal or harmful. These aren't parents, they're enablers, pure and simple. They won't "get it" until their little brat gets nailed and often it will be too late to correct the situation by then.

There are other things that society in general can to to assist in prosecuting on-line predators. Work with local law enforcement to get them up to speed on the problem. Great progress has been made in ths area lately, but we still have a long way to go. Sting operations coordinated with law enforcement have brought the issue to the forefront and communities and law enforcement need to continue these operations.

PTA groups are an ideal way to help spread the word with parents. There are computer savvy parents and teachers who can provide demonstrations for their less savvy peers to get them up to speed.

In the end, though, active involvement by parents IN THE HOME is the ONLY effective way to control what their children are doing. Parents who can't or won't get involved do so at the peril of their children. A more damning example of poor parenting isn't possible.

Answer 3

It's not a huge problem as far as safety goes. they have guards on users age so that certain ages are protected from other people older than them. I htink 13 and below are guarded. If a child is solicited for sex, or is talked to inappropriately, it all comes down to that child's behavior. He or she can choose to report that person or ignore them. It's a god idea to talk to your kids about what's okay and not okay for them to be using the site for. I mean, if someone is 'solicited' then it's as simple as rejecting or ignoring the person to get them off your back. Usually kids just stick to their own little cliques from school and maybe meet others from other schools anyway; i had myspace when I was a frshman and don't recall searching the net for 30 year old people to talk to. Anyway, I guess if i had a main point in this response, it's that it all comes down to what sort of values and ideas the parents instill in their children. PARENTING!

Answer 4

Websites are not dangerous, what is dangerous is young children being allowed on the Internet UNSUPERVISED!!!!

What Parent would let their 7,8,9 or 10-year old go to the Mall by themselves, and yet they let them roam allover the Internet UNSUPERVISED!
I'm sorry if I seem upset, but I get tired of websites getting blamed for "PARENTS" that don't have a clue as how to raise their children.
It really just pisses me off to no end that parents expect these websites like my-space and others to babysit their children. PUT THE COMPUTER IN THE LIVING ROOM!!!

Just my opinion, good luck with your article.

Answer 5

For younger kids - like the 10 year old you mentioned... Parents can control how their child uses the net.

Programs like

http://www.kid-surf.com

are designed just for that. A 10 year old should not be allowed to get to myspace or any other sites the parent doesn't want them to see.

Answer 6

im 15 and have my own myspace. all of my friends have one too. we feel safe on myspace because they have people that watch every page to make sure that the children are safe. myspace actually hase a whole department of people who actually get paid just to do that. plus most kids are smart enough to know when things are getting out of hand and to stop or if they dont know someone that wants to be their friend to ignore them. but sometimes kids will be frinds w/ each other just as a popularity contest to see who can get the most friends. even so they wont talk to that person. kids are smarter than adults give them credit for. we can tell if something isnt right and we will stop. and if that does happen to one of us, but we dont want to let our parents know, we can contact tom, the myspace guy that gives us updates and helps us.

Answer 7

my opinion is supporting your issue i think myspace is a freak show for kids like myself it sucks but no noone wants to get hurt here where i am from a 16 year old girl now 17 met a man on my space kids send pictures and crap in my state they have banned kids from adding adults to freinds list i think its great what you are doing we need postive role models like your self i would love to spead the world the best way i can i am starting 10 different sites................ p.s. drugs, proverty, rapes and killings etc

Answer 8

It can be harmful for kids, if they arent smart and tell their information to random people. let your kids know not to give our personal info (phone number, address, hang-out locations, ect). as long as they know that, know child mollesters can't find them. i havent heard of any other dangers besides mollestation. good luck with the article.

Answer 9

I have a MySpace.

MySpace is only as dangerous as a young child is curious. If a child is going to open themselves to exploitation, MySpace is the place to do it. The age restriction in the actual MySpace "Rules" is 14+, however it's pretty hard to enforce the rule. MySpace does have a "report underage users" section. I have reported several underage users, and recieved confirmation e-mails within 24 hours, stating that the user I reported was removed. Again, this usually does not deter young kids from making a new profile, and lying about their age again.

The problem with MySpace is that little children aren't sure what information is safe to put on the internet, and what information is not. There are sites out there (more aimed at parents than children) that show example profiles of "what not to do" - i.e.: Do not list your full name, date of birth, hometown, school, workplace, best friend's names, do not show pictures of school colors, school uniforms, local landmarks, don't list favourite hang-out spots, phone numbers, addresses... The list goes on.

Again, some children don't have the smarts as it were, to recognize that facts they put out there about themselves can be used by predators.

Now. My little sister is aware of MySpace, she is old enough to use it. However, she has opted not to have one as she KNOWS it's not a very safe place for minors. She is a smart girl, my parents talked to her about internet safety, and she is wise enough to realize that she doesn't need it or want it. She told me, "If I ever get a MySpace, I'm going to use a fake name and I'm not putting pictures of my face on it."

You must realize, again, that PARENTS are the ones that need to be keeping an eye on their children's internet activities. If they don't know enough about the internet, they should NOT use that as their excuse. They should start figuring it out. The internet is NOT going away; their children AREN'T ALWAYS going to listen to them. So they need to set up the home computer in an obvious, public spot in the house, set times when Internet use is allowed, monitor internet history IN DEPTH, and most importantly, TALK to their kids about what's going on online. If a parent doesn't believe MySpace is an appropriate site for their child (I would have been the child that DID NOT need a MySpace when I was 13. I had no common sense whatsoever, unlike my sister), they should block the site. If they do think their child will be ok using MySpace, they should know what their child's profile is, have them put it on "Private" so that only "friends" can view it, they should monitor EVERY SINGLE friend's request, literally, sit next to them. I don't think it's extreme for a parent to hover over a child's shoulder on the internet, not if the alternative is the child being abducted/raped/murdered. Seriously.

I am suggesting that parents be 100% involved with their minor children's internet activites.

As I mentioned earlier, my sister has "internet common sense" and I did not.

As a 15 year old minor, I got on the internet (BEFORE MySpace, mind you) and was solicited by someone claiming to be a 23 year-old-male. He "wooed" me online for about 6 months, telling me that he "loved me" and wanted to marry me when I was 18. He tried to set up a meeting with me, which I would have probably gone to, alone out of foolishness and gullibility ("HE SAID HE LOVED ME!").

However, my parents were wise to me, checked my internet history, saw the conversations, and cut it short. I ended up losing any possible access to the internet until I was 18 years old.

Once I was 18, I was free to do whatever I wanted online, and quickly realized the danger I had put myself into. My parents saved my butt from who knows what kind of mess. I'm glad they were "nosey, prying" parents, because it probably saved my life, or at least my innocence.

Most children don't have the wisdom to know what's best for them. That's what parents are for, to help them out when they don't know which end is up.

Basically, I don't think MySpace is a bad site. I think it has as much potential to open children to exploitation as yahoo.com, bolt.com, classmates.com, or any other "social networking" website. It's the parents that need to keep an eye on what their kids are doing, not the Internet.

Good luck with your article, I'd love to read it!!
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Answer 10

If the child doesn't post pictures or his/her hometown, they'll be fine.