Should teens be allowed to have a Myspace? What Are the Dangers?

Answer 1

well i wish i could say everyone was as smart as i was when i was a kid cuz then i'd say yes. but teens these days are so stupid and trusting just because they see a picture of someone. not to mention myspace DID use to be an adults only website (so people could even post nude pictures if they wanted) and it was waaaaaaay better before all these teeny boppers showed up, doing retarded things like meeting people, now myspace has a bad name because of them.

so no, myspace should be 18+

Answer 2

The dangers of having a MySpace page are obvious, you probably already know the answer but are looking for confirmation. Worst case scenario, someone uses their page as a tool to lure them into some sort of trap. I don't think not allowing kids to have a page is the right answer. MySpace can be a decent tool for communication between friends, however when kids start adding people they really don't know personally into their page then it starts to open doors to predators and such. It all comes down to monitoring their activity which, realistically can be a hassle since most kids that use MySpace are teenagers and monitoring their pages is deemed invasion of privacy and will undoubtably result in conflict, but what's a little argument over ensuring the safety of your child? Just having them explain to you who is on their friends list is a good way of monitoring what is going on. So-and-so from school and this kid I met at Baseball practice is fine, but then there's the "Guy who sent me a message saying he likes Fall Out Boy too and we've been talking" is suspicious. My answer to the question is yes, they should be allowed, but keep it on a personal basis. If you know the people, great keep in contact, if you don't know them, they really have no business talking to your kids.

Answer 3

I recently attended a short seminar on social networking sites and was surprised to find that the very large majority of MySpace users, especially teens, use the site to keep in touch with people that they already know. Relatively few people first meet on MySpace.

Of course, there ARE people who meet for the first time on social networking sites, but apparently, most people meet someone new in person, and if they like them, will give them the information required to find them on MySpace.

There are also a fair number of security features on the site that can be used.

Between the security and the type of usage (which you'd have to discuss with your teen - find out if he or she is meeting new people or just keeping in touch), I think that MySpace can be OK.

Answer 4

Everyone talks about the obvious dangers, but no one ever mentions how much time teenagers effectively waste on MySpace. Do you know how annying it is to have all of your bandwidth used all day because there's a teenager in your home "working" on his MySpace page? While it's great that teenagers have a little incentive to learn HTML, it's insane how much time they waste on this crap. Not to mention all of the malware they put on their parents' computers looking for MySpace "layouts".

Answer 5

Yes, they should. Who are you to decide for them that they're not allowed to have one? If this is your son or daughter that you're asking for, just talk to them about the risks of giving out online information. Myspace isn't something that anyone should be too concerned with. Your teenager can choose who are and aren't his friends and can set his myspace account to private so that only the people he knows can see it and his information.

Answer 6

There have been a lot of problems with predators of young teen girls on My Space. However, as a parent of a young teen, it is my responsibility to monitor who she talks to, and the nature of the conversation. Many ID names are very provocative and are misleading. Parents must constantly talk to their teens about the dangers of predators and of people who would misuse the Internet for personal cyber activity. We must trust our teens but we must also monitor and constantly TALK.

Answer 7

Both of my kids have a site. Well, the youngest one doesn't as I deleted it the other night. My oldest daughter has never given me a problem. She keeps it private, appropriate and just ok for her age (17). My youngest one (she is also bipolar and very impulsive) tries to pass herself off as 17 and solicits older boys (15-18). When I say solicit, she wants them to pay attention to her (sex, bjs, etc.). What if that isn't really a 17-year old boy, but a sexual predator.

Now, some of my older daughter's friends are very high profile students (cheerleaders, etc.) and have pics on their sites of them drinking alcohol, etc. Or other inappropriate stuff. They forget that people can get access to it and see it! It's just crazy. They forget all these things and just go wild!

I think they need to keep their sites "private" so that you have to be their friend to gain access to their site. Even so, you can send anyone a message.

the other thing is there are a ton of soft porn pin up gals that do that kind of modeling that promote themselves to get more jobs by having their portfolio online. There are all kinds of pics that are totally inappropriate for children.

If you allow it, you need to have their login name and password and get an account yourself that you have as private with them as friends. That way, you can monitor the activity. the other thing is there are a ton of sites out there, and disallowing one site, you need to be savvy that they just move on to one that you do allow.

Answer 8

The dangers are people constantly posting on Yahoo! answers asking how to bypass the blocks put on the computers in their school computer labs.


You should probably do your own homework.

Answer 9

the dangers are being suckered by strangers into giving out personal details ...

Answer 10

yeah but what arnt the cangers of having anything....perverts lurk every where!!!