MySpace To Be Made Safer For Users

Carl Bialik from the WSJ writes "'When News Corp. bought the social-networking Web site MySpace.com last July, the media company got two surprises, one good and one bad,' the Wall Street Journal reports. The good news: Traffic nearly doubled in the last half of last year. The bad news: MySpace is being criticized for exposing children to risqué content and sexual predators. In response, 'News Corp. plans to appoint a "safety czar" to oversee the site, launch an education campaign that may include letters to schools and public-service announcements to encourage children not to reveal their contact information."

Re:Perhaps I'm missing something....

[frostoftheblack]

It's 14, not 18. # Eligibility. Membership in the Service is void where prohibited. By using the Website and the Service, you represent and warrant that all registration information you submit is truthful and accurate and that you agree to maintain the accuracy of such information. You further represent and warrant that you are 14 years of age or older and that your use of the MySpace.com shall not violate any applicable law or regulation. Your profile may be deleted without warning, if it is found that you are misrepresenting your age. Your Membership is solely for your personal use, and you shall not authorize others to use your account, including your profile or email address. You are solely responsible for all Content published or displayed through your account, including any email messages, and for your interactions with other members.

There's a case about this RIGHT NOW in Honolulu

[Shag]

The mom and stepdad of a 14-year-old boy were, um, not amused to see a 30-year-old guy their son had met on MySpace. At 11:30 PM. In their son's bed. And he'd brought a gay porn DVD and 2 gay porn magazines with him, how thoughtful. Of course, since Hawaii raised its age of consent from 14 to 16 a few years back, said 30-year-old is now in deep shit, and will probably stay so for a "nui loa" time.

Linkage:

Police arrest man found in teen's bed [starbulletin.com], Honolulu Star-Bulletin
Man Accused Of Luring Teen On MySpace.com [thehawaiichannel.com], KITV-4
Man accused of using internet website to meet teen [khon.com], KHON-2
Hawaii Too Soft On Online Predators? [kgmb9.com], KGMB-9
Man, 30, indicted in sex assault on teen [honoluluadvertiser.com], Honolulu Advertiser

Re:Here's a radical concept.....

[cheinz]

The problem is slightly more complex than you obviously understand. I filter Internet access at home, and my daughter has been explicitly banned from myspace.com for the exact reasons everyone has been ranting about. She was lying about her age so she could talk to her friends online and meet new people. She was starting to get to know some people who were older and had expectations of behavior from her. Once I implemented a very strict Internet filtering at the house, she just logs on from the schools library. At least at home I was able to monitor all of her activities, but the other facilities that provide Internet access lack either the capability or desire to restrict sites. The problem is that the youth of this country actually think they have control of their lives. They don't understand that dangerous people are out there, and they don't have the ability to fend for themselves. My daughter is starting to figure this out, but it took the rape of one of her friends to finally start to get it. I would also like to point out that this is not a new trend. We had it in our youth too. Every one of us, at one point, thought we were invincible and nothing bad could happen to us. Every person I know has felt like they were in control of their lives at some point. It's just more dangerous now, as evil people have access to newer, better resources. Just my .02

Re:double edged sword

[mongus]

I've got a daughter who will be 15 next month. We had a problem with her spending WAY too much time on myspace. She was neglecting her homework and her grades were dropping fast. Most of the time she said she was doing homework on the computer she was actually on myspace.

I didn't see anything positive about myspace and lots of negatives. I run my own DNS server at home so simply adding an entry for myspace.com quickly fixed the problem.

She was pretty upset when myspace didn't work anymore but has only complained once or twice. Her grades have jumped back from Ds and Fs to As and Bs and her attitude is much better now.

BTW, I installed Dan's Guardian [dansguardian.org] before I shut off myspace completely and it blocked probably half of the pages she tried to go to on myspace due to offensive language. I'm not talking about your standard teenager swearing, I mean pretty raunchy stuff.

Re:Perhaps I'm missing something....

[Mrcowcow]

It is 14, not 18. However, your profile cannot be viewed by anyone other than your friends unlles you are 16 or over. So thats why everyone's profile says they are 16 or 17 years old.