Parents To Block Kids From Joining MySpace 337
Reservoir Hill writes "A New York Times blog notes that attorneys general of 49 states are announcing a partnership with MySpace to fight sexual predators on social networks by letting parents submit the e-mail addresses of their children, so the company can prevent anyone from using that address to set up a profile. MySpace will also set up a 'closed' section for users under age 18 so only their established online friends can visit their pages. MySpace also promises to hire a contractor to identify and delete pornographic images on the site. 'This set of principles is a landmark and milestone because it involves an acknowledgment of the importance of age and identity authentication,' said Connecticut attorney General Richard Blumenthal." Blumenthal also actually said "If we can put a man on the moon..."
This is arguably the stupidest thing ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Pointless, but I suppose it makes the parents feel like they're doing something.
Statistics (Score:5, Insightful)
Also, since when did we place the responsibility on the WEBSITE to prevent an IP address from reaching it? And what about DHCP? What about the next person that gets your IP in a few months? Why can't you filter out access on your own rather than placing the burden of your absurd paranoia on websites that have nothing to do with your ridiculous "my baby gonna get raped" fantasies?
And no, I didn't RTFA. Look at my UID. I'm old school and that's how I roll.
Re:This is arguably the stupidest thing ... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:This is arguably the stupidest thing ... (Score:5, Insightful)
you know, you can apply that answer to MUCH of what is going on with the government, today.
sad but true.
Re:Blocking email addresses? (Score:5, Insightful)
My son could bypass any system to verify parental consent easily. However, in my house we practice this apparently rare thing called, 'mutual respect' whereby he doesn't do such things, and I don't invade his privacy. It's all about trust really, and that has to be taught, it can't be either assumed or enforced by stupid schemes like this one.
So.. wouldn't this give them an alibi? (Score:5, Insightful)
Better idea (Score:4, Insightful)
Most of the people that I know who are old enough to have kids on MySpace know a LOT less about using the Internet than their kids do. (Yeah, I know; there will be a few
Any "security" measures designed to "protect" kids don't have a chance of working unless either:
While easy to get past, this is not a big deal (Score:2, Insightful)
Include internet predator info in sex ed class (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Blocking email addresses? (Score:5, Insightful)
the parenting solution (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Great idea.. Parents always know their kids ema (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Statistics and the art of blame. (Score:2, Insightful)
Naturally this of course has nothing to do with the sentencing of rapists, but is just common sense. Denying it in the name of PC will not help the situation.
Cruise Control for parenting (Score:2, Insightful)
I'll be the first to admit I have no experience here (neither a parent or a psychologist) but this seems like common sense to me.
Re:Censorship? Really? (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh well, we haven't encouraged parents to actually speak to their kids about this stuff for a long time, opting to shield children from anything deemed harmful by anyone.
I'm going to go ahead and fix this story (Score:5, Insightful)
There, fixed that story for you. No need to thank me.
Re:Blocking email addresses? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Blocking email addresses? (Score:3, Insightful)
On the bright side, the effect may aid start-ups...
Re:Great idea.. Parents always know their kids ema (Score:3, Insightful)
Most of my e-mail was done with TeleMate over FidoNet. I could plagiarize CD Based encyclopedias and nobody knew the wiser.
It must suck to grow up in the Internet Age.
On a related note, I think sending in your kids' e-mail addresses isn't the worst idea. It would at least keep very young kids from creating accounts on there.
Re:Blocking email addresses? (Score:5, Insightful)
You, on the other hand...
Re:Blocking email addresses? (Score:5, Insightful)
I disagree. This was all about elected politicians getting publicity and paying lip service to make it appear they are doing something about a "problem" that was way overblown by the media to begin with.
Myspace is going along with it because they have to--but the horse and pony show belongs to the state attorney generals, not Myspace.
Re:Blocking email addresses? (Score:2, Insightful)
Just keep telling yourself that.
Breed the culture of Fear! (Score:3, Insightful)
They might learn something about the Internet! They might be exposed to the outside world! They might learn something from their experiences! They might compete with the rest of us in the global economy!
FEAR FEAR! Hide your Children away!
Re:Censorship? Really? (Score:3, Insightful)
We were doing so well at the end of the 90s getting everyone to acknowledge the need for sex education. Then the 'Abstinence Only Education' people started showing up, making a worse mockery out of 'education' than the 'Intelligent Design' people ever dreamed of.
Parents: TALK TO YOUR DAMNED KIDS ABOUT THE PEOPLE WHO WANT TO FUCK THEM! It'll do a whole hell of a lot more to keep them safe than any kind of monitoring software or any absurd volume of legislation.
Real problems (Score:5, Insightful)
Occasionally, adults 18-25 "lure" young girls 14-17 into sexual encounters. What usually happens is some socially inept 18-22 year old spends several weeks/months talking to a 14-16 year old online, the usually talk on the phone a bit, sometimes talk via web cam, etc. then they meet. If the older person isnt' arrested before the meeting, they sometimes have sex and everything blows up.
Despite shows like "Catch a Predator", 13-15 year old girls who have casual sex with 40 year olds they've talked to for a few hours online don't show up in news articles or in victimization reports-I'm betting they're rare to the point of extinction. More importantly, I SERIOUSLY doubt that 13-15 year olds are inviting strangers they've never talked to over the phone or seen via web cam to their homes for sex. Even the dumbest teen girls seem to have some ability to read body language and facial expressions via video and/or hear tone, inflection over audio. I don't think they're inviting total strangers to their house.
BUT, this is what we've been led to believe. We've been told there's a problem based solely on the existence of demand. We know there's no shortage of adult men willing to engage in casual sex with 13 year old girls, but we haven't been shown that there's even 1 girl willing to reciprocate for every 1000 guys.
Everybody goes nuts over this manufactured problem and take attention away from real victimization-that is young people being sexually abused against their will and without their consent. Real abuse is ignored in favor of virtually non-existent abuse.
Even worse is the fact that any teen girls meeting men online for sex is going of her own free will, whether her consent is informed or not is another issue. It seem that she would bear at least 40% of the blame for anything that happens.
The persons most likely to sexually abuse young people are the same people being constantly implored to monitor their teens every move-parents, step parents, aunts/uncles, grandparents, teachers, priests, coaches, neighbors. Strange guy on the internet is somewhere above that guy that works the 7-11 on Tuesdays and Thursdays between noon and 5pm.
Re:Blocking email addresses? (Score:4, Insightful)
Too bad it is impossible.
Re:Blocking email addresses? (Score:3, Insightful)
If we're teaching kids that they don't have a right to privacy, it's no wonder they don't value it as adults. Now I see why there's been so little uproar over Big Daddy Government listening in our phone calls.
Sure, newborns have no right to privacy, couldn't even understand the concept. But the right of privacy doesn't suddenly switch on at 18. It's a continuous function of maturation.
Re:Blocking email addresses? (Score:2, Insightful)
yes, cutting off a child's access to computers is pretty much impossible.
I'd argue that that's probably a good thing for society.
Re:Blocking email addresses? (Score:4, Insightful)
But I don't know why you think that kids don't have a right to privacy. If you seriously expect your kids to share everything with you, then you're a moron of the highest degree. If you try to invade what privacy kids attempt to make for themselves (I.E. "tell me what Janie said or you're grounded") then you're setting yourself up for one hell of a rebellion later in their life. It will not be pretty, to think it might turn out all right is naive.
I can understand not wanting your kids to not talk to strangers, but that's better handled by teaching your children not to talk to strangers than attempting to monitor their communication. You can either punish a kid every time they talk to strangers, or you can teach them that bad things can happen because there are bad people out there.
Re:Blocking email addresses? (Score:3, Insightful)
I told my kids (now 12 and 15) what Snort was, I showed them a session once, and told them that I can and will record everything that goes over the network. They're smart and well raised - I'm not worried. I saw a few Playboys when I was 14 - it didn't ruin me. I suspect that I've got less than 15 months before my son discovers youPorn (he's the younger one).
You're a sucker... (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, in your house, you practice this thing called willful ignorance, where by not checking you let yourself believe he's not doing anything.
I used to be a kid, so I know the only way you can know what your kid is up to is to trust, but validate.
Why not? (Score:4, Insightful)
And why would such a right magically turn on at 18?
Tell you what -- before I had a computer entirely my own, I was certainly allowed to have a pencil and paper. And I was allowed to keep it in a secret place, if I wanted to. And my parents did not read my various diaries (though there weren't many attempts).
When I went out, I could go pretty much anywhere, I just had to tell them where I was going, and not stay out too late (most of the time). When I got a cell phone, they didn't screen my calls, they didn't have access to my call logs.
My parents apparently did a good job teaching me mutual respect. And the process has nothing to do with the Internet. I suspect this sudden Puritanical paranoia has much more to do with the tendency of people to suspend all reason [rinkworks.com] when it comes to computers.
Re:Blocking email addresses? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Blocking email addresses? (Score:2, Insightful)
And if your children NEVER did anything wrong... that's an even scarier thought.
Re:Blocking email addresses? (Score:2, Insightful)
And MySpace says they're going to assist where? When? I've spent the past 3 weeks sending their contact folks emails to change my email address and it's STILL not done. I'll be sure to put my nieces, nephews, and future grandchildrens' online safety in the hands of MySpace and a government that can't figure out health care and education issues....NOT!
How about this one...It's going to cost a ton of money to program, implement, monitor and protect today's children from the predators that are out there. How about we use that money to get employment and wages up, gas and healthcare prices DOWN...that way families can afford to have one parent around at all times and THEY can do the monitoring and protecting!!
I know...sounds outrageous....
MySpace is dead (Score:3, Insightful)
Hell, I'm 55 and I've had a (unupdated) MySpace page for a couple of years, that alone should make it uncool.
You're right about the publicity and lip service. There is way too much attention paid to the internet, when there are greater dangers close to home. I wrote a journal [slashdot.org] about that very topic last year, no popint in repeating it here.
-mcgrew [slashdot.org]
Re:Why not? (Score:4, Insightful)
Because they're KIDS. Kids aren't just short adults. They are uncshooled, immature, naive, easily taken advantage of. It's your job as a parent to protect them and nurture and teach them.
And why would such a right magically turn on at 18?
It doesn't. More and more privacy is granted as the child gets older. An infant has no privacy whatever; a five year old has some, a ten year old has more. You give them privacy (and responsibility) when they need and can handle it.
I just had to tell them where I was going
And as an adult I don't have to tell anybody where I'm going. Your parents obviously did it right - you didn't even realise that your privacy was limited!
-mcgrew
Re:Blocking email addresses? (Score:3, Insightful)
It's not just the old days. The old workaround of downright lying about where you live still works fine.
Re:Blocking email addresses? (Score:2, Insightful)
If you don't treat your kids with respect, do you expect them to suddenly develop it for you at that mystical date when they turn into adults?
If they do not deserve privacy, why is it you will give your growing child his or her own room? Or will you install cameras in the walls without telling them? Will you monitor your daughter's phone conversations? Put a speed-recording GPS in your son's car? Routinely pick their locks (and with a parent like you, they will lock their doors) and search their room for drugs? Grow up.
Work with your kids, not against them (Score:3, Insightful)
That said, I have every intention of keeping tabs on my son's browsing habits using what ever tools are necessary. I don't intend to spy and attack, but to use it as a tool to better understand my son. I know when I was a kid, back in the BBS days, I had friends online that I would discuss stuff with that I never would have told my parents, and really, life would have been better if I had discussed it with them.
Fact is, my son will with all likelihood smoke a joint, and drink booze, both well before he turns 18. If I know about these events in his life, I can use them to ground lessons of responsibility. Whether it's planning a nature hike the morning after a planned under-aged drinking party, or maybe a viewing of 'Train Spotting' after the first joint. Both of those would put us in a position where we would be together, in a good position to talk, and have an immediate relevance to him. And that to me is worth 1000 times more than being able to scold him for looking at porno.
-Rick
Re:Blocking email addresses? (Score:5, Insightful)
In fact, let's just throw up our hands and let the children do anything they want with no limits, responsibility, or guidelines. I mean, they're just going to do it anyway. Right?
If you are a parent, I have to say you're a very bad one. If you're not, don't have kids. We don't need to protect and insulate our kids from the world, we need to educate them and raise them to be aware of what's around them.
Re:Work with your kids, not against them (Score:3, Insightful)