|
A Parent's Guide To
MySpace.com
As
a computer customer support expert. I get paid to know all about the
internet. I'm also the parent of 3 teenage and young adult children
that seem to live online sometimes. I thought I knew everything that
they were doing online. I am embarrassed to admit that I was wrong.
Several years ago I heard about a place called MySpace.com on TV. So
I used my skills and did a little snooping. Imagine my horror when I
found one of my own kids profile on myspace.com with personal
details, pictures and full of obscene language. One of my daughter's
friends on her list had just been released from prison after two
years, and she was communicating with him regularly.
How could I not have been aware of this?
Now ask yourself. What have your own kids put up online?
Before you shrug it off as far fetched, realize that MySpace.com is
now the most visited site online. Right up there with eBay and ahead
of AOL!
It is a safe bet that if your teenage kid is one of the 80 million
members on MySpace.com. You read right - 80 million!
It is irresistible to young adults. It's totally free to join. It's
an easy site to meet new people, chat with friends, exchange gossip,
pictures and more.
However there is also a dark side. Although MySpace does their best
to monitor 80 million sites and remove inappropriate material, its
easy to browse bios and find risqué pictures, comments, and personal
information on teens or anyone else who has created a page.
Unfortunately, this also makes it a perfect site for sexual
predators and pedophiles to find their next victim. Way too easy.
Especially since MySpace.com used a lengthily questionnaire to create
a profile.
There are enough questions to reveal a busload of personal tastes
and preferences of anyone.
Like a candy store full of young adult profiles for some in our
society.
After dealing with the shock of what MY kids had put online I
decided to help the millions of other parents that are facing the
same thing right this minute.
I found this website which details exactly what myspace.com is, how
to locate your children, how to examine the data they have put up to
see exactly how dangerous it is, and how to set up your computers to
block access to myspace.com.
For
more information on a Parent's Guide to MySpace.com Click Here
|