Keeping Kids Safe on MySpace

There are a lot of teens who are using MySpace. Individuals over the age of 14 are eligible to use MySpace so as a result there are many teenagers who are members of the online MySpace community. These young members may appreciate the opportunity to express their creativity, express their feelings, meet new friends or stay in touch with their old friends but they should also be aware that there is the potential for danger on any Internet community. Making kids aware of this is helpful but there is also a certain degree of parental involvement which is necessary to keep kids safe when they are online.

Enforcing Household Internet Rules

Kids who use MySpace, or the Internet in general, should be restricted to a few household rules regarding Internet usage. Putting these rules in place can be very helpful in reducing the potential for danger. Some of the general Internet rules parents might consider are:

* Do not post full name and address online or even school location. This will help to prevent stalking which could become a problem if online predators know where your child lives or go to school.
* Restrict Internet usage to specific hours during the day. This can prevent overuse of the Internet.
* Do not agree to meet online friends in person without consent. Ideally the parents should also accompany their children on these meetings and should ensure the meetings take place in a well lit, public location such as a coffee shop as opposed to a secluded spot such as an individual’s home.
* Do not respond to threats or harassment. Kids should be taught to ignore this type of behavior and report these instances to parents or the Internet service provider instead of responding to the threats. Responding to threats or harassing messages can exacerbate a potentially harmful situation.
* Internet usage should be restricted to high traffic locations in the house. For example kids should only be allowed to use the Internet in computers which are in locations such as the family room or kitchen as opposed to allowing kids Internet access in their bedrooms.

Monitoring Online Interactions

Parents whose children have a MySpace account should monitor their child’s online interactions on a regular basis to ensure these interactions are not potentially harmful. Parents should be particularly concerned when children are interacting with older individuals who engage in activities which are not appropriate for the child’s age or when the children are interacting with those who might be a negative influence on the child.

Parents should also be aware that those their child is interacting with may not be honest about their identity. For example a parent may think it is harmless for their 15 year old daughter to engage in flirtatious banter with a 16 year old boy but there is the possibility that her online friend is really a much older individual. Parents should monitor these activities for suspicious behavior or suggestions of meeting in person.

Reviewing the Terms of Service

Finally, parents who want to keep their kid safe on MySpace should familiarize themselves with the online community as well as the terms of service and privacy policy. This will give the parents a better idea of the type of activities their children are engaging in and being exposed to as well as the safety precautions which are in place to help you protect your child.

Tips for Teens on MySpace

A lot of teens enjoy using the MySpace community to communicate with their friends, meet new friends or just to express themselves. Individuals who are over the age of 14 are eligible to use MySpace so there is a large congregation of young people who are creating and maintaining MySpace pages. However, teens that use the Internet to meet friends are possibly more at risk than adults who use the Internet for socializing and networking. This is due to a number of factors including teens being more trusting of others and unaware of the potential of harmful consequences and predators specifically looking for teenagers on the MySpace community.

Parents Need to Stay Involved

One of the best ways parents can help to protect their teens on MySpace is by staying involved in the child’s life. Parents should be aware of whether or not their teen has a MySpace profile and if the teen has created a profile the parent should let the child know they will be reviewing the profile frequently.

Then parents should follow up on their vow to check the profile periodically to ensure the teen is not engaging in questionable activities or interactions. Teens who know their parents will be viewing their MySpace website are less likely to make poor choices when designing their website. Also, parents who view their child’s MySpace website regularly will see the friends the teen is making and can put a stop to any potentially harmful relationships such as budding romance with an adult member.

Teens Should be Taught Internet Safety

Although the Internet is a great resource for teens and they can learn a great deal through socializing with others online, teens should understand the Internet can also be full of predators. The Internet allows users to disguise their identity if they wish to do so and as a result those who use the Internet might be putting themselves at risk when they befriend these predators.

Providing teens with basic Internet safety rules can help to protect them. Some of the rules parents should enforce for teens include the following:

* Do not give out personal information such as full name and address.
* Do not send photos of yourself without your parents’ approval.
* Do not agree to meet someone in person without your parents’ approval.
* Do not respond to threats or other forms of harassment. Instead report these occurrences to your parents or Internet service provider.
* Do not enter online areas which require additional fees without your parents’ approval and do not give out credit card information without your parents’ approval.

Offline Meetings Should be Chaperoned by a Trusted Adult

Teens who meet friends online may want to meet with their online friends in person. Meeting online friends in person can be a wonderful experience but it can also be dangerous especially in situations where the online friend has deliberately concealed his true identity.

The previous section mentioned offline meetings should not occur without the approval of the parents. Parents should not only approve all such meetings but should also accompany their teen on these meetings. Personal meetings should be arranged to take place in a busy, public location during daylight hours and parents should accompany their teen to these meetings to ensure their online friend was honest about his identity.

Keeping Personal Information Personal on MySpace

MySpace is an incredible online community which gives members the opportunity to make new friends, reconnect with long lost friends, network or even meet potential romantic partners. While there are many great social aspects to using MySpace it is also important to not there is the potential for predators to be lurking on MySpace. These predators may either be nonmembers who simply comb member profiles in search of useful information or they may be members who create profiles which mask their true identity and foster online friendship for devious purposes. In general the harm which can come from using MySpace could be either physical or financial. This article will discuss how MySpace members can avoid physical or financial harm by keeping their personal information personal.

Avoiding Physical Harm

Those who agree to meet online friends in person put themselves at risk for physical harm. Although in many cases agreeing to meet an online friend in person will not lead to any problems there is always the potential for your online friend to really be a harmful predator. Not agreeing to offline meetings is the most obvious way to avoid this type of danger. However, there are other precautions MySpace members can take to avoid the possibility encountering their online friends in person.

Not posting information which can be used to track you down can help to minimize the risk of physical harm which results from interactions with MySpace members. The most obvious information which can be used for this purpose is a full name and an address. Additionally, a telephone number can be used to find out your address. These are not the only ways predators can find you. For example if you have pictures of yourself posted on your MySpace website and post a blog entry about your plans to visit Disney Land on a particular weekend, Internet stalkers can use this information to find and abduct you.

Posting about weekend plans may seem harmless but those who know where you will be and what you look like can find you even in a crowded location. Also, if you post a blog entry mentioning you will be out of town and also include your full name and the city you live in, savvy predators can use this information to determine your address and burglarize your home while you enjoy your vacation. Those who use MySpace and do not make their website private should be aware that any information they post can be viewed by others who may have malicious intentions. Keeping this in mind helps members to realize they should be cautious about the type of information they divulge on MySpace.

Avoiding Financial Harm

The information on a MySpace website can also be used, by Internet predators, to commit identity theft or other types of financial fraud. When using MySpace care should be taken to avoid giving out sensitive information such as full name, address, social security number, credit card numbers and bank account numbers. This type of information can be used to commit identity theft and the results of identity theft can be financial ruin including bankruptcy and damaged credit. Also, the result of identity theft can be difficult to reverse. Even if the predator is caught in his actions, it may be many years before the victim recovers financially.

Security and Privacy on MySpace

Is there security and privacy on MySpace? This can be a difficult question to answer because there are many possible answers. There can be a certain degree of security and privacy available on MySpace but as with any online community there is also the potential for unsafe situations and violations of privacy. However, there are a couple of ways MySpace members can ensure they are receiving the highest levels of security and privacy possible. This includes being familiar with the terms of service, taking active measures to protect yourself and making use of the privacy features included in the software.

Read the Terms of Service Carefully

Reading the terms of service carefully can give users an understanding of the amount of security and privacy available on MySpace. These terms of service provide members with useful information for the types of activities or content which are prohibited on MySpace. Understanding these regulations will help members to understand whether their actions or the actions of other members are in violation of the terms of service. While the MySpace administrators do not have a policy of policing the community for content violations, they will respond to allegations by other members of violations and will take appropriate actions if the members are in fact found to be in violation of the terms of service. These actions may include deleting the members account and taking appropriate legal actions.

The MySpace privacy policy is referenced within the terms of service and this reference incorporates the entirety of the privacy policy into the terms of service. As a result members who join the MySpace community and agree to the terms of services are also, by default, agreeing to the privacy policy. Therefore, members should carefully review the privacy policy and familiarize themselves with the terms of this policy.

Protect Yourself on MySpace

Members of MySpace do have a small degree of protection afforded by the administrators of MySpace but they can provide themselves with a great deal of additional protection by being aware of how the Internet works and using common sense. Generic safety tips for protecting oneself on the Internet also apply to the MySpace community. Just like it is not wise to give out sensitive information such as your address or social security number on online discussion boards, it is not wise to list this type of information on a MySpace profile either.

MySpace members may think the information they post on their profile is only being viewed by their friends and the members of their extended network but this is not true. There can be many individuals on MySpace who are lurking and viewing members’ websites all the time. Some of these lurkers may be completely innocent but others may be harvesting information.

Making Profiles Private

MySpace does have some features which can give members an increased amount of protection. The ability to make a profile private is one of these features. Most MySpace profiles are public and are viewable by both members of the community and nonmembers. However, those who wish to keep their website private can make it only available to those on their friends list.

Members of MySpace also have the ability to remove members from their friends list or block other members from sending them emails or instant messages. Only members in your friends list can post comments on your website so if there are members who are leaving malicious comments, you can remove them from your friends list to avoid future problems. Also, if you are receiving harassing emails or messages you can block users to prevent them from contacting you in the future.

The MySpace Phenomenon

These days it seems like anyone who is anyone is on MySpace. In a short time MySpace has literally exploded from just a few members to millions of members around the world. This astounding phenomenon has made MySpace one of the most popular websites around and a virtual necessity for those who want to make friends through an online community or find old friends with whom they have lost contact. It has become one of the first places many Internet users turn when they want to learn more about someone in particular or make new friends.

A few years ago the term, “Google it” became synonymous for the practice of using a search engine to find more information about a particular person or subject. Internet users were using the term “Google it” even when they were using different search engines because the name Google had been branded so well it became somewhat of a generic term for search engine. MySpace is well on its way to becoming the brand synonymous with online communities. Although there are other websites which offer similar services, MySpace is quickly becoming the most dominant one.

Who is On MySpace?

The answer to this question is just about everyone. While this answer is not nearly true it is also very appropriate. It is not nearly true because in terms of factual evidence, despite the large number of MySpace members, there are still many more people in the world who do not participate in the MySpace online community. However, an answer of everyone to this question is also fitting because individuals from different cultures around the world and different age groups are all using MySpace.

Unlike online message boards and discussion forums where members are usually somewhat similar and share a particular interest, there are members who are vastly different in the MySpace community. MySpace members represent just about all nationalities, sexual orientations, financial levels, occupations, political beliefs, religions and other variables. While it is true that members who are vastly different may not be interacting to a tremendous extent on MySpace there is certainly representation from all walks of life on MySpace.

MySpace Lurkers

We have already discussed the extent of members on MySpace but the MySpace community is really much larger than the membership of the website. It is important to note that members’ websites are viewable to the public unless they are specifically designated as private websites. This means many members’ websites can be viewed by those who do not join MySpace. These individuals are known as lurkers and they effectively increase the size of the community by an immeasurable number.

Lurkers may be completely harmless individuals who are just looking to read about others but who have no interest in sharing their own personal information or they can be predators. The latter is more serious because these lurkers can use the information they find on MySpace to stalk or otherwise harass members of their own community. Many members of MySpace include both pictures and their hometown on their MySpace profile. This information can be used, by unscrupulous predators, to gather more information about the individual. For this reason care should always be used when posting information on MySpace.

Why Aren’t You on MySpace?

If you aren’t on MySpace, many of your friends may wonder why especially if they use this community. In fact many members of MySpace join simply as a way to have fun and keep in touch with their friends and relatives. However, there are number of reasons some individuals may not join MySpace. For many time constraints is a significant factor which leads them to avoid joining MySpace. MySpace can become somewhat addicting with members spending increasing amounts of time updating their website or searching for new friends in the community.

Others may not participate in MySpace because they find some websites in the community to be offensive. There are guidelines regarding the types of materials which can be posted on MySpace but there is always the potential for questionable materials to escape the attention of the MySpace administrators. There is also the possibility that members will be offended by content that is permissible.