MySpace.com

[mduffy31]

Just curious, what is the feeling here about MySpace.com? I saw the Dateline story yesterday and I was a little put off by it. I guess I felt that it put all of the responsibility on the site for underage people who lie about their age and not on the parents. I don't know if the fact that the site is owned by Murdoch, and please no flames about him and Fox News, and if that was a part of the reason for this story.

[Warpy]

1. I know kids who post on that service, and it's great for them

They're building online communities based on common interests. They post pictures, music, writing, and whatever else they're about.

Just because predators have discovered it is no reason to shut it down for the kids it's serving so well. Kids need to be educated about predators. Spot checks need to be done and complaints need to be followed up and predators need to be thrown into prison where they can't hurt anyone but each other.

If it's shut down, it means the predators win. Again.

[JuniperLea]

2. Frankly, I'm confused...

Why all the hubbub about this one particular site? There are thousands of these sites and yet you only hear about this one. Curious...


I'm sick to death of people shirking their parental responsibility!

[Tiggeroshii]

6. This is the most popular one..

but I agree with you about the parental responsibility

[WestHoustonDem]

3. My daughter's on it

She has good judgement. If she wasn't the kind of kid she is, I'd monitor it more closely. She's talked to me about a couple of people that invited her to be their 'friend' in a suspicious way and she declined.

[shaniqua6392]

4. My 13 year old daughter says MySpace

has been "taken over by retards"! Whatever that means. She says she can tell that there are many people who say they are young, but are not. She does says there are some people on there who give her the creeps asking improper questions, etc. so she no longer uses it. She uses a site called www.xanga.com which she much prefers over MySpace. I know I hate to see good sites get taken over by pedophiles, etc. but I don't want my child put at risk in any way. MySpace has a bad reputation which it deserves, so we will never use it again.

[cynatnite]

10. I've heard xanga is very good

My oldest one uses myspace at a couple of community spots, but that's mostly friends she's known for a long time and she's an adult, too.

The middle daughter really doesn't care much about myspace. She doesn't have the time to spend on the computer. She's off doing other things for the most part.

I think myspace is the popular one right now. In a few months there will be another that will be all the rage. I remember when LJ's got big and lots of attention.

[DS1]

5. It's doing its job just splendidly

Keeping all the people with nothing to say in one place :-)

( and their crap music, too )

[MadHound]

9. OUCH, that's going to leave a mark!

:evilgrin:

[MercutioATC]

11. There's plenty of good music there, too...

A band I shoot for has a MySpace site, and I like their stuff. A community like MySpace can be a great tool for unsigned bands.

[DS1]

12. I was mostly talking about the teeners who insist on blasting FiddyCent

at me wherever I go

[MercutioATC]

14. Well, we agree on that...

There IS a ton of garbage music out there...

[iamthebandfanman]

7. you hafta remember that

this has been brought up about ANY and ALL internet services that have come out over the years.

first it was with personal websites like angelfire or geocities.
then it was ICQ.
then it was MSN.
now its myspace.

just because people abuse something doesnt mean you should get rid of it.
people harrass me on the phone, but i dont throw my phone away.
people make me mad on tv, i dont throw my tv away.
and so on and so forth ;)


BUT
i would like to say
that i know for a fact predators do use myspace and MSN together to pray on teenage girls.
heck right now i know one in my town ... he gloats about it at local bars...hes like 30, married, two kids, and likes to talk to 15 year old girls on myspace and msn.
you cant tell me his intentions arent wrong. all you hafta do is read all the mancho sex stuff on his myspace site. so it definitely does happen. cant do anything about it tho until after the fact.

[MercutioATC]

8. It's just another online community...no better or worse than others.

Yes, it's bigger, but there's no real qualitative difference. It's the PARENTS' responsibility to monitor childrens' online activities, not a website's.

I don't have a problem with MySpace.

[Nitrogenica]

13. I love myspace. If you go to my page you'll see why.

There are a lot of Democrats who use myspace like I do. I'd hate to have that taken away.

[Luminous Animal]

15. I have nothing against MySpace

but I will not let my teenage daughter post on it. I've looked at it and too many kids in general conversation over a period of time are giving away too much information without realizing it... what band they went to see on a specific date, what stores they shop at, what school they go to. I figure that she already has to negotiate and develop skills to deal with positive attention along with the creeps in real life, she doesn't need to do double duty online at home, too.