The Risk of Misplaced MySpace Hysteria

Excellent point. You do not solve a prolem by avoiding it, but rather dealing with it in a safe and appropriate way. Being a teenager my parents beleive that I will some how be raped and kidnapped via myspace just because I use it. We know this is not true. Teens know how to be safe on the net and most stay safe. Parents will still bring up how last year some girl was kidnapped because she was in chat rooms. That incident is anomaly. It is more safe to be in a chatroom then it is to walk to school. Parents and adults need to understand that myspace is not a kidnapping sexually exploting website. It is a place to conenct with friends and share pictures, music, and games. For allover sakes...grow up parents!

ok i understand what your saying but i just wanna add that not all teens on myspace are abusing it and puting themselves at serious risks to sexual predators. I know im just a teen myself but i dont add people i dont know and my parents have nothing to do with that. my profile is set to private (meaning only the people i know can view it) also my decision. Myspace is not as bad as everyone says it is....its just irresponsible kids who ruin it for everyone.

I don't want to be a pain, but I thought I'd point out that Chelsea just gave everyone of us her name and e-mail address. Perhaps you aren't being as carfull as you may think. I'd like to think that you made up that name and e-mail, but I doubt it. You do make a great point though. If children are taught to be safe and then monitored, things aren't so bad. The question is, "how often do I look at my kid's MySpace site?"

Sometimes it feels as if people want to make us too afraid to go online so that technology can be put at a standstill. Maybe then the rest of the world can catch up.

I'm not criticizing people for being a little weary of it. But it's your kids putting that information out there, and they essentially have to put it out there for anyone to see it.

"I scolded my kid and took away the computer so they can never get back there." That woman's kids are going to love her for that one while they don't understand why they can't go back onto MySpace anymore.

Since when, exactly, did the Internet become the sole home of perverts, sexual predators, and serial killers?! Sure, there are some out there. But if you....you know....try out myspace, it's really not much of that.

Plus, people blow things way out of proportion today. If i'm a teen, and I post on the internet that "such and such is gay" or something, i'm in SERIOUS trouble. Which is absolutely retarded. That's what kids do.

People really need to lighten up, and stop screaming WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN!!!!

Oh, and to add, while I disagree with it, when did it become illegal or otherwise forbidden to be anti-semetic? Aren't people entitled to their own opinions, regardless of how wrong you may think they are?

And this kid who got in trouble said he was gonna shoot somebody in the face with a shotgun? Hmmmm......could he be, you know, referencing CURRENT EVENTS. You know, making fun of the actions of a certain Vice President?! Hmmm.....

But nope. He made an off-the-cuff remark intended to be sarcastic. His life is ruined. Expell him. Mind as well hang him too.

That's the whole problem with Internet talk. "Sarcasm" is not easily detected through typed words. How do you know it was meant as a sacrcastic remark? You don't!

People are entitled to opinions, etc. However, if they are to be expresses online, they need to be worded correctly!

Put yourself in the shoes of the person being referenced in these blogs.

By the way, the phrase is "Might as well", not "mind as well".

Heh, learn something new everyday, Must be my NJ-ness getting in the way. Fuggedaboudit and all.

Now, I'm more play devil's advocat here since I don't know EXACTLY what he typed, but being younger myself and just knowing what goes on, i'm 99.999% sure it was sarcastic, and most people should realize that. Hell, I tend to say "stab in the face" alot, but i'm not really gonna stab anyone in the face. And even if it's hard to understand through typed words, there's still no reason to overreact. It's good to be cautious, but the second a kid says anything nowadays it's taken way out of context (I was in 8th grade during Columbine, I got suspended for a week for saying a completely innocous "i'll kill you", clearly meant as a joke. But all kids nowadays are just plotting to go on a shooting spree, I know. My point is, perhaps especially on the internet where it's hard to tell, it should just be assumed he was serious.

And I *HAVE* been the in the shoes of those people being referenced in those blogs. I'm on myspace. People say stuff all the time. I've even been victim of some hastily done but incriminating photoshops. It's really NOT a big deal.

I also disagree that anything has to be worded "correctly". One of the principles of this country is that I have the freedom to say whatever I want, and so do you, and so does anyone else. If a person wants to, very matter of factly, say "I hate jews", it's totally within their rights to. You can certaintly disagree with that, I certaintly do, but I don't see why you can't say it.

This is a larger problem with today's world, though. People are far too uptight, and it goes far beyond myspace. I don't mean to get on my soapbox here, but people really have to cut this PC and censorship crap. People can say whatever they want to say, and unless it's a serious threat it should be taken for exactly what it is.

(if anyone wonders why I post so much here, it's because i'm at work, and this is one of the very few websites I can access.)

i have been on there because my step-daughter was on there and see how they talk to each other and the depth of info they share is frightening. I could get cell phone numbers, the schools they go to, what they look like, friends names and in some cases - home addresses. If you think for one minute that a sexual preditor could not benefit from this information then you are so naive i suggest you unplug your computer and use it as a door stop because you are too stupid to be allowed on the internet. Yes - thats my real name - I am 43 and 6'4" so any sexual preditors want to look for me - I got a surprise for you...lol

It's sad when intelligent young men and women have to suffer because of the irration fears of their misinformed parents. They're doing their best to pass on their ignorance, and from the looks of today's society, doing a good job. I lived through similar things when my mother used to harped on how "video games will rot your brain."

Parents, remember how your parents rolled their eyes when you talked about The Beatles, or whatever was hip in your day? Try to think of that and put yourselves in your kid's shoes before you dole out any irrational dogma. You just might rear a child who can think for themselves.

To "Ladiesman":
No, you cannot say whatever you want to. Sure, your right to do so is backed and enhanced by the first amendment, but there are and should be justified restrictions to what anyone can say or express (do note that "express" includes any form of free will expression, including typed opinion). You can't yell "fire" in a crowded theater just the same as you cannot threaten to kill a human. These threats can be conveyed by any form of expression. Imagine that the typed text in question were actually hand-written words on paper... it's the same idea, just a different medium.

There indeed HAVE been situations where actions on MySpace have led to physical confrontation, sometimes aggressive. Be it a break-up or a full-open fight, what people type can be taken any number of ways, including as threatening.

In speech, it's not what you say, but how you say it.
In text, it's not how you type it, but what you type.

myspace is just as safe as letting your kids go downtown to catch a concert or letting them date. if the kids would just use common sense, be it that it's a little too much to ask for some of these stupid kids, nothing bad would happen. i've been on it for years and met a lot of really nice people. I post blogs, i make comments, and all the typical myspace stuff and no molester has ever tried to get me. There needs to be a common sense class in schools these days. kids are getting better educations, but they are becoming stupider in the ways of life.

You know I'm going to have to post a reply to all this crap about myspace. Firstly I want to say its the parents faults for not keeping their daughters and sons in check. If you wouldn't let your children have computers in their rooms half of these lil girls (and I stress LIL GIRLS) wouldn't be posting these half naked pictures of themselves. And parents you need to be checking the sights of where your children are going. Listen in to what they are talking on the phone about to their friends, SO WHAT if they scream and cry about their so called privacy. The last I knew children and that includes teens weren't offorded privacy. So parents be what you're supposed to be PARENTS. I am a parent and do you think I would allow my son or daughter to go on myspace alone? No, and when they are on myspace I will also teach them the signs of a sexual preditor. You know there are tell tale signs PARENTS. JC people get off your uptight anal a**es and stop blaming myspace for everything. There was a time where all of you blamed AOL then you blamed YAHOO now you're blaming MYSPACE. Get over it and recognize the real problem. Its the parents who don't monitor what their kids do. I'm tierd of hearing these sob stories blaming myspace for every obduction case. Most of the people like myself go there to meet people. You're going to have sick idiots out there who try to use it for their own twisted gain but you also have that in THE REAL WORLD. Did you forget about that. Lil sally could be walking down the street and dragged into a car by some pervert are you going to blame myspace for that one to? Get over it parents and do your jobs!!!!!

Hi, I'm not from the U.S. I don't say your fears will never happen here, but I just thought it funny you should be so scared. Over here, a lot of kids I know are actually smart enough to take advantage of such predators. Probably half the underaged girls online aren't really girls but boys who know what fellow boys want and are capable of turning that knowledge to their advantage. I myself spent some of my free time amusing myself by pretending to be an emotionally troubled young girl and sending other guys on a wild goose chase(at terrible cost to themselves in terms of time/money/effort). It took two years for the game to start wearing thin, I think I'm as sick as the perverts I messed up.

Just raise your kids smart and those predators will not be a threat.

OK, I think I have a good game for all the scared parents. Try getting in touch with a parent you know, but who doesn't know much about your kid. Then try to abduct each other's kid with the help of information gathered through MySpace. If you fail, the kid is probably smart enough. If you succeed, let that be a lesson to the kid. But just in case you do find out that the kid is not smart enough, make sure you stop short of the actual abduction as I doubt the law will let you off the hook. Also think twice about playing this game, you may be making them smarter, but you also risk alienating them if they learn it's a set up.

Hell, I'm bored. I think I'll go lure a predator and waste his time going to malls and parks looking for a fictional girl. Gawd, I haven't played this game in years. I do so love predators, you can mess them up and not feel bad about it.

Lolz, this is my third post in a row, but just a reminder, just keep talking about blog in this way and you might actually give the wrong kind of people bad ideas

This attitude of allowing the most inflamatory or abusive statements to be posted for dozens if not hundreds of people to read just because the youth of today think "Kill the motha f*cka" is their ordinary way of communicating shows a serious fault in our new social fabric. We are headed down the slippery slope of not accepting any responsibility for our actions. Come to think of it, we may have already reached the bottom of that slope.