Yet another reason to keep your kids off myspace

That's a damn good idea.

 

It won't really stop psychos who shouldn't be there still will be. What's $1 a year, or even every month, to ogle teens and lure them into their van/house/whatever? It might stop some, but not very many.

Then I know for a fact it wouldn't stop a lot of 12,13,14 year olds from joining. I have a cousin who gets whatever she wants, when she wants it, and even how she wants it, from her parents. If Myspace required a credit card to sign up really all it would do is give kids like her something new to beg their parents for. It starts putting the ball in the parents' court, but bad parents will be bad parents no matter what Myspace does.

 

Good points all around. But jake, like you say, bad parents are going to be bad parents. A credit-card requirement would take care of the kids with good parents getting in over their head.

 

Right. You're helping the parents who want to keep the kids off MySpace....or at least want to be aware that the kids have an account they can monitor.

As for the psychos, a credit card won't stop anyone from being psycho, but it does make them traceable.

 

I guess things have changed a lot in 35 years, but . . .

. . . when I was a kid I often slept over at friends' houses and had them over at mine.

And I rarely recall my parents ever meeting their parents. They just drove us over, and we hopped out of the car.

So to say such parents "don't care" . . . is out of bounds.

Unless "caring" means you install a microchip in your child and have video surveillance following his every move.

 

That's a fair point.
I'd be interested in seeing how they'd retroactively charge people who already have profiles. It'd be a huge undertaking, but if it was able stop even one kid from being abducted, it'd be worth it.

 

No retroactive charges.

Want to keep your account? Register a credit card, spend a dollar and it's yours. If you don't, the account will be deleted in 14 days.

 

Should the same be done with other social networking sites, such as Facebook?

 

Facebook doesn't have the same problems myspace seems to.

Why that is, I couldn't tell you.

 

Because Facebook is much better than MySpace in a lot of areas, including keeping the whackos out.