Yet another reason to keep your kids off myspace

I have serious doubts that a case like this would be able to shut myspace down completely -- there are simply too many self-absorbed adults who would fight for their right to whore themselves to the world -- but I think it's quite likely that you'll see something like 21 talked about, where a valid credit card will be required.

 

I agree. I'm lucky that right now my oldest is not yet 12. Boys are just a curiousity still, not an obsession. and I'm far, far, far from being the best parent in the world or the best example in terms of personal behavior.

I've been in some of those chat rooms. I thought I was there to talk about local news and the weather, but many in the room were sex obsessed - not unlike this place, my school when I grew up, or my childhood bedroom when my brothers and I talked about girls at night. We can't protect them at all times. We're fools if we think we can.

All we can do is hopefully teach them enough to make good decisions when they find themselves in who knows what kind of situation -- not just MySpace, but when a kid offers her a cigarette, a beer or tries to grab her boobs when she's 16 and on a date.

 

FWIW Idaho,

In my experience, 11- and 12-year-old girls are a LOT more aggressive and boy crazy at that age than the hapless 11- and 12-year-old boys are about girls. I think a lot of it has to do with having a boyfriend giving you status or popularity that the girls are much more into than the boys.

 

Worst thing is that each one of these stories boosts myspace's "street cred"... or "crud" as the case may be.

 

They have Facebook.

 

Credit cards are sent to a billing address.

 

Simple rule:

You will never meet anyone that you contact via the internet unless I, the parent, am present at the meeting.
If your child will not live up to that rule, he or she will find some way to get into trouble even if it's with tin cans and a string.
MySpace is not the problem.

 

Don't agree.

There is a reason most of these message boards are driven by anonymity.

 

Ace,

I know she has crushes and all the regular trappings of sixth-grade life. It appears, or at least I hope, she's not all smoochy-kissy about it. She's new in her school and wants to be popular.

As I said, all we as parents can really do is try to instill the values we want them to have. They'll make their own decisions, sometimes the wrong ones.

 

the thing is, it's not myspace. myspace is the biggest site where it's a problem, but any online service has chatrooms for any age level or interest group you can think of. I'd have a hard time believing that the room for teens on AOL isn't crawling with pedophiles. the problem, like many of you were saying, is parents aren't monitoring what their kids do online. kids don't have the sense to know better than to put the stuff they do on myspace or to talk to complete strangers on instant messenger...particularly the young girls who put pics of them at the beach in bikinis and stuff like that on their pages. most of them crave attention so badly and are too young to know that's a bad idea.

 

It's not up to Myspace to parent. It's up to parents to parent. Myspace may be one of the safer things that kids who don't have adequate parenting can fall into. Having a rapport with your kid and teaching them about the pratfalls of the Net should do the trick. I wouldn't be a vulture hanging over a kid's shoulder.

 

I'm not sure what the big deal is here. I've scored quite a few dates on myspace. Just glad the wife isn't on the computer that much....