Yet another reason to keep your kids off myspace

I'm not terrified of having daughters. Not terrified of having a son. I am a little terrified of the people they run into, though.

But, to answer your questions: Be a good adult. Treat your wife and daughters with respect and dignity. Treat your wife/partner as your equal, not your domestic accessory. Don't treat women outside the house as pieces of ass to be stared at and told crude jokes about when they walk past.

But mostly, be a good adult. Be the kind of person you want your child to grow up and become. It won't always work, of course, but it won't hurt the cause.

 

If a 13-year-old girl is running off with a 25-year-old she met on MySpace, there are bigger issues than MySpace.

After all, weird stuff happened long before MySpace:
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-trish07.html

Still, MySpace sure makes it easier. Actually, I think what we know now -- thanks to MySpace and sex-offender registries -- that we didn't know before is how many sexual predators there were among us.

 

Saltpeter in his scrambled eggs. Just like at camp.

I talk to him all the time about how he should treat people and especially girls.

We have had discussions about how to talk to friends online, too. When an 11-year-old girl disses another 11-year-old girl in an IM we don't agree or pile on.

He seems to be comfortable hanging around with girls and being friends with them. I think that's a good thing. Girls are people, not objects or mysterious beings that cause us to stammer and sweat -- at least not all the time.

 

;D Good posts, Ides and Ace... thanks.

 

Okay, maybe I should quantify this statement a bit more:
1) AOL's services are geared towards teenagers and young adults.

2) AOL's services cost more than that of other dial-up services

3) Just because you own it doesn't mean you have to use their email. Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo mail are all far more "portable" and easily accessable.

4) AOL's big attraction is their chat rooms. What adult needs this?

There is just no reason for an adult to have an AOL account. If they have kids and only want dial-up, I guess that is how you can do it, but why use their domain? Eventually you will want to change it when you decide to spend more for high speed.

 

This isn't a MySpace problem. It's an overall Internet problem. MySpace just happens to be the most popular networking site right now.

Or am I wrong about that?

 

Heavily disagree. Maybe no adult 18-40 needs AOL. I'm sure there's still a large portion of the population (including, god love him, my father) who needs AOL because they're in the same state of going online as I was 10 or 12 years ago when I used ... AOL.

 

Yeah, same here. I would have quit 10 years ago, but they won't let me. It's scary. I won't answer the door anymore.

 

Agree--these kids know too much to let them get their info from Health Education in 6th grade.

I have a friend who is so blunt with her teens it makes my eyelashes burn, but they know she gets it. 'Look,' she says,' at your age, it's all about boobs and boners.  That's fine, it's normal.  But you gotta keep the boobs over here, and the boners over there.  They do not belong in the same place.'  And they crack up and joke about it, which can't be a bad thing.

 

Yeah, but blaming the Internet instead of the parents is so much easier. And potentially lucrative.

 

Sorry, I don't buy that either. My Grandmother, in her late 70's began using a computer just a few years ago. She was able to get online without AOL.

But, it doesn't really negate where I was going. I am not sure what I would think about a 70-year-old saying, "My email address is gramps@aol.com". It would seem a little odd. But I guess it would work.

 

I have a myspace account that I've used to find old high school friends, and current ones as well.

it's not decorated. and has just one pic of me.

but it scares me how much information is out there to find.

and some of the pics? damn, talk about NSFW.

I don't know what the answer is. I know the Internet makes things more accessible than before, including pedophilia.

Hard to believe, that just 10 years ago, getting an e-mail address from my college was a big deal. Now I have like 7 accounts I check daily.