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| News & Articles |
| North Idaho Business Journal, April, 2006 |
| Warning to all parents, MySpace is a portal into your teen's true lifestyle.
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If you are a parent, Aunt, Uncle, Brother or Sister or just a concerned friend: then you better listen to this one. MySpace.com is an internet site that caters to teens, pre-teens and young adults. There is also a growing trend for older folks to put their space up also. MySpace is kind of like a social gathering place. What makes MySpace so unique is that it makes meeting people very easy and many bubble gummers (young adults and teens) are on it for a possible "hook" up. MySpace makes hooking up emotionally easy; the fear of rejection or the cost of rejection is very low while the potential for success has never been higher. The problem is teens do not really know who they are actually communicating with. Before you read any further, go to your computer, type in www.myspace.com, go to search and type in your children's names one by one. You may be very surprised. You might try the neighbor kid. He may have bragged on his blog about how he was the one who spray painted the side of your garage the other day. You may want to put in your children's friends to find out who and what kind of character they really have. Email me if you need help reading their blogs. You may have to register to access the site; it's free, easy and worthwhile.
We use MySpace, it is a great resource. I honestly do not like the idea of broadcasting our methods of gaining information; however, this is a serious matter that you as parents need to know about. This by far out weights any loss of data and info that we may incur. Most of the people who we deal with on this site do not read the paper, they are in the paper. The problem teens will still be on this site after this paper is published; most likely their parents do not read the paper either.
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| What is MySpace?
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| MySpace is basically an individual web page that you can create on the MySpace site. You sign up by name and bam you can create your own website that is tied into blogs and IM to everyone else in MySpace. It's the ultimate social club. You can tell someone they are cute. You can ask them for a date. There are even straight up solicitations. In the basic data column you state your sexual orientation, Bi, Gay or Straight. You can take a test and post your answers on how long you will last in bed. One local teen posted her 6 hour and 39 minute score and boasted that according to the test she was 76% kinky. MySpace can take an ordinary shy teen and turn him or her into instant sexual Rockstar surfing for their next conquest or hookup. Girls get to shop for their guys. Guys play the numbers game. People post pictures of themselves on the site. You may be shocked at some of the provocative pictures and content local teens will post. Keep in mind, I am talking about the dark side of MySpace, there are many wholesome, innocent sites and posts on MySpace; however, one should note that these two sides do readily mix.
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| The Problem
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| Adult Vs. Minor: We have seen quite a bit of communication and interaction between adults and teens on this site. Especially older men and young teenage girls. Age differences very, but that is also only according the age you put down for yourself. It is entirely possible for a 47 year old overweight balding male with plumber's pants and an eight hour shadow to pose as a 21 year old student who is into hooking up and cruising. I have seen routine communications between 14-17 year old girls and men in there mid to late 20s. A most disturbing thing is teens are not security conscience at the least. Routinely they will post their cell phone number to another member, forgetting that is for all to read. It is routine for users of this site to not really know who they are communicating with. It is getting routine for the news to carry some sort of lewd conduct story that has risen from a MySpace hookup. MySpace is a pervert's paradise.
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| The Solution
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| There are several options for parents to take. They range from a MySpace ban, to supervised MySpace, no supervision and just talking with your teen about it. The ultimate choice lies with the informed parent.
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| Phillip Thompson is vice president of Confidential Investigations with nine years experience. He earned a bachelor of science degree in business from Central Washington University. Contact (208) 762-5767 or phil@idahoprivateeye.com.
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