Future Tense: Assessing the risks of MySpace

I agree that there are risks to posing too much information online, especially for teens. There's a case in Palm Beach right now involving minors where their myspace activity and profiles are being used to discredit them. A billionaire is charged with soliciting underage girls for prostitution:
Jeffrey Epstein Case

I wonder why anyone would not think there are problems with a community like myspace. I see the value for amature writers, artists and musicians as a great way for inexpensive self-promotion. But with no restrictions, it is easy for someone to take advantage of others.

Will TagWorld be next to come under scrutiny? Things are really hopping over there.

Wouldn't it be fair to say predators simply go to the watering holes? Malls, online communities, and other locations where people are - the risks aren't the sole domain of online communities.

That said, who hasn't seen questionable practices on the Internet? I simply cannot believe the photos and videos some folks share of themselves. As the Future Tense segment indicated, once it is on the net it is there.

Julia's point is well taken: predators go where their prey congregate. It used to be the video game arcades at the mall, now it's teen magnet web sites like Myspace.

The problem is that naive teens believe themselves to be too smart or mature to fall victim to a predator. They consider themselves bulletproof and routinely disregard parental warnings/rules about what they can and should divulge online. It's very, very worrisome.

On the other hand it has given the law enforcement professionals who persue pedophiles a handy new venue to find and trap the offenders.

"They consider themselves bulletproof and routinely disregard parental warnings/rules about what they can and should divulge online. "

auntie smedley tapped into something there - that's a good reminder that kids are...well...kids. Not to use too many generalizations, but they're online and in some cases they're better versed at using the computer/Internet than their parents, which probably accentuates a sense of being smart.

Should we worry? Or are we being the fuddy-duddys of the Internet revolution?

As a mother I can honestly say, my daughter will NOT have a myspace page. I just had this discussion with my best friend who has a 14-year old daughter who happens to have a myspace page. I was appalled when she requested to be my friend and had LIED about her age. First thing I did was respond to the girl with a message stating, why does it say you are 19 on here? THEN I called her mom. Apparently, the daughter was at a friends house and HER mom set the page up for my friends daughter! I would NEVER do that with a friend of my daughter's! I asked my friend why she continuted to let her have the page. After much discussion she changed her daughter's password so she couldn't get on it. I agree there are some sick people in this world and that the teens do not know that or refuse to believe that. However, it is extremely important for the parent to monitor their children. I know my daughter will do things I don't know about, but if it's up to me, I WILL know it. I WILL be involved. Anyway, that is my opinion, thanks for listening. :)

Let me start out by saying this bold statement. Myspace and Facebook are just plain dangerous.
I am not a parent. It is already painfully obvious that myspace is dangerous for children, yes. No child under 18 should have one. All women should be mature and smart enough to make them only viewable to friends she knows personally. That, I am considering just common sense and already established.
My concern is for our future. I think that these places are dangerous. It is the true end of privacy, one that people are totally willing to relinquish. Mark my words, years from now people will be writing books about how damaging these websites are to our generation and the generations who will literally be "brought up" and raised on myspace and facebook. Years from now, future politicians will be blacklisted based upon things they said in their myspace account. Courts will use myspace accounts against their defendants.
This transparency and access into lives is dangerous, unhealthy, and flat out wrong, for everyone involved. The watcher and watched.
The ramifications are enormous. These people have no idea what they are doing by using these websites. Hell, by using this community website. Maybe they will use this against me someday.

There is such a thing as sexual predators, everywhere. If a girl (or boy) on MySpace posts too much information, or puts overtly sexual pictures on there, they are basically asking for problems. it's not myspaces fault that girls are being assaulted; it's the girls. I think it gets too much slack for that.