Myspace And Online Safety

by: Todd Dickerson

The safety of children on Myspace and other social networks is of growing concern in today’s online society. The press continually talks to issues regarding child stalkers and perverts waiting around every corner of Myspace. But how much truth and risk is really involved with Myspace or its social network counter parts, and what can you do to reduce any risk that might be involved with your children using Myspace?

In reality there is a concern for younger children who use Myspace, if they have no been properly warned. Children can easily stumble upon people posing as other children. It’s very simple for someone to create a false Myspace profile, from a false email address and connect from an anonymous or false IP address. This means they’re essentially untraceable… even by the FBI, despite what they may claim.

Myspace has had a lot of bad publicity recently over sexual assaults that may have originated from connections on myspace’s network. But can you blame http://myspace.com for these actions of others? I lean away from thinking you can. The blame should lie more with parents then the connecting network. Myspace is only one of hundreds or thousands of networks and chat tools kids can use and sexual predators can take advantage of… Myspace is simply the largest and the best news story for media outlets to cover.

Parents should play an active role in monitoring their child’s internet usage, not just Myspace usage. There are monitoring tools to help keep an eye on what your kids are doing even while you’re away. Some of these programs will keep logs of every website your child visits and every chat session he or she has with friends. If your child is old enough to tell though you may want to warn him before hand as it can be a very sensitive subject for a parent to be monitoring a teenager who feels they can take care of themselves. Also these programs claim to be undetectable but keep in mind many teenagers today know more about computers than you could imagine and may be able to remove this software.

Keep an eye out on your kids and keep them safe!

About The Author

Todd Dickerson is a full-time Web Developer and an authority in social networks. He has a large number of myspace resource sites such as http://www.everylayout.com.