
Free shared knowledge/information space created for people like you by people like you!		Add To Favorites

Submit Article \| Feedback/Contact \|
Home >> Computers >> Internet/Security

Computers :: Internet/Security

Myspace. The Unknown Secrets

Recently, there has been a widespread debate about a website called” Myspace.com” taking places on most online articles. Clicked on Google search for “social effect of Myspace.com” and you will find a long list of websites linked to many writer shared their concerns online about Myspace.com . I tried myself and found an endless list of negative feeling about Myspace.com . I tried my best to find somewhat.

But what is Myspace.com? and what awful things can a website did to gain such reputation from audience?

The Internet and website has introduced many such new concept of communication that just 40 years ago, it could be found only in science fiction. First, there came the Internet, then website, online commerce, online news, online dating and now, online social network for teen and adults. Myspace.com was created after two men in California as a net work that could link people, a good place for teenagers to make friends, to exchange information helpful to their studies. Myspace.com is considered as the fastest growing website with total registered users reach the number more than 99 millions just after its first two years, the number of users joining is 5 million each month. Now, the site is considered most popular just after Yahoo, Google, eBay .The site gains most popularity among the teen users, who use the website to post their profiles, make friend and exchange information.

But recently, there were several crime cases linked to the site. A girl's parents were shot to death by her boyfriend, which she knew through the website. In another case, a girl in Denver Colorado was raped by 6 men she knew from Myspace.com . A woman from Baltimore was shot to death by a man she met from Myspace.com . And a number of men were arrested with sexual assault charges. In all the cases, girls are victims of their online friends from Myspace.com .

One factor that makes the site to be a dangerous place is teenagers are posting so much information about themselves. Such information like their last name, school name, phone number, home address, daily activities can expose children to a great danger. Many predators are using the site to seek for children through their personal information and online conversations. The reason teens are showing such information is they believe only their friends are seeing without being acknowledged that everyone can gain access to their information.

The site claimed to impose several measures in order to protect children from online predators. The safety ensures are age restrictio&#

110, removing nude and sexually explicit photos, roaming through the profiles and kicking off those highly suspected belong to underage members, restricting access from adult members to profiles of 14 or 15 years old members.

Parents and schools begin to voice their concerns, too. An expert of the non-profit group WiredSafety said she received almost 1000 emails a day from parents, who complained about the site. They were worried about the fact their children were revealing too much on the site. Several schools began to block access to the site from school computers and a private school even put its students in suspension if their access to the site found either on or off-campus. There are also some attempts from the public to shut down the site.

But, are those measures enough to protect children from the great danger outside? Many children are lying about their ages when registering, and though the site claimed it was doing the best to clear out sexually and drug used provoked profiles, there are still plenty of them on the site. I had the experience myself when I made a tour online. I was startle to see many photos of members in bikinis or trying to show their body parts. To make it worse, many bad icon were still stick on the website. I was somehow agreed with the option shutting down the site when I first saw the members' pics! though the site restricts access from adult members to teenagers or some profiles only allow access from their friends, there are no guarantees that the children would be safe from predators. By online conversation and sharing too much personal information, children can be vulnerable without leaving their house. And besides those crimes, there are many stories about friendships and romance the site has created among its users.

In my opinion, Myspace.com should not be shut down. Instead, there should be great corporation between the site and parents. The parents should find out more about how to protect their children online. And together with parents, the site should exert more strict privacy policy in order to protect children from Internet predators, who drawn much concerns from parents.

Webmaster of few myspace resources sites : MySpace Editor (http://www.qnun.com/) and MySpace Music Video Codes (http://www.musicvideofun.com/)

Article Source: www.activehowto.com

Share this article with others. Bookmark it at these sites: