This Is Your Brain; This Is Your Brain On MySpace

from the before-you-click-submit... dept

Tue, Mar 27th 2007 9:56am — Joseph Weisenthal

With all of the talk about sexual predators lurking on MySpace along with the warnings that anything you post online could come back to haunt you down the road when you're looking for a job, the act of post anything on line is coming to be seen as a high-risk activity. It's so much so that the state of Florida has launched a "Think Before You Post" campaign, warning girls specifically about the dangers of posting personal information to sites like MySpace. The advice itself, to think before you post, isn't bad at all, and it applies to everyone, but it's hard to imagine this campaign being particularly effective. For one thing, inexplicably, the ads are only running on radio and TV and not on the internet. They might want to revisit that at some point. Furthermore, government propaganda aimed at kids, with the anti-drug ads that were popularized in the 80s being the most prominent, doesn't have a great track record, in terms of effectiveness. It seems like it would be much better to save these tax dollars and encourage parents to speak to their children directly about proper internet usage.

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28 Comments

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punkn00dlez, 27 Mar 2007 @ 10:21am

Wait, you mean making parents actually act like parents?
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rstr5105, 27 Mar 2007 @ 10:36am

Parents:"My daughter was raped after she posted our address on myspace!"

Government:"Don't worry we'll 'Save the Children'"

Parents:"Thank god, I don't have to take responsibility for my own kids anymore!"
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PhysicsGuy, 27 Mar 2007 @ 10:40am

scarily enough, the effect of myspace on one's brain is a couple orders of magnitude worse than the effect of drugs on one's brain.
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Hyrulio, 27 Mar 2007 @ 10:42am

O.O
So... people posting things they shouldnt on t'internet, lets tell them not to WITHOUT the internet! wow, we're geni.. geniu.... clever!
Surely if people hvnt learnt about the dangers of posting personal information on the internet by now, they deserve SOMETHING bad happening? maye not getting raped, or having identity stolen, but SOMETHING! karma dictates!
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Some Guy, 27 Mar 2007 @ 10:43am

So, the War on Drugs™ brought us an increased supply, higher quality and lower prices of drugs, and the War on Terror™ has increased terrorist activity (admittedly not so much on US soil)...

I'm looking forward to the War on Internet Porn™!
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nunya_bidness, 27 Mar 2007 @ 10:50am

My Space, Not
From what I have seen My Space is the place for people who want to get raped or do drugs to post their personal information. How f'ing stupid do these kids have to get before natural selection takes its course.
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it won't work, 27 Mar 2007 @ 10:53am

You can see it here....
Clearly the first poster here didn't.

(No insult intended, but 'First!!!' is not particularly insightfull comment)
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MyTime, 27 Mar 2007 @ 11:01am

There's a difference
The drug propaganda was false while the posting dangers are real.
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runeazure, 27 Mar 2007 @ 11:55am

enuff.com works for my kids. works for me. my wife said only 3 hours online at night and the rest is making pron of us to post online.
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Chris (profile), 27 Mar 2007 @ 12:57pm

Re: My Space, Not
The only people who get raped on myspace are the ones you hear about on the news. There are not alot of those people out there, or else MySpace would have been shut down for good a long time ago. And the only people who get their identities stolen are those stupid enough to type their passwords into those phishisng websites. Again, that does not happen to a lot of people. Over 165 million Myspace accounts exist, so think twice before you generalize that every one of them is being hacked or used to solicit sex from other users.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Mar 2007 @ 1:11pm

Wait...
A public service campaign aimed at enlightening people about the very real dangers of sharing too much personal information, and you ignorant folk are flaming it?

Sounds perfect and very well needed to me.

As for all the "save the children" blamers, learn to think for yourself. noone here is trying to offload their responsibilities on the government.

Get a grip, get a clue, get something. Just get off my interent, you're lowering my intelligence.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Mar 2007 @ 1:54pm

Re:
Oh, but the War on Internet Porn™ has been in full swing for ages. (Forgive me for linking to /., but I'm too lazy to find a real source.)

http://politics.slashdot.org/politics/07/03/23/213212.shtml
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Mar 2007 @ 2:07pm

If they use myspace, they deserve rape-age anyways...using the site is about equivalent...plus, maybe then we will have more a larger percentage of the teenage population that actually is smart!!!
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Mar 2007 @ 2:15pm

Re:
Hrm... I have to take that into offense... I use MySpace, am a teenager, and I consider myself to be far smarter than the average.
Besides that, no one deserves "rape-age" any more than you do. Would you like for some hairy, burly escaped inmate from the local jail to come to your house hungry for some tough lovin'? I think not. Granted, I'd disclaim the above as a mild generalization, but the basic ideal holds true.
Thirdly, MySpace isn't inherently "evil" or "bad", it's the people who use it. If you take a look at some profiles, the stay reasonably within the lines of good taste. It's the odd one that has her age listed as 19 when they are actually closer to 15. (I happen to know a couple, unfortunately.)

Case-and-point, just because someone uses a certain social networking site safely and intelligently, doesn't me they still "deserve" anything.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Mar 2007 @ 2:23pm

The age-old warning of "don't talk to strangers" seems to be lost on today's information age youth. The internet has millions upon millions of strangers, and to assume that nobody out there has malicious intent in mind when handling your personal information is downright foolishness. People need to wake up and realize that content they post on social networking sites can be viewed by ANYBODY, not just known friends and family.

I refuse to subscribe to any site like myspace, or start a blog, or whatever. I don't consider myself antisocial, but I do like to have some control over what kind of people I reveal myself to. I have a few internet acquaintences, but not many know too much about me personally. Call me old-fashioned, but I think it would be better to get to know people in real life in your own neighborhood.
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David, 27 Mar 2007 @ 2:24pm

I think it is interesting how we all react to this (not so new) phenomena called the Internet.

People want to bring down websites and censor things all over the place... chat rooms, web sites, blogs, etc. What I am interested by is the fact that the problems we all identify with these technologies are the same problems we have had for centuries in one way or another. There were predators before the Internet. There are so many mediums that can be used for a predator to enumerate potential victims... some are technology related, and some are not.

My point being is that these are not new problems (not by a long shot). These are the same problems we have had since forever.

Take responsibility for yourselves and educate your children (and yourselves!).

And relax. There is really nothing wrong with "Bong Hits for Jesus" or a boob shot during the halftime show... :)
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Mar 2007 @ 2:29pm

Re: Re:
That's a lot of big words from a 15 year old.
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Mister Faces, 27 Mar 2007 @ 2:41pm

You know, I think this got way blown out of proportion... Online predators have been around since before blogging all the way back to dial-up modems and bbs's. They even exist in the real world. This isn't "The Brady Bunch" show people, were all crazy in our own way. With 7 billion crazies running around this planet, we've got an A-bomb of unpredictability.

Kids escape into games and the internet and whatever else they have fun doing because they enough to deal with. Parents demand performance and results because they love and fear for their kids. They want their kids to be safe and innocent so they shield and hide them from the world. Why not teach to think about choice and consequence. Impart your wisdom to them when they ask for it. Then they well be strong and ready face the world beyond the backyard.
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Nilttab Yllib, 27 Mar 2007 @ 2:43pm

"scarily enough, the effect of myspace on one's brain is a couple orders of magnitude worse than the effect of drugs on one's brain."

I'll stick to the drugs then. ;)
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Mar 2007 @ 2:44pm

Re: Re: Re:
I correct you. I'm not 15, I'm 17. Would you rather I gabbled on in indecipherable 1337-sp33k like the rest of my peers? (Well, the AIM users, at least.)
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Mar 2007 @ 3:17pm

Re: Re: Re: Re:
No, but if you'd take a second to think about it using that tone and that language did very little for the point you were trying to make. See, you're trying to make it clear that the generalization of the population of MySpace users is wrong and stupid. Giving yourself as an example and doing your best to make it clear you're not stupid (granted, you're not) achieves that goal. It also makes your other point of MySpace not being the breeding grounds of mindless twits a lot less clear, seeing as your makes your "peers", those "average" teens you are so obviously smarter than seem stupid and juvenille (as is bt"w the overall tone of the post).
So, if you're trying to make the point that not all MySpace users are stupid or that generalizations are bad you've made it quite well. If you're trying to convince anyone that those masses of mere average teenagers left off to fend for themselves are competent of doing so you're way off.

Just some food for thought for that overly active teenage brain of yours. Personally I don't care a bit about the fate of MySpace users, if people don't learn how to take care of themselves (and yes their parents could obviously be a big help there) there's nothing the US government or a bunch of TD readers can do for them. Common sense, such a shame it isn't.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Mar 2007 @ 4:27pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:
Yes, but idiots like you would be complaining no matter what was being done.
Consider the options for what the government usually tries to do:
1)ban the internet outright, because its the internet's fault.
2)Make specific sights liable for the actions of its users
3)blame everyone but the criminal, and make us all bare the costs.
At least here they are trying to address the actual issue without some kneejerk legislation such as PATRIOT ACT, Protect the child by outlawing everything act, COPA, etc
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Mar 2007 @ 7:05pm

eyes front and center
You know how to get the attention of parents? In the middle of grays anatomy, at the crucial moment when that person is going to do something really stupid/brave/smart do a voice over saying in a deep voice “have you talked to your children today about internet safety…” and keep it just long enough so that important moment is over. parents will be so angry that they will remember it and maybe talk to their children the next time they see them.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Mar 2007 @ 7:19pm

I don't use myspace, never have never will. But almost every adult I know with internet access uses it. They are all aged over 27.

Myspace is certainly not exclusively used by american teens.
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Charles Griswold, 28 Mar 2007 @ 2:17am

MySpace
Yes, I use Myspace. Yes, the information on my page is accurate. (At least, it was the last time I updated it :-) No, I'm not particularly scared of strangers knowing my e-mail address or where I live. But then again, I'm a 37-year-old, 6'6" man. Sadly enough, it's a far different matter when you're a fifteen-year-old girl.
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nunya_bidness, 28 Mar 2007 @ 4:44am

Re: Re: My Space, Not
I said from what I have seen. I do not waste my time
measurebating My Space stats. So, read twice before you
post some bullshit comment. BTW I never used the word hacked and would never use it in a negative way, I am not the media.
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|333173|3|_||3, 28 Mar 2007 @ 3:39pm

Online ads
using internet ads would be better, becausethen those who know how to block them would likely be the people who don't give out real names anyway. I would imagine they are using TV ad radio ads so that more Floridians get eh message without having to pay huge fees fro major international websites.
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master pimp, 9 Jun 2007 @ 7:01pm

For the pimps and hoes
I love myspace, makes it easier to get it on with them hoes.

www.myspace.com/78094881
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