Studies Say MySpace Safe For Kids, But Don't Expect Politicians To Care

from the don't-let-the-facts-get-in-the-way dept

Tue, Apr 10th 2007 9:11am — Joseph Weisenthal

It's no secret that MySpace has become a favorite target of politicians looking to demonize the latest threat to children. Since there have been a few instances of MySpace-borne sexual assault, it's not hard to see why politicians latched on to the site. But, apart from a few cherry-picked examples, it's not clear that MySpace actually poses any meaningful danger to children. The EFF points to a pair of recent studies that dispute the notion that MySpace represents dangerous territory for children. According to one of them, unwanted online solicitations are actually down since 1999, which would contradict the idea that the rise of sites like MySpace, has been a boon for those that would prey on children. The other study, which looked directly at MySpace found that the vast majority of users have never been the subject of unwelcome advances, and that those who have received them are quite capable of simply ignoring them. Of course, political witch hunts are rarely the result of anything rational, so it's unlikely that these pesky facts will do much to deter politicians.

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35 Comments

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Anonymous Poster (profile), 10 Apr 2007 @ 9:25am

What is it about politicians that makes them lose their common sense and moral compass once they become politicians? Do the cameras age their brains ten years or what?
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2007 @ 9:37am

What I find odd is that when someone posts a study that contridicts what a politician is preaching about said politician will just brush it off but when they post a study that supports their postion (and after digging it is discovered that the study was funded by politician) all of a sudden a study is undeniable fact.
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anonymous coward, 10 Apr 2007 @ 9:52am

MySpace is turning our young girls into a generation of skanky ass hos...

Whether that is positive or negative depends on your point of view.
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Amuseal, 10 Apr 2007 @ 10:18am

Nobody is protected either from unwelcome advances or politicians. Move your brains, everyone milks.
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Nicholas, 10 Apr 2007 @ 10:29am

Ugh.
Maybe it's not exactly getting kids raped all the time, but with the way it makes them act (and MySpace isn't going to stop them), who can blame child predators for loving the environment it provides? MySpace and politicians shouldn't be parenting your children. You should be parenting your children. If your 13 year old daughter is taking photos of herself in her bra and putting them on her MySpace, that's probably not okay behavior, and you need to put an end to it. Simple as that.

With that said, MySpace needs to take steps to make it easier to report inappropriate content, as well as define a clear "constitution" for what exactly is and isn't allowed on someone's MySpace. As it is, MySpace support completely sucks, and hardly responds quickly. I won't even get into the security nightmares involving user-placed content on webpages..
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tom B, 10 Apr 2007 @ 10:33am

Crisis of the Hour
I'm old enough to remember when Dungeons and Dragons was "corrupting the youth".
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2007 @ 10:46am

I whole heartedly agree with previous comments about raising kids. I know when I was a kid, if I did half the stuff I see on myspace, my Mom would have beat me so hard my grand kids would still be fealing it. And I'm in my early 20's.
But perhaps the more pressing issue, is that its all happening so fast, perhaps "yellow journalism" against myspace and the like is a good thing, b/c it spurs action in parents. Or atleast I would like to think it does.
But we are correct, there is a clear probelm with overt sexuality in younger and younger kids, and we need to do something about it. I don't know what, but I think death to child molesters is a good start.
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Anthony, 10 Apr 2007 @ 10:48am

Overused and abused
Being a "corrupted youth" myself, I can say that Myspace (or any other networking site), really poses no threat for anyone with some common sense. having used it for almost five years now and with more personal information than my parents would like (though not enough to pose any threat to my safety), I believe it safe to say I have expierence in this matter. And out of those five years, the worst "advance" I've got was a friend request from some profile with a picture of a chick in a bikini. Now, according to the news sources, what I should have done is friend 'her', proceed to divulge all of personal information, agree to meet her, and get sexually molested, eventually ending up on the news. What did I do? I deleted the request. End of story.
Myspace itself isn't dangerous, just stupidity. The media (and politicians) should really lay off it since they are much worse about certain unsolicited advances. *cough*political campaigns*cough*
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Gunnar, 10 Apr 2007 @ 11:03am

I never really thought Myspace was that bad, but my dad works at a public library. One day when I went to visit him, I looked at the bank of computers full of high school kids.

Each kid was looking at a myspace page.
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2007 @ 11:27am

Re:
Thanks Imus
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2007 @ 11:42am

Re: by Gunnar
"I never really thought Myspace was that bad, but my dad works at a public library. One day when I went to visit him, I looked at the bank of computers full of high school kids.

Each kid was looking at a myspace page."

So it's bad because it's popular? I'm confused. What worries me more about that situation is that the kids are at the library looking at it rather then at home. This tells me 1 of 3 things is happening. First, maybe they just browsed it while doing research for a paper, that's not a bad thing. Second possibility, they do not have computers at home, this worries me since it should be a priority to get everyone educated and using computers. Third possibility is the most frightening to me, maybe the parents won't let them look at it at home so they are at the library. The kids operating on reason 3 are the ones that will have a much higher chance of running into trouble. Their parents are not functioning in a guardian role, since out of sight is out of mind, and the kids are uneducated to the threats and unsupervised.

What it boils down to is that social sites are no different then a club activity. Kids are at risk everywhere, but removing them from the scene all together does nothing to "protect" them. Parents need to keep track of their kids, or not have any if they can't manage that, and they need to make sure their current on the new trends.

I have a my space profile, should I worry about being raped? Some how I'm not losing any sleep over it. Am I worried about younger relatives or teenagers that I know? Not really, they all have common sense, beaten into them from parents who are in touch with reality.

Parents should have explained to their children that there are bad people and they are looking to hurt you. A lot of those kids who are so sheltered that their parents do not tell them this are the ones that get taken advantage of by dates when they get to collage or get loured into a car with candy. This idea that the solution to all the problems in the world is to remove the kids from anything that might be hazardous is insane and obviously ineffectual.

People need to pull their heads out of the sand and BE PARENTS.
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Charles Griswold, 10 Apr 2007 @ 12:11pm

Re: Crisis of the Hour
I'm old enough to remember when Dungeons and Dragons was "corrupting the youth".

Dungeons and Dragons (3.5e) is still corrupting the youth. Huzzah! :-)
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UniBoy, 10 Apr 2007 @ 12:36pm

Educating Kids...
Everybody thinks its so EASY. Just tell your kids what to do, and they will follow it...

Sounds like advice from people with no kids. Or, at least not kids of a certain age. Try hard to remember back 5 or 10 years to when you were a teenager. Did YOU follow everything your parents told you?

It is no problem for kids to hear repeatedly that online social sites, where anonymous people can easily pretend to be what they are not, can pose dangers. Hell, THAT is part of the ATTRACTION.

Not that I think politicians or pointless laws can do anything to help the problem. But awareness (not fear-mongering) and education are reasonable approaches to keeping kids safe. I am also pretty certain that lots of kids need to hear it more than once before it sinks in too!
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Anonymous Coward, 10 Apr 2007 @ 1:45pm

to inform you guys....

implementation of an "Age Verification" system isn't meant to be 100% compliant. no system is 100% compliant.

putting up road blocks to check for drunk driving isn't 100% compliant, some slip by, or aren't checked at all. however, i still want the checks for those drivers that it does catch.

everybody who doesn't want to go through the effort/check of an Age Verification system screams that it's not 100% accurate. that's not the arguement. the real issue is does it manage to get some kids off the sites, or direct them to sites where they might be more at ease...

peace...
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Gunnar, 10 Apr 2007 @ 3:35pm

Re: Re: by Gunnar
No, not only because it's popular. Because it's so worthlessly popular. Like reality television.

It's not 1, every station was a high school kid looking at myspace. 30+ kids in a public library with 30+ screens looking at their friends garrish personal pages.

It's not 3, cause a kid would just wait till the parent wasn't around to go to myspace. And, kids with computers generally know there's more to the internet than myspace.

I use myspace to keep track of band's tour dates and new music. I also have friends on it that I can contact if I happen to lose their phone numbers or email addresses.

I work at a school where most kids don't have computers at home. The only thing these kids want to use computers for is Myspace, which is its real danger. These kids at the library are from the inner city (where the library is) and probably don't have computers at home.
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Bumbling old fool, 10 Apr 2007 @ 3:54pm

Re:
You appear to be confusing "effective" with "complaint.

yes, the system is implemented SOLELY to be compliant, and it is 100% compliant with regulations.

whether or not it is even remotely effective is beyond the scope of either party.
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|333173|3|_||3, 10 Apr 2007 @ 8:24pm

MySpace web design (or lack of it)
The average mySpace page is so hard to read that it makes my head hurt. At my old school , MySpace is on the way out, b/c of the crpa and spam and all the rest, and nothing to do with oersonal informatioion or dangers, since you are safer posting your details o MySpace than wandering thropugh the parklands in my city after dark each night for an month, in terms of the chances of getting threatened or recieving unwanted advances.
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Anonymous Coward, 12 Apr 2007 @ 10:19am

Yea myspace is out. Everyone is into Facebook now.
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erika, 3 May 2007 @ 5:31pm

myspace
omg. ppl should just leve myspace alone. the reason little girls get sexually assaulted and stupid stuff like that is cuz they give out too much info. just set ur profile on private and everything will be okay.
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Stuck, 15 May 2007 @ 11:59am

wat tunnels are not blocked
wat tunnels are nopt blockede cause i need to get on mysapce but my school has blocked tunns of tunnels so how do i get on myspace i tryed gtunnel, mtunnel, and even magic train station if anyone finds out how then i will add u to my myspace friends comment ur pics and ur myspace but yea thank u
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annie, 22 May 2007 @ 6:10pm

Parents let me ask you this do you not trust that your kids are smart enough to just ignore it.Besides there is a safe block where only the friends of their smart choice can look!So why not?If your child is retarded enough to put their actual name and address and age well then i can see the problem.I have it where i check my childs myspace every day so then i can see if there is any crap going on.And if you really don't care what your child does on the internet then thats your problem.So my point is let them have a myspace but also keep a watchful eye.I'm sure 75% of kids out there are smart .
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ann, 22 May 2007 @ 6:13pm

Re:
your an asshole
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Elliot Marrero, 28 May 2007 @ 8:17am

hi
what r u doing today?
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lacy, 6 Jun 2007 @ 8:02am

myspace
theres so much wrong with the world today!! you cant blame a website for human stupidity. the "sexual assault that was myspace driven" is BULLSHIT! if 14 year old youngins werent half naked posting pics that say do me! then there wouldnt be this problem! theres a block button if you have problems with any one. im amazingly pissed off right now because here i sit at school and i cant check my myspace. summer school is bad enough as it is and to top it off EVERY sight is blocked. i've tried at least 30 in the past 10 minutes. nothing is working and I HATE PEOPLE!!!
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caleb andrew cyruis, 9 Jul 2007 @ 6:19pm

ur a but
ur a big but
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caitlin, 26 Sep 2007 @ 10:55am

yo
u should let kids have myspace.....and if u dont it to be public.....dont let it be public.......ok so stop being a bunch of dumbass parents.
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monet, 7 Oct 2007 @ 1:35pm

wow
i as a mom think dat my child should have a myspace profile and that if she keeps her page private we will not have any problems
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lexers, 7 Oct 2007 @ 3:03pm

I mean Myspace isnt bad, parents need to chill out and talk to their kids about the safety tools they can use[ Myspace offers a lot of safety tools].My mom let me have one then when she said about someone not getting the interview because of it I got angry and had to delete it. Please Tom go to the public and give YOUR side of the stpry
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josh, 1 Mar 2008 @ 3:31pm

pimp
none
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......, 10 Mar 2008 @ 4:18pm

my mom made me delete my myspace because i didnt tell her about it. i know now that i was too young to have one.

i came accross this page because i was looking for an article or blog to help me convince her that myspace is safe.

i think some of these comments will help persuade her.

and yes i aggree that there are plenty of ways to keep away from predators. if you dont a person who adds you... dont add them! it all makes perfect sense.
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Jim, 4 Nov 2008 @ 11:28am

Re: hi
Is this the Elliot who used to live on Potrero Hill? Email me at jrice.kc@gmail.com
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Jackie, 27 Jan 2009 @ 10:13am

My space Not a space for kids
There are so many things that are not age appropriate on Myspace. It is up to parents to monitor the web though. Find a safe site for your kids that has "good content". I just found iklickz.com, a site that is like myspace but designed for tweens. It has all of the fun but none of the smut.
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hikmfgxlmh, 19 Jun 2009 @ 9:59am

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lifdgjxkh;ldslbhdlfhblkiy, 19 Jun 2009 @ 10:01am

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darian, 9 Feb 2010 @ 1:16pm

hey im a kid i want a my space but my mom wont let me is there a site for kids like my space
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