Top Five MySpace Dangers
May 11th, 2009 | by Jen |MySpace has enjoyed an explosive level of growth recently. It is everywhere, TV, newspapers and even T-shirts. Countless teenagers and children create their very own “space” everyday. While it seems like harmless fun, there are five dangers that you must look out for to protect your children.
Danger One: the written content.
Myspace pages are not censored and it shows; from subject like drinking and drugs, references to “adult” subject matters to suicide and self harming. The language on most pages is colorful to say the least. You do not want your children to read these.
Danger Two: the images.
Many of the images posted on MySpace are sexually suggestive. Videos are posted, too, and sometimes these are graphic enough to frighten young children - it only took us a minute to find a video of mistreated farm animals, for example.
Danger Three: predators.
Many children and teens post a lot of information about themselves making MySpace is a haven for sexual predators. Anyone can do a search for their local high school and see the details of dozens of young children. Hobbies, interests, date of birth, hair color, friends and much more is often listed for anyone to see. If your child were to post that she’s going to be somewhere at a particular time and date, it would be frighteningly easy for someone else to wait for her there.
Danger Four: unsuitable friends.
The people your children meet online do not have to be criminals or predators to be unsuitable. In real life, you tend to meet your children’s friends giving you the chance to decide whether or not they’re the kind of people you want your children to spend time with. On MySpace, they could meet anyone at all and you have no idea.
Danger Five: bad behavior.
Sometimes, the problem isn’t other people - it’s your child. Imagine if your son were to threaten to kill someone online, and they then happened to get hurt? As a parent, you need to ensure that this isn’t taking place.
So how do you avoid these MySpace dangers? The easiest, most reliable option is to use parental control software. There are a number of good software programs for you to monitor your child’s online activities. You can view website visits and read emails and instant messages without them ever knowing. If you don’t like what you see, you can block access to certain websites, all the time or when you’re not at home.