MySpace Gangsters

I first heard of MySpace (an online community) about 4 or 5 years ago, when my son was in high school. My son and daughter both created their own MySpace pages. I was so shocked by the boldness of some of the photos and postings of some of their friends that I monitored my kids’ activities on MySpace very closely. I visited their pages regularly to conduct what I called “MySpace raids.” When I saw that strangers were contacting my daughter through MySpace, I made her make her page private – which meant that she could control visitors to her page.

Back in those early days of MySpace I was so concerned about all this information on the Internet for the world to see, that I contacted some of the parents of my children’s friends. I wanted them to know about the kind of photos, information, comments and postings that were out there. Amazingly many of the parents didn’t seem to be concerned at all. I suggested that they check their kid’s pages periodically. A few parents shut their kids down all together, a couple took the time to look at the pages and the rest did nothing.

The message that I continue to reiterate to my children (they are 21 and 16 so I’m using the word children loosely) is that everything on the Internet is public. Even if your page is private -- the information can still be accessed by an untold number of people. I want them to realize that they should be mindful of the image they are portraying through the site.

Some of their friends have inappropriate photos and profanity all over their sites. For some reason MySpace seems to give people a since of power and freedom. People put all their business right on the Internet without reserve.

The other interesting thing about MySpace is that you can really get a feel for who a person really and truly is based on the friends listed and their comments. Association brings about assimilation. How very true is that saying.

In the news the other day was a story about a man in Florida who threatened a police station via MySpace. His threat was there along with his – gun in hand – photo. Fortunately he was arrested before going on his shooting spree.

My son calls MySpace “the devil” and calls people who use MySpace to either catch their boyfriend/girlfriend cheating or to threaten other people “MySpace gangsters”.

I’m especially concerned about young people’s use of MySpace. Kids tend to think they are invincible. Maybe MySpace is still too much of a novelty for people to step back and realize that it can be dangerous. Discretion and prudence are the name of the game.