Question for parents regarding MySpace

[AKLRULZ]

Does your teen/pre-teen have a MySpace site? Do you monitor it? What are your thoughts on MySpace?

 

[transparant]

No Myspace around here. I'm not a fan of myspace at all.

 

[snowball22]

Make a fake account and go take a stroll through MYSPACE. You will be shocked at all the garbage out there. I personally will not let my kids be a part of a web site that is full of curse words, nudity, and perverts.

 

[ZipaDeeDooDah]

No Myspace around here. I'm not a fan of myspace at all.

DITTO.

 

[sha_lyn]

17 DS has had one for a few months. He's been on Xanga for over a yr. Yes I monitor both accounts. I also have my own myspace as do many of my friends.
You can be on myspace and not interact with the curse words, nudity and perverts.

 

[beattyfamily]

I'm totally against it, and any website like it, and my girls will not have an account there ever.

I will always monitor what my kids are doing on the computer. They can use it for homework and maybe in the future emails to friends but no blogs, myspace, chat rooms, or even IMing.

 

[Nala56]

No My Space here. My 14 DD is not allowed on, no reason for her to be.

 

[BibbidiBobbidiBOO]

IF this new search works for you, I think their are many threads on this subject here.

We let DS get one when he was 15. Our church youth group has a "group" on My Space, and they use it for quick messages. "What time do we have to be there tonight?" etc. They post pictures from their trips they take too. He has some school friends on his too, and they tend to make plans for games etc. We have never had an issue with it, and I have come to realize that I like his friends!

Restrictions we have are:
Set to private
We have email/password and can check whenever we want
No internet in his room
Can only check on weekends and before Wed. youth group for a set amount of time
We can delete his page or get rid of a friend whenever we want (never had to yet)
Not his full real name or hometown (friends have to ask his address to get invite)

We do not allow him to IM or go to chat rooms. That is harder to monitor, IMHO. And it really is no more dangerous than posting on the DIS and putting personal info, links, pictures, details of your life, imho. You can find wackos anywhere on the internet, but at least we can monitor his page fairly easy. He has learned a lot about designing a web page and has become creative in that area. He calls me to come like at his page and his friends pages quite often.

And DD,11, will have to wait until age 15 if she wants one too.

 

[TheDisneyTraveler06]

No, we do not allow our 14 yo DD on MySpace.

 

[tinkersmama]

I have one and I monitor all my cousins who are much younger than I am. It is neat for us to keep in touch and some of my cousins are in the military now, so it is a great way for us to keep up with one another. I have mine set to private so only my friends can see my page. Just something I do as a precaution because I have pictures of my daughter on there for family to see, but I don't want people I don't know to be able to see them. If myspace is handled appropriately, I don't see it being a problem. On the other hand, if you do not set it to private and add eveyone as a friend that asks, whether you know them or not, it can be a problem. Just MHO.

 

[ChrisFL]

I have one and I monitor all my cousins who are much younger than I am. It is neat for us to keep in touch and some of my cousins are in the military now, so it is a great way for us to keep up with one another. I have mine set to private so only my friends can see my page. Just something I do as a precaution because I have pictures of my daughter on there for family to see, but I don't want people I don't know to be able to see them. If myspace is handled appropriately, I don't see it being a problem. On the other hand, if you do not set it to private and add eveyone as a friend that asks, whether you know them or not, it can be a problem. Just MHO.

Agreed, with only a few incidents, the media hype jumps all over MySpace as if it's a work of the devil.

MySpace itself isn't bad, there's now 1.1 million users on it and a vast majority are normal people keeping up with friends.

Sure if you go trying to look for people who are involved in illegal activities, etc. just like you would anywhere else that's open to the public.

I've found a lot of old high school friends and others from my past and use it frequently to post things that I feel are important (blogs, etc)

Do I think it should be monitored and restricted for young teens? Absolutely, but it still can be a useful way to connect and share things.

 

[Planogirl]

I go on MySpace myself and yes, there is a lot of trash on it just like the Internet itself. However, in the area where we have an interest, it stays relatively clean and it's a wonderful way to make contact.

 

[tinkersmama]

Hey Chris, you are not too far away from me!! I'm just north of Tampa.

 

[ChrisFL]

Hey Chris, you are not too far away from me!! I'm just north of Tampa.

Cool!

Also, BTW I must correct myself, I had said 1.1 million users, it's actually closer to 115 million users...I was waaayyy off.

But the point is, when you have that many users, of course there's going to be some bad ones.

 

[Pugdog007]

Yes she does, as do all her friends, as do I. My daughter, her boyfriend and all of my neices and nephews are "my friends" and I love being able to get a "glimpse" into their lives by looking at all their spaces! Myspace is not inherently evil, and I don't know that it's such a good idea to forbid it, when every kid I know has one. It may in fact increase their curiosity enough to set one up at someone else's house and then you really will have no idea that it's there. I'd rather condone it, monitor it, participate in it!

 

[Liberty Belle]

Yep, my 13 year old son does. I do random checks of his page. His is also set on private, so only his friends can see his info, talk to him, etc. He and his friends use it to talk to eachother. They're really not into trying to meet other people on it. It's no big deal. For them it's like a party line phone call...with pictures.

During the random checks I've done, I've seen a couple of minor curse words and some blue humor, but that's it. I think that's to be expected amongst 13 year olds and I don't say anything to him about it (but would if I felt it went too far).

 

[mckryan]

Yes, my 15YO has one, as do I. Yes, I have her password, and she knows I check her account almost daily. Yes, I also check her email. Yes, her account is set to private, and yes, I know all the people personally she has on her friends list.

This boils down to parental responsibility. If your child is going to be on MySpace, or any other service, you have to set the rules and stick to them. You must check up on them. You MUST BE THE PARENT, NOT THEIR FRIEND. MySpace is not bad, nor is IM, Xanga, Facebook, etc. If you think keeping your child from MySpace is going to keep them innocent, think again.

 

[Planogirl]

Besides, it's easy to get a myspace account at someone else's house as someone pointed out. They can even set it up for you.

I think it's best to be open and monitor what goes on.

 

[momrek06]

No Myspace around here. I'm not a fan of myspace at all.

Me Too!!!

But that being said my son's are in college and they have FACEBOOK which is similiar to MYSPACE but in order to go on FACEBOOK OR have an account with FACEBOOK, you have to have an ACTIVE COLLEGE EMAIL address. So if you are some kind of perv and are into porn you cannot get on FACEBOOK unless you are actively enrolled FULLTIME in college....that leaves out allot of riffraff right there...I don't think allot of pervs or porn kings are enrolled fulltime in college.

NO FLAMES please, I am not saying that everyone on MYSPACE is a perv or into porn at all. I have friends with MYSPACE!

BUT it is MYSPACE (after-all) that has received allot of bad press due to creeps using it as a way of communicating with children/teens. The people creating the MYSPACE site need to have a better grasp on creeps having access to their site!

 

[Cool-Beans]

I got an email from myspace today, opened it up and found a naked woman.

I really hope my boys aren't getting those. God knows they wouldn't come and complain to me about it.

I have it blocked on their computers, but I don't kid myself into thinking that means they don't go on myspace or have myspace accounts. I just hope that knowing I don't approve of that crap tells them something, sets an example. I dunno.