Safety experts: MySpace changes not enough

[goddess_nemesis]

AUSTIN, Texas - New security measures for young users of MySpace.com won't be enough to stop online child predators, safety experts warned Wednesday.

Starting next week, the popular online social network will restrict adult access to the information teenagers post about themselves.

MySpace users who are 18 or over could no longer request to be on a 14- or 15-year-old's friends' list unless they already know either the youth's e-mail address or full name. That means they won't have access to personal information on their profiles.

"They're going to lie about their ages," said Monique Nelson, executive vice president of online safety advocate Web Wise Kids. "There's no way to check age verification. In that respect, I don't think that's going to be very effective."

MySpace security director Hemanshu Nigam said the site, owned by News Corp., is committed to increasing online safety, particularly among 14 and 15 year olds.

"MySpace remains dedicated to a multi-pronged approach that also involves education and collaboration with law enforcement, teachers, parents and members," he said in a statement.

The changes come on the heels of a $30 million lawsuit filed by the mother of a Texas teenager who claims she was raped by a man she met through the site. The lawsuit claims MySpace is negligent in protecting teen users despite numerous warnings of the dangers.

The site prohibits kids 13 and under from setting up accounts. But the Austin teenager was 13 when she set up her profile last year. MySpace has no mechanism for verifying that users submit their true age when registering.

Under the changes announced Wednesday, any user will still be able to get a partial profile of younger users by searching for other details, such as display name. The difference is that currently, adults can then request to be added to a youth's list to view the full profile; that option will disappear for adults registered as 18 and over.

Those under 18 will still be able to make contact. Without age verification, adults can sign up as teens and request to join a 14-year-old's list of friends, which would enable the full profiles.

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It's wonderful that they're making changes to help better protect kids at Myspace.com but like they say adults can still sign up as teens.

What should be done is parents teaching their kids to be safe online. Sites like Myspace.com should have links that go to sites that has a list on what a kid can do to protect him or herself.

 

[Redmage]

You know, stuff like this frustrates me. We've had the net as part of public life for, oh, 10 years now, and people still haven't figured out that creating a "secure" online environment that's also usable by the general public just isn't practical. People demand that businesses throw money at this, and the businesses dutifully do it, and the results are always - always - ineffective from the start, or become so shortly as bad guys (and often the kids themselves) find ways around them. It has happened with internet filters. It is happening and will continue to happen with MySpace and similar social networking sites.

The saddest part of all is that this is wasted effort. People are frantic about the dangers of the net, but the plain fact is that a child is overwhelmingly more likely to be harmed by someone in the same home or nearby in the neighborhood. Only a tiny fraction of all child abductions and sexual assaults happen as a result of connections made online. In the interests of protecting children we need to focus on what is really most likely to hurt them, it seems to me.

I think what makes the net such a goblin in parents' nightmares is simply that it's invisible. It's very hard to tell where kids go, what they see, and whom they talk to online. So parents fill in those blanks with their worst imaginings. The familiar dangers of meatspace look much less threatening than the shadowy demons of the online world. But the truth is just the opposite.

I think that the very best possible defense you can give your children online is education. Talk to them about online dangers just like you talk to them about real-life dangers. Stress privacy, their right not to participate in anything that makes them uncomfortable, their right to tell their parents when they find such things - the very same rules that we teach them to stay safe in the 3D world. What you teach your kids is the only thing that will go with them no matter where they surf or what clever hacks they figure out to get around the ineffectual barriers adults put up online.

 

[BLUE_THUNDER]

i have just about had enough of the myspace bashing in the media lately. before myspace even existed, there were plenty of child predators lurking on AOL and things happened as a result. should we sue AOL then or shut them down? this all comes down to parents being more involved with their kids and more closely monitoring their internet activity. its not possible to do this all the time i realize, but to blame myspace for this kind of thing doesnt solve anything. i agree it would be nice to see some kind of age verification system in place there however. just my 2 cents on the subject. peace.....BLUE_THUNDER

 

[TicklishLurker]

It's not up to MySpace to do a parent's job. You want your kids safe - start being a parent. You have every right to monitor every bit of e-mail, everywhere your kid goes online. If they don't like it, tough. In a perfect world the internet would be off limits to anyone under 18 world-wide anyway.

I'm sick and tired of watching lazy parents scape goating. It's called parenting. It's not a democarcy, it's a dictatorship until they're a legal adult. Period.

 

[IrishTickle]

The sad thing is, not many politicians are computer savy. They are told only bad alarmist things about the net and they freak, campaigning against the evil net! It reminds me of the hacker in the early 80's I think who spent something like 20 years in solitary confinement because the prosecution told the judge that, just like in the film War Games, if the hacker was allowed near a telephone, he could start world war 3! Governments and intelligence don't mix!

 

[Bagelfather]

Dangers of My Space

Myspace is the big target because it is so visible. I agree with Red Mage in that there is more danger of children being harmed by people they know than random online strangers.

The biggest complaint I have about Myspace is that it allows any moron to become a "web designer." Ye'Gods have you EVER tried reading those pages? 90% of people's pages are so full of background crap images you cannot read ANY of the text.

Hell, I think we should encourage sexual predators to go after children on Myspace. Most likely they will go blind trying to read the pages. What chances do they have finding the child after reading Myspace crap pages for 6 months? Most likely they will run out into traffic and get run over or think that Quiznos Cup guy/gal is their target and run over by parking lot traffic chasing the person in that costume down.

I think if we can convince young children to overuse background images to the point where no one can read the pages, everyone will be a lot safer! It is much easier to encourage this behavior than to require credit card authorization to verify age status. It also eliminates important parental responsibility. Parents can then focus more of their attention on important things like watching "Desperate Housewives" or "American Idol."

 

[chicago]

I have a suggestion.


Monitor your children's internet usage. Don't let them take half-naked pictures of themselves with the webcam or digital camera that you bought them and post them on the internet.

At least not until they're 16. 😉

 

[Goodieluver]

I have a suggestion.


Monitor your children's internet usage. Don't let them take half-naked pictures of themselves with the webcam or digital camera that you bought them and post them on the internet.

At least not until they're 16. 😉

Age of consent in most states is 18 and by some too 17, but for nudie companies, its 18. Its still sick and pedaphillac if grown men are lookin at 16 yr olds. If girls are so desparate for attention at that age, go fool around at school with kids yer own age, theres always some guy in the school who's easy

 

[Goodieluver]

Myspace is the big target because it is so visible. I agree with Red Mage in that there is more danger of children being harmed by people they know than random online strangers.

The biggest complaint I have about Myspace is that it allows any moron to become a "web designer." Ye'Gods have you EVER tried reading those pages? 90% of people's pages are so full of background crap images you cannot read ANY of the text.

Hell, I think we should encourage sexual predators to go after children on Myspace. Most likely they will go blind trying to read the pages. What chances do they have finding the child after reading Myspace crap pages for 6 months? Most likely they will run out into traffic and get run over or think that Quiznos Cup guy/gal is their target and run over by parking lot traffic chasing the person in that costume down.

I think if we can convince young children to overuse background images to the point where no one can read the pages, everyone will be a lot safer! It is much easier to encourage this behavior than to require credit card authorization to verify age status. It also eliminates important parental responsibility. Parents can then focus more of their attention on important things like watching "Desperate Housewives" or "American Idol."

My problem is anyone can be anyone on there, specif famous people. There was a guy posing as vinnie paul, the former drumer of pantera. Also when Tony Dungy's kid killed himself, someone claimed they found his myspace which was pretty disturbing, and people were uncertain if it was his myspace or if someone forged one.

and AMEN, hence i love my quote on my myspace: "I dont need no fuckin poofy layout" Its like "How many colors and pix can i jam on one page so when someone views it, it takes maybe 10 mins on hi speed to load everything" I simply use myspace for music interests(Found\contacted some good bands), to spew my self indulgent tripe on the world and to show moronic friends of mine what real music is

 

[chicago]

I was definitely being sarcastic about the 16 part.

 

[IrishTickle]

My problem is anyone can be anyone on there, specif famous people. There was a guy posing as vinnie paul, the former drumer of pantera. Also when Tony Dungy's kid killed himself, someone claimed they found his myspace which was pretty disturbing, and people were uncertain if it was his myspace or if someone forged one.

Well that happens every where. How many guys on the TMF are pretending to be lesbians so they can get a bit of action? In a way it's better that they're stuck alone indoors than out in the general population! 😀