MySpace

[joepole]

"The inexperienced PC user" is the category that covers 99% of all office workers.

Also, Myspace is where that GDI cursor bug showed up in the wild a last month. There is absolutely nothing experience could have done to protect you if you were using IE, MS didn't patch it for a couple of weeks. There have been a few others like that, as well.

[AnimeSpirit]

I have a myspace account, but I never use it. I haven't posted anything on it. I just use it for contacting other myspace users on rare occasions.

As for me, I'm a very savvy computer user. There is really very little myspace can do for me that I can't do on my own webspace. Moreover, there are a TON of things I can do on my webspace that Myspace will never have.

[Texasbelle]

I think MySpace is the devil's playground for the most part. I realize there are some exceptions, but I have seen the pathway it has led my step son down, his mother, and even my own 18 y/o son for awhile until I banned it. The things that these kids say and do on it are atrocious. Parents are not doing enough to monitor their children's activities on it. Stepson's mother has some pretty horrific stuff on her MySpace that the authorities themselves need to view. She is on their talking to adolescents mostly and interacting in a very inappropriate manner for a 50 y/o woman.

I think it's not a good thing but it's just my opinion from our experience.

[AnimeSpirit]

You know, I was just pondering where the Internet has gone since it was first introduced to the public and what it has brought to us.

Now, we have every piece of information you could ever need right at your fingertips. You could talk to or play games with people in any country anywhere in the world. You can shop and some even work their job right from home now. The Internet has, in a sense, brought people closer to together all over the world. It tears down barriers put up by time and space that would otherwise stand between us and the world.

Bringing people closer together sounds like a great idea until we are reminded that there are people out there we honestly wouldn't want to be closer to (like our friend, Santabot). There are people whose existance downright repel us because they are different, are misguided, or just generally oppose everything we are and stand for.

People, as a society, still haven't gotten over differences among us. People who do not share our upbringing generally make us turn away. Is it their fault? No more than our upbringing is our fault. Aside from that, it's also true that some of these people repel us because of behavior that we find entirely attrocious.

Take romance with minors, for instance. While I do not condone such behavior here in the states where it is quite illegal, there are places in the world where the age of consent is as low as 12. While I was in Florida, we heard stories in our neighborhood of a foreign man from overseas who moved in. He recently became a U.S. citizen and immediately got into trouble with the law. Why? Because his wife, whom we brought with him from his country, was way under 18. It may not be right to be married to a minor, but in his case, I couldn't really shun him for it.

Of course, there are also people who just simply violent or are sexual predators, which I think is one of the biggest fears of getting online and posting personal data on Myspace. A little common sense is appropriate here.

Here are some simple common sense Internet safety tips that may help you stay safe online:

1. Never meet someone you met online unless you've known them and spoken to them online for some time (6 months or more) and have spoken to them via other means. Knowing some of their other friends is helpful. This gives you time to gauge their personality.
   
2. Don't trust photos that people send you. They may not actually be them.
   
3. Despite the bad reputation webcams have been given due to the pornography industry, webcams can be your best friend for identifying someone online whom you may want to meet in person. They cost $20 at Wal-mart and they are nearly impossible to fool, so persuade your online friends to get one and consent to webcam interaction. Yahoo Messenger has a webcam feature that is great for getting to know people and it will show you EXACTLY who is sitting at the keyboard. Sexual predators who wish to keep their identities secret will not consent to this, so it's a good method to filter out potential threats.
   
4. Posting your photo online isn't always a bad thing because having nothing but a photo, a sexual predator isn't going to track you down with only that.
   
5. Be careful posting an address or telephone number online! E-mail is more secure and if you want to arrange a telephone conversation, send your number through e-mail!
   
6. Use nicknames anywhere you can and avoid using any real names!

I may think of more later, but this should do for now. Later!

[BrainSmashR]

Sorry, but I have to spread some reputation around before I can "give it to AnimeSpirit again"

LOL

[joepole]

Switching from IE isn't an option for many people.

[BrainSmashR]

Originally Posted by joepole

Switching from IE isn't an option for many people.

Utilizing FREE software is an option for anyone with an internet connection and administrative access to their PC. If you AREN'T the system administrator then you're probably being paid to do something other than browse profiles on Myspace, and shouldn't be there anyway.

[rhertz]

Originally Posted by Texasbelle

Parents are not doing enough to monitor their children's activities on it.

The problem is that children use myspace to communicate "underground" where they learn how to defeat most if not all parental controls. For example Kids are using a U3 Smart Drive to circumvent "net nanny" type software. Short of standing over your child while he or she is typing, it is hard to be sure what they are doing all the time. That might be ideal to always stand over your child, but in the real world, I'm not always going to be all the places that a keyboard might be. I don't have a perfect solution other than to raise my kids to do the right thing, because I'm sure they can outsmart me if they try hard enough.

[Texasbelle]

Rhertz, you are absolutely correct with your post. In our home we have even banned the kids from being on MySpace. Now I can not control what they do at school on a computer or elsewhere but while they are in the house it is off limits. It has certainly made a big difference in their attitudes alone. One of the things that appalls me the most about the teens on MySpace is their language. Some of it seems to be more foul than anything I would expect to hear in a prison. They also seem to have no fear of putting all of their information on their page with no thoughts given to who may be seeing it.

[Pocahontas]

It is indeed surprising that kids put everything on their My Space page for anyone to see! Their parents, their teachers, their employers can check in and see what these kids are really about! My kids do have them but so far I haven't been too shocked by their posts and pictures. I have to remember when I was their age I was doing similar things but then again not telling and showing the whole world about it. Hmmmm....guess it's time to go do a little snooping, er, I mean checking up on them!

[BrainSmashR]

Yes well what can I say...there are to many horror stories out there to not warrant providing some measure of safety for your children.

I just hope you understand that MySpace isn't the bad apple spoiling the bunch....It's closer to the truth to say that MySpace is a product of it's environment and that your children have computer skills far exceeding your own. My guess is if they are teens you have done little more than inconvenience them.

[BrainSmashR]

Originally Posted by joepole

"The inexperienced PC user" is the category that covers 99% of all office workers.

Also, Myspace is where that GDI cursor bug showed up in the wild a last month. There is absolutely nothing experience could have done to protect you if you were using IE, MS didn't patch it for a couple of weeks. There have been a few others like that, as well.

Actually there is a VERY SIMPLE solution that covers every existing, potential, and future threat posed to IE users.....It's called Firefox and I highly recommend you switch browsers as soon as possible.