TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

MySpace caves to pressure for new security measures

Written by

Trench Reynolds

in

MySpace Agrees to New Safety Measures:

First, let me hit you with just the first paragraph from the AP article that’s making the rounds about MySpace’s proposed new safety measures.

Under mounting pressure from law enforcement and parents, MySpace agreed Monday to take steps to protect youngsters from online sexual predators and bullies, including searching for ways to better verify users’ ages.

The fact that parents are pressuring MySpace is a joke. If parents were actually parenting, I would say more than half the stories on this site wouldn’t have happened.

Here are some of the things MySpace said they will do for lax parents. Ok, I made up the lax parents part.

Under the agreement, profiles for users under age 16 will be set to private so no strangers can get information from their profile; users can block anyone over 18 from contacting them; and people over 18 cannot add anyone under 16 as a friend in their network unless they have their last name or their e-mail address.

All of these can be circumvented by the underage user if the parents aren’t paying attention.

Another new feature will be the following…

MySpace said it is in the process of creating a database where parents can submit children’s e-mail addresses to prevent their children from setting up profiles.

And it only takes your kid about a minute to set up another e-mail address that you don’t know about.

In my opinion, age verification won’t work either, even if you need a credit card to sign up with MySpace. First of all, MySpace will never do that because their userbase will plummet. Secondly, it wouldn’t take much for a kid to slide the credit card out of mom or dad’s wallet, use it to sign up on MySpace, then slide back unnoticed.

There is no greater security measure than good parenting.

Thanks to Bay for the link.

Comments

8 responses to “MySpace caves to pressure for new security measures”

  1. BelchSpeak Avatar
    BelchSpeak

    Secondly it wouldn&rsquot take much for a kid to slide the credit card out of mom or dad&rsquos wallet, use it to sign up on MySpace, then slide back unnoticed.

    True, but if the url showed up on the credit card bill? That would help.

    But even with that, it will laughably drive the underground world of id theft and stolen credit card info for teenyboppers to get a myspace account.

    Bottom line is that age verification is a solvable problem, using a combination of common sense and technology.

    Reply
  2. Trench Avatar
    Trench

    The lack of common sense is the problem.

    Reply
  3. Bay Avatar
    Bay

    I just finished watching a piece on Good Morning America or one of those Morning shows. They spoke on many parts of the things they are to cover and while many are helpful the fact remains that it is NOT My Space’s job to parent. That is the job of the parents. Can they Help make it easier for parents and hopefully harder for kids Yes we can hope so. However if the Mom’s and Dad’s are not doing their part they can do all the changes in the world and this stuff will continue.

    Frankly I think they should lay this at those who are responsible. The Parents are the ones who should be held accountable and responsible. True bad things can happen even to parented kids. However the numbers would drop in so many areas not just internet myspace etc but in general if they started laying the blame where it should be and made parents accountable for their children’s actions.
    Can you imagine what we are teaching these kids this way? We are teaching them that they are Not accountable for their actions. We are showing kids that when you do something that is not positive you can lay the blame for it on anyone else but never ever stand and take the responsibility yourself when you can pass it to others.
    Is there any wonder kids these days are as they are with kids. This is what they are being taught.
    Frankly I have said it before and I honestly believe that if they start developing laws that will hold parents responsible for their kids. When those kids mess up the parents are fined and if it happens again and again with no change they get jailed.
    We can add the parenting classes in there at the first stage etc.
    Until parents are made to take their job seriously and parent those they brought into this world well how can we hold these companies, schools, etc, responsible for the actions of them when their own parents are not being held responsible?

    As for the whole age verification you can go through any number of pages on MySpace and see where the kid post that they are 20 to 40 to get their account. Yet those kids state openly in the other part of the page their true ages of 12 to 17. If they can not be bothered to get rid of the ones that are in plain sight how do we expect them to get the kids who lie really well?

    Reply
  4. BelchSpeak Avatar
    BelchSpeak

    Bay,
    Ultimately, you are correct. Parents are responsible to protect their kids and to monitor their online activity.

    However, MySpace, in my opinion, is negligent for distributing a product that harms children, just like Chinese companies that use too much lead in their paint and make art project toys using a date rape drug.

    And just like the Chinese know, but neglect to do, there are ways to make the product safe. MySpace also knows that there are ways to make their product safe for children. The technology and methodology exists to verify age and to monitor the interaction between user accounts to ensure that perverts aren’t grooming children.

    But MySpace won’t implement these changes.
    Trench is right. If MySpace puts in those changes, users will flee MySpace for a more open “society.” But if they don’t put in those changes, I think they are ripe for a huge lawsuit for product liability, just like big tobacco.

    Reply
  5. David Avatar
    David

    Its a catch 22. These security measure can’t help if the parent is uninvolved…but they aren’t really necessary either if the parent is involved.

    Reply
  6. Bay Avatar
    Bay

    I agree BlechSpeak.
    I also think that while we can stay on top of those overseas companies who are producing toys with too much lead and chemicals and drugs in them, well the parents again play a part there too. Parents need to do their part with staying informed and providing the kids with those toys proven safe. With things the way they are now No parent of any age child has any excuse for not being plugged into what is going on. It just is not safe anymore. There is also No excuse with the many optionsyou have now to learn and get information.

    I do know though that we need to hold both accountable The companies as well as the parents.

    If in fact they can out these tools into place that is a great thing. I applaud their efforts. I still think though if these parents are going to continue to allow these kids to have these computers and web cams and cell phones with cameras and not pay attention to what they are doing well than all the changes on MySpace will not help. Come on we were all teens at one point in our lives and every one of us knew how to bypass things we wanted too. They will simply find another method, another site, and well than Trench will have to start another blog for their behavior on that site. LOL Not that I mind that last one :0)

    I look at some of those pages and see the drugs and guns and drinking and wonder Where in heck are those kids parents? I would lay odds if the parents of some of them actually looked at their kids pages the roof would be raised in many homes, and computers all over would be disconnected. At least I would like to think so anyway. Than again after reading how some parents act Who knows I may be mistaken. For those parents that is where I think we need new ways to hold parents more responsible for their lack of parenting.

    Reply
  7. Kim Avatar
    Kim

    I think kids younger than 17 should not be on myspace, it is very simple don’t let your kids have a myspace page. Check to be sure there is no fake profile that you may not know about, check the web page history as well. Also, many parents don’t even know what Myspace is and they barely have any skills on a computer to check on their kids, kids are way smarter than their parents these days and they lie so well.

    I just saw on Supernanny an 11 year old girl who had a myspace profile sayign she was 14 and had about 59 friends who were mostly older guys. Until the nanny pointed it out, her parents didn’t even know what myspace was! This little girl sat there and rolled her eyes while trying to show her father what is was. She also had highlights in her hair and perfectly manicured painted fingernails.

    I think the key is to educate parents on HOW TO MONITOR their children’s online activities and also WHY they need to. Also, we need to educate young girls on the law and explain to them that having an 18 or 25 year old guy interested in them is NOT HOT and ROMANTIC, but illegal and disgusting. Too often I see web pages of very very young girls showing off their “assests” and being very slutty and never once being AFRAID of the “friends” they are making online.

    Also, what is to keep a preditor from building a profile with his or her age as 16 and then having access ot all the 16 year olds he or she wants?

    Reply
  8. Dan Avatar
    Dan

    When I was about 22, I sometimes helped out a single mom my age. She was a very sweet, well-intentioned young woman. She had three kids by three men. Her IQ put her on the high end of mentally retarded. Her eldest was molested by another man she’d been seeing. That daughter was found with a knife in the baby’s room one night. She was institutionalized very young. I talked to this mom about tubal ligation. She had no idea such a miracle existed, had it done concurrent with her third birth. She felt very guilty about not being able to remember her birth control pill all the time.

    We’ve got all sorts of parents in this world. Many of the criminals we talk about are parents. We’ve got to take predator adults out of this equation as much as we can. then we’ve got to popularize and glamorize parenting info just as we have nutrition and diet info in recent years. Then we’ve got to take care of the hurt children whose parents can’t or don’t or won’t parent adequately.

    Parenting is not instictive but people just seem to pop out kids as though it were no big deal. We get into all this trouble because parents are only peripherally aware of their kids. Kids need tons of intense, direct attention. Not everyone can or should parent. I think that truth should should be acknowledged.

    Reply

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