IP addresses close but no cigar

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Want To Protect Kids On MySpace? IP Addresses Are The Answer:

The short answer is no.

The author of the article takes MySpace to task for their pointless new safety measures. He also suggests that instead of giving your child’s e-mail address to MySpace to keep them from it, he suggests giving your IP address instead.

I think that’s a great suggestion, but it’s just as flawed as the e-mail plan.

There are sites and software out there called anonymizers which easily mask your IP address, making any IP block useless.

Whatever block MySpace can think of, kids and predators have already thought of a way around it.

Actual parental involvement is the best line of defense in my book.

Comments

10 responses to “IP addresses close but no cigar”

January 22, 2008

David I.

Schools everywhere have banned Myspace from there system, yet they still get on. nothing will stop them like you said. so what happens when the kid is at a friends house? a lot of good an IP address would do. It does come down to the parents.

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January 22, 2008

sara

Have you or do you know of anyone thats read “Myspace Unraveled’?

http://www.myspaceunraveled.com

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January 22, 2008

Trench

I’m working on getting my hands on it for a review.

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January 23, 2008

Bay

I have read on Answers.com so many kids posting trying to and usually some Jerk gives them the info but they post to get around the net nanny and other blocking software
Do they Honestly believe that this too will not become the next biggest Question asked on Answers.com

Thank you Yahoo for giving kids a way to get around just about anything.

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January 23, 2008

Bay

OOPS that should have been YAHOO Answers http://answers.yahoo.com
Sorry gang

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January 23, 2008

BW

so what happens when the kid is at a friends house?

I’m not trying to attack you for this, but I read this a lot. It drives me crazy I could swear that when I was young, my mother would know the parents of my friends, and know what we were doing. How hard is it to ask another parent to keep kids off Myspace?
Another one I liked was the response to someone suggesting that parents get a Myspace account and monitor their children. The person wrote “but kids can just set their profile to private. Then what do you do?”
What do you do? Is that a serious question?

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January 24, 2008

Bay

I also remember when my friends parents knew and talked to my parents. Sadly though that is not that common it seems anymore. It seems now days every one who is turning 13 has internet access of some kind and is pretty darn good at getting around the little things that are put in to place If any even exist to keep them off line.Sadly many parents are still way behind technology wise Though many are starting to stand up and take notice. I really think if we place these type of stories that we tech savvy parents are very aware of on TV shows and in Newspapers to help inform those parents Not active on the net That can help for one. Sadly though I do not think this will assist with All cases. we will sadly always have parents who are too busy trying to be best friends or too busy with careers or just to tired and too sorry uncaring to give a darn and those kids will continue to be seeking that attention and will continue to be online looking for it and finding it in many of the wrong places with many of the wrong people.
Until parents ALL start parenting all the education in the world can not help.
I do think a lot of this also goes deeper into the whole kids having kids and then trying to be kids while raising kids and it is just blowing up in their faces and many children are paying sadly for their parents desire to run around having sex at a early age and ending up with a baby and thinking they are cool cause they are a proud parent on their Myspace profile
Until we start working on that I honestly do not think this is ever going to go away.

I so wish it was as easy as it was back when I was a kid and my parents Knew every move I made. They could count on the home of the friends I visited to be safe with an attentive parent.

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January 24, 2008

David I.

Knowing the parents of your children is smart, but that doesn’t always help. Kids are sneaky. plain and simple. if they are determined to do something, well chances are they are going to do it. Theres always a way, and they will find it.

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January 24, 2008

Lilo

The IP thing is stupid… almost as stupid as the email idea. I swear, I think most of these ‘ideas’ come from people without any real knowledge of how the internet works. I know 10 year olds who can get around IP blocks … (okay- one 10 year, and she’s mine and I taught her… but that’s a different story) Point is, if PARENTS would do their jobs and WATCH their kids, we wouldn’t have the need for half these dumb ideas.

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January 28, 2008

Boo

I know of several sites that make using IP as marker just pure fluff. Also it’s not that hard to conceal your IP without those sites either.

I wish people who are making these decisions knew what and why they are doing something. Cause right now it seems they just use the latest new word that relates to computers, networking and internet in some way and try to look smart for it.

Dude I bet they all secretly have “new computer word a day” calenders.

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