MySpace & negative attention
A month ago, "Newsweek" displayed MySpace on the front cover of their magazine. This Internet site designed for people around the world to connect, chat, share pictures, music, videos and drama has been getting major attention lately.Last week on the local news they featured a clip of a girl getting beaten up by her friends as bystanders looked on. The fight was recorded on one of the teenagers phones. This is the second story of a fight (between girls) broadcast on MySpace within the last few months.
There have also been students suspended from school for the messages and/or photos they post on their MySpace profile. Specifically, bomb threats, "hit lists" and questionable photos (to name a few).
MySpace currently has over 74 million members worldwide. It's a breeding ground for gossip and trouble, especially for teens. Children under the age of 16 are not allowed to sign up for the free membership. Many of them lie about their age just to become members. I believe that teens are not fully aware of the dangers they place themselves in when signing up for such services where all of your information can be potentially leaked to millions of people, including those members that may be scouting for easy prey.
It's easy to be consumed with Internet sites such as MySpace and just as easy to forget just how many people can view their a profile.
MySpace may look innocent from the outside, but anyone can find you. All it takes is a name, e-mail address or the name of a high school, college or university that you are currently attending or have attended in the past. From there, the doors are wide open!
posted by erin @ 11:10 PM
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