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“Keep Children Safe Online”
Myspace.com is a fun and popular website where anyone with a valid email address can register for a free account. Myspace requires all users to be 14 years of age or older to use the site. The site will not allow anyone who enters their age as less than 14 to register. However, there are no measures in place to verify a user’s age if they claim to be 14+. For example, a child who is really 10 could register as being 16 simply by entering an earlier birth year, while a predator who is really 35 could register for any age as well. This is the main problem with myspace, and similar social networking websites, because anyone can portray themselves as whatever they want-even if it’s false or has the intention of luring children.
Myspace can be a fun & safe place for children 14+ but certain rules should always be followed: · Do not enter your full name anywhere on the site. Never enter your last name—make up a fake name if the site requires it · Don’t post your email address anywhere on your myspace profile · Don’t lie about your age · Make your profile visible only to friends (“private”). Choose to keep your blog and photo albums visible to friends only as well. · There is an option for users under 18 to block all users over 18. This may help for some users, unless you have legitimate family & friends over 18 you want to communicate with on myspace · Never post sexually suggestive photographs of yourself or anyone on your profile or in your photo album. · Do not post photographs that contain information about where you live, where you go to school, etc. For example, if you or someone in your photograph is wearing a school t-shirt, a predator only needs to google that school name to find your approximate location. Always review photographs posted on myspace for this type of information! · Do not accept requests from friends you do not know! · Monitor your profile comments, blog comments & photo comments regularly to ensure no personal information is accidentally posted there. For example, a friend says “hey, we’re meeting tonight at 7 pm at Joe’s house at 3489 Farmhouse Lane”. Delete this type of message immediately. · Don’t select false demographics about yourself. For example, “swinger” is one of the sexual orientation options you can select on your profile. It may be funny to you & your friends, but to a predator this takes on a completely different meaning. · When you select your myspace website address, do not make it your real name, or use your email address handle. For example, if your name is Jane Smith don’t make your myspace address myspace.com/janesmith. Or if your email address is janeys1999992@hotmail.com don’t make your myspace address myspace.com/janeys1999992. Anyone can easily take this basic information about you, and google it to find additional details about you. · If you receive an inappropriate or suspicious message from someone on myspace, report it immediately to myspace.com (select “Report Abuse” from the dropdown menu, then select the appropriate subcategory) and tell your parents right away. · Click here to view myspace.com’s safety page · Never underestimate the ability of a predator to take information you post on your profile and use it to fool you into believing they are something they’re not...
Important Note: Anything you post on myspace or any website may be captured by archive.org. Archive.org is actually what it sounds like—an archive of the internet. You can type in any website address and it shows you previous versions of the site by date. You can literally go back in time to see old photos, text, blogs, etc.
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