Facebook, Myspace, and Xanga: Why All 3 Are a Danger

Social networking websites run rampant in the big world of the World Wide Web and there are many legitimate uses that a person can have for all three of the major websites, like Facebook, Myspace, or Xanga. Unfortunately, not everyone does have good intentions, but instead there are those people who carry the concept of social networking to feed their own habits. A couple examples of this is stalkers finding an innocent teenager to stalk and prey on, rapists who look for adolescents to commit their next crime, and others who only use social networking websites as a way to continue statistics of crime-ridden America.

Age Restrictions

There are age restrictions to using Myspace and you cannot have a Facebook account while in junior high. The age restrictions for Myspace, however, include not being able to create an account unless you are at least 14 years old. On the other hand, Facebook's Terms state that users can use a Facebook account if they are 13 years of age or older and in high school. The age requirement for Xanga is also 13 years old.

Safety Precautions

Myspace - Even though Myspace automatically makes a user's account "private" for children under 16 years old, they do have a glitch in the system. For a child under 16 years old, no one can add that user as a friend until they input some personal detail, like their email address or last name, about the child they're trying to add. That might stop a predator from adding a child under 16 years old to their friend list, however, it does not stop them from messaging the user under 16 years old. Therefore, users on Myspace can be threatened, harassed, stalked, and otherwise preyed upon through the use of the Myspace messaging system.

Facebook - Facebook does not have any safety precautions when it comes to the safety of children under 16 years old. Furthermore, Facebook's terms state that children under 18 are not allowed an account unless they are in high school. How many children begin their high school career at 13 years old? Not many, but this is not to say that 13 year olds cannot have Facebook accounts and falsify the information they pass along to Facebook to say that they are in high school. Facebook wouldn't necessarily have to verify the teen's account, nor would they have enough time to do so.

Xanga - Probably the worst of the three social networking websites when it comes to safety precautions for young children, Xanga allows children who are at least 13 years old to have a Xanga account. They don't even require them to be in high school as Facebook does. Of course, Xanga does state in their Terms of Service that Xanga is not to be used to harm or stalk anyone else. However, this doesn't prevent the meeting of young children and predators, pedophiles, and stalkers. But Xanga admits and even states that they have no responsibility to filter or monitor any of the content that is put on their website.

At a time when an adolescent is developing physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, it is not a time to introduce things and websites that could potentially cause harm to them. Parents definitely need to be on the lookout if their child is using these social networking websites for anything inappropriate or if they have reason to believe that their child is being stalked, harmed, or preyed upon in some way. The safety of adolescents is definitely not left up to these social networking websites themselves, so parents need to do all they can to protect their children when social networking!