How to Be Safe on Myspace

Myspace is a wonderful networking tool. It can be a wonderful way to meet new people and to keep in touch with old friends from years ago. However, it also has a bit of a dangerous side. There are few things you can do to keep yourself safe on Myspace. Some are more drastic tan others, and only you can decide which ones you need to undertake.

The first bit of advice is do not just blindly add everyone who sends an add request. This is a good way to get spammers and hackers on your page. This is also important because you really aren't sure who these people are. They could be perfectly normal and nice people. However, that isn't always the case. If you are a minor, they could be pedophiles. Even if you are a grown up, they could be some kind of predator. If you have an ex with an axe to grind or just an ex who is a stalker, you really need to be cautious of who you add. Once you add them, they can leave you comments and see anything that you may have had put as friends only. You want to be sure that you are not bringing any sketchy people into your world. At least communicate with the person before you add them. Be sure their motives are above board and they are who they say they are.

Are you sick of getting all those spammer friend invites? To eliminate that you can put a block on your friend requests so that only people who know you can send them. The block makes it so the person either has to know your last name or your e-mail address to send the request. The bots are no longer able to send you the unwanted adds and you have an extra level of security. You can also block non-friends from being able to message you as well. Lets say you do have spammers on your friends list, or even if you have friends that post comments you would rather not have posted on your page. There is a setting you can activate that has you approve all of your page, blog, and image comments if needed. This means you will get a message if one of your friends leaves a comment. Then you will get to screen it. If you approve it, it goes live. You also have the option to decline. Look in your settings menu under SPAM. All of those options should be listed there.

Another thing you can do is make your profile private. That way people can still find you, but they can't see your whole page once they do. They can see your user pic and headline, but that is where it stops. Only the people on your friends list can see your whole profile. This might seem a little extreme, but if you are a parent and you have a child with a Myspace, this is a very good idea. If you are a parent (especially a single parent) and you have pictures of your children on your Myspace, this is also a good idea. It keeps you and your children from being targeted by unsavory people. If you just don't want the certain people to see your whole page, or even aren't comfortable with the whole free world being able to access your page, this takes care of it.

The next tip is a the most extreme. This is for the people who really don't want to be found. This is for the people who probably have a private page, and want an extra layer of protection from usually a particular person. If you are having stalker issues, this is a good way to still have a Myspace page, but avoid being tracked through it. Go into you account info. Take your last name out of the account info. Put in a false zip code and/or birth date. Do not use your full first name. You can't do anything about the e-mail address. You have to include that. However, if you make a new e-mail account or use one that people do not know it will be harder to find you.

Why would someone want to go through all of this? In some cases it is just to eliminate some drama. In other cases, we just do not have much choice. As someone who has had an ex boyfriend stalk me through my Myspace page, I can tell you that these little steps have help be safer. When it became clear he was tracking me through my page, I knew I was not safe. He knew who my friends were. He could find out where we were going and what we were doing. I was giving him all the information he needed. At one point I received a friend request from him posing as another person. I knew it was him. I knew it even before I took a look at just fuzzy enough to be ambiguous pictures and the horrific spelling and grammar. He even misused the same words he did when he spoke. Something had to be done. As soon as I took all the precautions, I received a scathing e-mail from him. I knew it was because he knew his access was cut off. I actually did such a great job he was not even able to find my page. He assumed I had deleted it. Since then I have not had a problem with my ex. Without access to me, the harassment has stopped. You reason may not be as dire as these. I hope that is the case.

By taking these steps you might not get 500 + friends. You could still meet people, but you would have to initiate it yourself. Many people will not pursue people with private profiles. It might be harder to add friends, and more work to receive comments, but if you safety is at risk, these hassles are well worth it.