What Parents Need to Know About Myspace

If you have a teenager, or a child about that age, chances are he/she has asked you if they can have a myspace account. As an adult, you probably can't understand what the appeal of such a site is. You may wonder why chatting online or sending emails isn't enough. Well, in all honesty myspace is a fun community to be a part of. There are discussion forums, games to play, music to listen to, people to talk to, pictures to share, and so much more. It's no wonder all the kids want a part of it! But if you agree to allow your child to have a myspace account, there are things you need to know.

First you need to assist them in setting up their profile. Be sure that the account is set to PRIVATE. This blocks anyone from seeing your profile that you don't have added to your friends list. People on your friend list should be people they know on myspace; friends from school, etc. Do NOT allow your child to add anyone they do not know to their friends list. This is very important. It's scary to think of the people that could possibly be viewing your personal information. What you may not know is that when you have a profile on myspace, you can customize everything about your page. You can add pictures, write poetry and/or blogs, discuss your hobbies, etc. And while there's nothing wrong with doing this, it just isn't safe material for the world to be able to see. Predators can use this information to work their way right into your child's life. Frightening, isn't it?

Secondly, make certain that the account is set in a way that does not allow messages to come in from people you don't know. Although comments can only be received from people on your friend's list, messages can come in from anyone. Unless you change the setting. Change the account settings so you don't have those random messages coming in.

Be careful what pictures your child has displayed as their default picture. I know it sounds absurd, but I've seen what some of the kids put up. Young girls seem to like posing in short skirts, low shirts, or even in bathing suits. I've seen young boys in nothing but a bath towel. The way the internet works is that any picture put out on display becomes public property. All someone would have to do is "right click" and "save" and they'd have a picture of your little girl or boy saved right in their computer. With the photo altering software available, there's no telling what they could turn that photo into. Just think about it.

Also, (and your child will HATE me for this) make your child give you his/her password. You can't access their account without it. Although your child may view this as an invasion of their privacy, it should be something you require for them to maintain the account. This way, you can make sure nothing inappropriate is happening. One thing friends send to each other are graphics, comments and images from different websites. Some, but not all, of these things can be extremely graphic in nature. You can make it clear that you don't approve of these images, and then check in on the account to make sure it's not happening. Or even better, you can change the settings so that the comments have to be approved before they can be viewed. Then you could do the approving.

Remember that you are only protecting your child. In a world where we hear about child abductions every single day, is it possible to be too careful?