For many teenagers today, meeting
face to face has become a thing of the past. It is cooler
these days to meet online to socialize, get dates, share good
music, and chat. Kids have always looked for places to gather
to gossip, be seen, be cool, listen to music and "hang
out". This isn't new. What is new is where
these gathering places are and who else is around.
MySpace.com, and other social networking web sites, have
quickly replaced local restaurants, shopping malls, and
parks as places for young people to hangout. For a generation
of media-savvy kids that are used to looking into cyberspace
for everything from new ring tones to help on homework,
it is not surprising that making friends and socializing
are starting to take place online as well. Especially given
that websites like MySpace.com offer expansive, creative
and enticing worlds made up almost entirely by young people.
Most of MySpace's almost 50 million users are under the
age of 22.
A MySpace profile is actually a lot like an online version
of teenagers’ bedrooms- plastered with posters and pictures
of friends, blaring popular music, and hosting a variety of
notes and messages from a long list of MySpace “friends”.
Kids spend hours chatting and blogging, listening to music,
posting photos of themselves, and searching for other people
to catch up with online. And just like bedrooms, many parent
have been told to “Get out of MySpace!”
"If
you weren't on MySpace,
where would you make friends?"
- 10th grader in Mpls, MN
Does keeping
up with your kids’ online activities feel
like a daunting task?
Take a MediaWise Tour of MySpace.com, a popular
online teen hangout!
Login or Register
Now!
We’ll show you some of the key features
of the site and what kids can do there. Learning
more about sites like MySpace helps you talk
to your kids about their online hangouts.
Set ground rules and consequences about
acceptable behavior.
Talk to your kids about MySpace "cyberbullying.”
Encourage your kids to tell you if they
see anything inappropriate.
Trust but verify. Tell your kids you’ll
be checking in.
Be MediaWise: Watch What Your Kids Watch.
Parents
and Teachers Take This to Heart
CAUTION
ON
MySpace.com
Watch for mean messages and “Cyber–
Bullying”
Be prepared for Lewd Language and Pictures.
There are Online Predators — teach your child
not to divulge personal information.
Stay involved, check for multiple accounts, pay
attention.
Remember that a lot of the profiles contain fake
information
The pressure to fit in, be cool,
and have a lot of friends is no different in the virtual world
than it is in the real one. In fact, as more and more kids
pour onto sites like MySpace, the distinction between “real”
and “virtual” becomes less and less important. Parents
and teachers should take this to heart. Although MySpace seems
like a “kids only” site, we adults better be paying
attention because online social sites have just as many, if
not more, opportunities and pitfalls as “real-world”
teen hangouts.
Popularity
There have been other popular online hangouts
for teenagers and young adults, like Friendster and Facebook,
but MySpace is winning the race by a landslide. MySpace recently
passed Google in terms of number of hits and the number of
pages viewed monthly, and is the fourth most popular website
on the internet today. For many kids, having an account on
MySpace is more important than having a date to the senior
prom.
Possibilities
Websites like MySpace.com offer
incredible opportunities for teenagers to express themselves
and to have fun connecting with friends. Unlike a teenager’s
real bedroom, MySpace can be repainted, redecorated and given
a new feel with just a few mouse clicks. It allows teenagers
to do what they have always done; try out new identities and
looks, express themselves in new ways, and socialize. With
this in mind, it is no wonder that MySpace is such a popular
phenomenon among youth. With parent involvement, MySpace can
be a fun and safe.
Pitfalls
Unfortunately, MySpace is not all fun and games.
The same risks associated with any unsupervised online environment
are true for MySpace as well. Teachers across the country
are dealing with the effects of mean messages and degrading
photographs aimed at other kids posted on MySpace, something
we call “cyberbullying.” Bullying other kids seems
easier and consequence- free in an online, anonymous environment.
In addition, lewd language and pictures are easily accessible
and prolific on MySpace. It is also very common for kids to
have numerous “online” identities. Some that are
created by lying about their age, profession, and much more.
It is not clear whether these false identities are actually
harmful however, because MySpace is the perfect cruising ground
for online predators. Many kids post very personal, accurate
information on their site, including their school, neighborhood,
age and interests.
This isn’t to say that MySpace can’t be a fun teenage
hangout. But it is important that adults don’t take it
too personally when kids say “get out of MySpace!”
and continue to talk with kids about where they've been and
who they’re hanging out with in the virtual world.
