MySpace to Add Security Features
If you are a kid, then MySpace is just a regular part of your daily social interaction. Everyone has one, right? My sister and her husband insist on having the login info for their 15-year-old daughter’s MySpace and they monitor the activity and friends list from time to time, but each parent has their won way of keeping tabs on their children.
The popular social networking site is great way for kids to keep in touch with one another, but unfortunately it is like a bug light in a room full of mosquitoes when it comes to the attraction is hold for child predators.
So, it is big news that MySpace is making design and policy changes to protect kids from harmful images and unwanted contact from adults by creating create an Internet Safety Technical Task Force. They also plan to make a registry of e-mail address4s for parents who want to restrict their kids’ access to the web site. This comes after attorneys general in many states have lobbied for stricter controls for networking web sites in order to protect kids from predators.
MySpace will also make a closed access high school section for users under 18 and make profiles for 16- and 17-year0old private by default.
National statistics one of seven children between the ages of 10 and 17 will be sexually solicited online, according to Florida’s office of the attorney general.
While it is wonderful that MySpace is taking a better look at the sexual predator situation, there are still hundreds of networking sites out there. Often, kids don’t fully understand how dangerous it is to post personal identification and pictures out there where it can be seen by anyone.
Parents, it is still your right and your responsibility to make sure you know what your children are doing while they are online, who they are communicating with and what sites they are visiting. There is spy software you can add to your home computer to track everything down to the last keystroke. It might just be the best option for some families. Try and keep an open line of communication with your children. If they are willing to share their passwords with you; all the better.
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