February 20, 2006
MySpace: Is your child safe?
MySpace, one of the most popular social-networking websites, has once again poked it’s head into mainstream news. Last July, the big news was of their $580 million purchase by Rupert Murdoch and his global media group News Corporation (which also owns FOX). Recently, the news hasn’t been quite so good:
Last month, for example, 14-year-old Judy Cajuste was found strangled and naked in a Newark, N.J., garbage bin. Police seized a computer from her bedroom after friends said she told them of a man in his 20s she met on MySpace. The death remains unsolved.
(Read the rest of the story here: Teens at risk on social websites, officials worry)
Such stories should demand change. When a website, merely as a side-affect of its primary use, can so easily be exploited to aid a sexual predator in seeking out a victim, alarm bells should go off in the heads of its creators because something must be wrong. A MySpace user with the default settings currently allows anyone on the internet to view their profile. Many users are not familiar with effective privacy on the internet and, just as any good parent needs to warn their children about talking to strangers, need to be told that some information is not appropriate to give out to everyone in the world, let alone any number of sexual predators who live in their immediate area. Maybe it’s not fair to point fingers at MySpace though because the same thing has been happening for years in chat rooms.
When we as internet users trade the inconvenience of real-life friends for the availability of online strangers we must realize that one does not equal the other and must therefore be wary.
Websites similar in style to MySpace, such as Facebook and XuQa, have addressed the issue of privacy by allowing only members of the site to view the contents within.
Facebook requires users to register with their school email address and has controlled the population growth by slowly allowing additional .edu addresses to register. The list is still limited to slightly over 2,500 schools. A lot of hype was generated when students from some schools were able to access it while their friends had to wait for additional servers to be added and kinks to be worked out. Facebook has one of the most restrictive privacy policies of any of the major social networking sites:
Facebook was intentionally designed to limit the availability of your profile to only your friends and other students at your school. This simple but important security measure promotes local networking and makes sure that your information is seen by people you want to share it with, and not seen by folks you don’t.
XuQa took a different approach and simply let anyone with an email address register for an account. They boast having “the most expansive college network in the World with more than 7200 universities and technical schools.” As such, they also have the most expansive network of hate-filled comments. I won’t post any examples here so you’ll just have to take my word for it. Unless you really want examples, in which case you can head over to http://www.xuqa.com and sign up for an account. I’ll let you be the judge of whether such material creates a safe environment for children. The stalker potential is as high as ever.
These are only three of the major social networking websites, though they may well be the three most popular. If the users of these websites are to be kept safe, they must either be educated, or protected against their will. Currently, Facebook has a bit of both. Their privacy policy is restrictive but it also explains why, and it has some very good reasons. XuQa isn’t restrictive at all though I will give them credit for forcing users to create an account before they view too much about other members. MySpace is dangerous. It’s 7+ million users are less-than-informed about effective privacy habits and are left open to attack by anyone who has internet access and time.
When I visited MySpace for the research on this article, I clicked on “Browse” and I was presented with a list of 18 (the youngest allowable age) to 35 year old women in the U.S. who recently logged in and had pictures available for viewing. I’m not sure if I should be worried but child predators would probably start with a very similar search. I opened the first 5 profiles. 3 of them (along with a whole pile of personal pictures) came complete with first and last name, age, city and state. Ok, now I’m worried…
February 20th, 2006 at 5:54 am
Well, if this girl thought that she was so hot that a 20-some guy was actually interested in her, she got what was coming to her. Females need to learn responsibility, too. When a female rapes and kills a male, we just sort of look the other way.
February 21st, 2006 at 2:01 am
I can’t believe you just blamed that girl for what happened to her. A 14 year old probably doesn’t comprehend the real dangers that face her in the real world. She would probably not realize what this man was after and how much danger she was truly in. I think it is ignorant to say that a GIRL who is still very much a child is to blame. In addition, yes it is sad when men are raped, but more because it is sad when any person is raped regardless of the genders involved. Rape is not a crime of responsibility…men (an women) are not seduced into raping someone…rape is a violent act on an equal (if not worse level) than murder. No victim deserves the blame only the rapist!
February 21st, 2006 at 2:03 pm
Tell that to the 12-year old boy who was ordered to pay child support after his teacher raped him.
Tell that to a man after he’s raped by a woman only to face prosecution in our court system.
I’m tired of arguing that men need equal protection under the law; it seems more appealing to argue that women need to learn some responsibility.
February 21st, 2006 at 2:39 pm
I would hope that we all agree on at least two points: (1) rape is bad, and (2) the victim is not to blame. My post was not about the equal rights and fair, non-gender-biased court systems needed to determine guilt, it was about protecting the children who are made victims, hence ‘Is your child safe?’
February 22nd, 2006 at 1:42 pm
Ok.
March 13th, 2006 at 9:11 pm
I totally agree with Brian.
March 19th, 2006 at 8:47 pm
So what happened?
February 6th, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Its not the girs fault that the girl was raped its just that she was not aware. She thought that they were her friends she trusted them but she also let her guard down. She didnt pay attention to what might have come to her though just thinking that people always can be your friend. So what happened to that girl was not b/c she wanted it to happen it b/c she didnt want any friends with her to hep he. Also the men should have known beter b/c why would they rape a girl that is like 5-8 years older then her and they also know that girls and boys (ages 13 and 14) are gulible to think that people will always be their friends……..
April 30th, 2007 at 1:35 pm
Blaming the victim is only going to do one thing, cause less rapes to be reported. There’s a reason that there are not as many males who’ve been raped to report it. Because of things like this (meaning Velex’s post). Blaming a 14 year old girl for what happened to her simply because you are angry with how the judicial system works is not going to solve anything.
I give a thumbs up to Brian for posting this.