It becomes as real to them as a real-life friendship/relationship would be, and they take great offense/joy from what ammounts mostly to text on a screen from people who are largely strangers.

this dependency/forming of semi-false ties

I have to disagree that the ties of friendship are any less "real" than face-to-face friends. Due to my schedule, interests, and location there is a lesser chance of me finding any close friends in the real world than a virtual.

My wife is often critical that I spend time with my "virtual friends". But when my daughter was burned the outpouring from the Wincustomize community was just as real as any other. The relationship is different here but nonetheless real.

MySpace is a disease. It's vulgar, and rude, and mostly pointless from my point of view. My older kids both have MySpaces and post information about themselves and their friends that I can't imagine sharing with anyone but my wife.

But . . . when I was a kid we used to drive up and down Main street for hours every night (when gas was cheap). We'd stop in this or that parkinglot to see who else was cruising about.
My parents didn't understand and thought it pointless. But it too was a community. Things change and grow and fade away again. MySpace will too.
{until then . . . I'll keep my MySpace so I can keep an eye on my kids.}

There are some good rules about myspace. If you are under the age of 16 (unless you're lying about your age) your profile must be Private which means only your friends can view your profile. Now, unfortunately that means it is left up to the under 16 year olds to be wise about who they accept as their friends. When I was growing up we weren't allowed to get on the internet at home until we were 18. At schools now, sites like myspace and livejournal are blocked because of the danger. While I do believe it is up to the parent to have control over their child's internet use (and if they don't have control that's a whole other issue); I don't believe that it is then our job to patrol what dumb teenagers do to abuse their internet privaleges. I don't search the internet to make "new friends" I'm quite content with the ones I have.


I agree with this and unfortunately now you just have to wait it out.

Charissa

grrr my stupid quote thing doesn't work. The quote that's supposed to be there is:

"Things change and grow and fade away again. MySpace will too."

Hot US social website MySpace ups security for teen users Thu Jun 22, 10:57 AM ET

Ass. Free Press (AFP) - A US social networking website, where millions of teenagers worldwide bare details of their lives, announced it was building new barriers to child predators.

Beginning next week, MySpace will bar members over 18 years of age from connecting with those 16 or younger unless they know the full names and e-mail addresses of the children, the company said.

MySpace members will be able to make information on their web pages accessible only to friends in private networks and allow only members in their age groups to contact them on the site.

Critics countered that the safeguards would be undermined by the fact that there was no mechanism to check the ages of those creating MySpace profiles, meaning nefarious adults could simply pretend to be younger.

MySpace requires members to be at least 14 years old, and revokes memberships if it is obvious from the content of postings that a child has lied about being old enough, according to the company.

Age verification is "an Internet issue bigger than MySpace" because a reliable way to verify age online has yet to be found, according to the company.

The key to keeping children safe online was for parents to stay involved with their offsprings' Internet adventures as well as their real-world activities, the company maintained.

The popularity of Los Angeles-based MySpace has exploded since it was launched online in January of 2004.

It became a popular place for teenagers to share journals, photographs, poems, dreams and intimate details of their lives online.

As of Wednesday, the website reported having more than 87 million members worldwide and claimed to be growing at a rate of more than 250,000 users daily.

MySpace ranked only behind Internet titan Yahoo in the United States in the number of online pages viewed and was the sixth most popular online search engine, according to industry trackers.

Most MySpace users were in English-speaking territories, but the company said it intended to launch "international MySpaces" in different languages.

Incidents in which suspected pedophiles apparently used MySpace as a hunting ground have prompted attacks by child advocates and a recently filed multi-million-dollar lawsuit.

Former US federal prosecutor and Microsoft executive Hemanshu Nigam was hired in April as chief security officer at MySpace and the announced changes were part of an "ongoing journey to online safety," the company said.

"With social networking becoming a mainstream platform for millions of people to connect with one another and express themselves, MySpace is committed to innovating new product features to heighten online safety, particularly in the area of 14 to 15 year olds," Nigam said in a release.

"In addition to technology innovation, MySpace remains dedicated to a multi-pronged approach that also involves education and collaboration with law enforcement, teachers, parents and members."

Nigam was to take part in panel discussions being hosted in Washington on Thursday by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).

The focus of the gathering was to be the popularity and misuse of social networking websites and the potential dangers to children.

"We know that children can benefit greatly from being online," NCMEC President Ernie Allen said in a release.

"We commend MySpace for adding new safety and security features that will help provide protection to their youngest members, so they can have a safer online experience."

Among the measures to be enacted next week was a modification intended to make sure advertisements that pop up on pages were appropriate for the members' ages, according to MySpace.

MySpace was bought last year by News Corp and is a unit of Fox Interactive Media in Los Angeles.


----Just thought this was relevent----

"Your daughter sounds like the problem, not the internet."

Agreed...she most certainly is, in this case...but I seriously doubt she would be as much a problem without the encouragement and financial support of government...which pays her a homeless allowance, tells her she has the right to divorce her parents, to get pregnant....

But where did she get all this information? Not only off the internet or from her peers, but from government run/funded 'kids help lines'...from welfare department officials who tour school classrooms telling kids that they will support them if they don't like the rules at home and want to leave. And you know what...the majority of kids who take up the offer end up homeless, of no fixed address and are street kids who steal and prostitute themselves to survive...and this, it seems, to both kids and gov't, is preferable to being at home with parental guidance and protection, etc.

"What happened to parental responsibility?"

Here in Oz, fu***ng government has reefed it from our grasp, refused to assume it themselves, and assigned rights and responsibilities to immature and irresponsible kids who lack foresight and the ability to rationalise. And when you try to intervene in less than desirable situations, you're harrassed and threatened. When my step-daughter complained to police that I had locked her in (to prevent a sexual interlude with a 28yo), I was threatened with criminal charges and spent 11 hours at the cop shop before being released without charge...but with a very severe warning not to involve myself in her affairs again. That's what happened to parental responsibility...kids can do what they like....and we as parents have effectively been rendered powerless.

Yes, parasitic places like MySpace contribute to and exacerbate the situation, but when governments issue licenses for kids to do entirely as they please, sickos and perverts take advantage of these liberal views to more openly come crawling out of the woodwork, because without a complaint from the kids, they know they're immune to prosecution. In essence, then, government is issuing scum bags a license as well...which makes a mockery of the 'age of consent laws' and destroys families in the process.

It is in fact the parents job, but we all know that a large number of parents just don't care. So I feel like it is our job, as responsible adults in our respective communities to pick up the slack and keep our kids safe.

 

 I am sorry RPGFX but I can't disagree with that more. You worry about yourself and your family and I will worry about mine. If I want to let my kids do drugs, so be it. If a parent wants to force their religious beliefs down a kids throat, so be it. In my eyes they are both harmful to a young mind. Guide them as best as you can and let them think for themselves for a change. Requirements to become a Mother or Father are non existant. Who is to say that your way is the right way just because you think so. 

 

My space is far from the sleaziest site on the web. Starting there seems so rediculous to me if your trying to protect kids from the net. Parents should know what their kids are up to. PERIOD

 

You worry about yourself and your family and I will worry about mine.

That is fine.  The problem is some people don't worry about their own kids.  I'm not going to stand by and watch a child suffer or take the wrong path if I can do something about it.  I don't care whose kid it is.  I know for a fact that there are a number of my wifes students and ex students who would be in jail or dead if it wasn't for my wife's intervention in their lives.  Because their parents just don't care.  I'm all for live and let live, but that goes out the window when the safety of an innocent child is at stake.  We may separate ourselves into families, communities or whatever... but we're all God's children, and looking out for our young is what we should do.

This blurb from Techdirt seems applicable to the conversation at hand:

http://techdirt.com/articles/20060623/0917253.shtml

Earlier this week, a 14-year-old girl and her mother sued Myspace for $30 million, alleging the site failed to protect her from being sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old guy. Now, in a bizarre twist, the man's attorney says that if Myspace is liable for not keeping the girl out of harm's way, his client might also have a claim for damages, since the girl misrepresented her age, adding that the accused rapist, who's admitted having sex with the girl, is "just as much a victim -- if not more." This case, should it be filed, would be even more spurious than the girl's claim -- the fact that the two met on MySpace has absolutely nothing to do with the alleged sexual assault, and the guy really doesn't have much of a case if he's basing his on the girl lying about her age, since he apparently falsely represented himself as a high school football player. It's impossible to describe these suits as anything other than ridiculous, but with all the hype of the dangers of Myspace and other social-networking sites -- and the money flowing around -- inevitably, there will be more.

what do you open .wba downloads with for skins?

what do you open .wba downloads with for skins?

I like to use MySpace to apply skins.   

To answer your question, use Windoblinds.

{In the future try not to post a question to a thread on another topic. It makes it hard to keep track of what's going on}  

RPGFX.. in a perfect world your way is the way to go but in my world, people gain power through corruption and I don't trust the powers that be to make decisions for me and my family based on profit.

RPGFX.. in a perfect world your way is the way to go but in my world, people gain power through corruption and I don't trust the powers that be to make decisions for me and my family based on profit

I understand that... but I'm talking simply on a more personal level.  I'm talking on a person by person basis, with real people, not about government stepping in.  I'm saying if the kid down the street needs my help, because his or her parents don't give a crap, then I'm going to do what I can to help that kid. 

I value my online friendships as much as my offline ones. There are sides of me that those who only know me online have seen that people who know me offline haven't and vice versa.
Sure, there are dangers, and it's possible that some of my online friends are fake (and perhaps criminal), but it's not as if predators and posers originated with the Internet!