A Boston Globe article today hypes the “dangers” of sites like MySpace and Livejournal to teenagers.
Principals of several Boston area middle and high schools are warning parents to rein in teenagers who are posting intensely personal information and, in some cases, provocative photos of themselves on a free Internet site.
At first glance, I thought this was an extension of the same sort of hype that hid, for example, the poor sportsmanship of some schools disciplining students for being critical of the school on LJ/MySpace - like sites.
It would seem to me that LJ and MySpace are a natural evolution of some of the banter and (occasionally risque or tasteless) play that teens have engaged in since time immemorial. However, if the hype doesn’t get too carried away…well, maybe it could be a good stepping stone to teaching the masses about privacy issues in the day of online communications, easy-access relational databases, and data-mining.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Liz // 12 Dec 2005 at 7:12 pm
Am I dim? I couldn’t find a trackback ping–anyway, I quote you at the link above.
I think the danger is overexposure in the sense you suggest, not the bugaboo of “Internet Predator”
2 Lacey // 17 Dec 2005 at 6:03 pm
To tell the truth myspace and livejournal to teenagers are certainly not dangering anyone and mysace and LJ arent dangerous sites either!Beacause im 15 and you have to smart if you plan on having a myspace and LJ account and not put out your street addres or phone number so i say they arents dangerous and teen’s just have to be smart!
~Lacey~
3 Destiny // 22 Dec 2005 at 12:21 pm
this stuff is so stupid, they shouldnt make kids stop LJ nor bloggers nor myspace or any other sites…juss because the kids dont like their skewl n tlk crap bout them on their sites dont mean you have the right to tell their parents not to let them make their profiles.
4 casey // 23 Dec 2005 at 9:35 am
myspace can definitely be dangerous, because anyone can get onto it and see your profile. On most profiles, people have their first name, hometown, their age, and a picture of themselves. In the About me section, if you put where you work, it would be really easy for someone to show up there, and they could find you. Or, if you put your school and what sports team you are on, someone could simply show up to one of your games.
5 Lauren // 28 Feb 2006 at 8:22 am
my uncle called yesterday… he works for homelands securtiy and he said they predators are find people address even though you didnt put it on the site… he says that it is a national security issue
6 Katherine // 12 Apr 2006 at 3:22 pm
I sort of think that MySpace can be more dangerous than Livejournal. It doesn’t have a great “Friends only” feature, and with the way the layout is, it is more tempting to put up a lot of pictures and information. I don’t have a MySpace, only a Livejournal, but that’s entirely “off-line” friends only. I don’t even take the chance to meet people through the Net anymore, it’s too much of a risk.
Bottom line: don’t blame the sites for people’s stupidity. It is the parent’s job to aid the child in navigating the Internet safely. Myspace and LJ can be good, if used correctly.