MYSPACE FANS

MySpace culls thousands of profiles

2006-04-03T11:45:00.000-07:00

MySpace.com, the social networking website that has proved a hit with the youth market, is reported to have removed 200,000 profiles deemed "objectionable" in a bid to reassure parents and advertisers about the safety of the site.

The website was bought last year by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, but has recently attracted criticism over fears that online predators might be interacting with young people using the site.

Ross Levinsohn, head of News Corp's internet division, told attendees at a New York conference some of the material taken down had contained hate speech or risque content.

The Financial Times reported Mr Levinsohn as saying: "It's a problem that's endemic to the internet - not just MySpace. The site, in the last two months, I think has become safer."

A number of US schools have already banned the website in order to protect students against the threat of online predators, but some students have also found themselves on the wrong side of the law for content they have posted.

Last month, a 17-year-old high school student in NSW was charged with publishing threats to kill two teachers and a 14-year-old girl on MySpace.

This week, The Buffalo News reported that a New York school student had been expelled for posting a comment on the site that contained a threat to burn down the principal's house.

The site mainly attracts the youthful 18 to 30 demographic, courted heavily by advertisers, and now boasts more female than male subscribers, said Forbes magazine.

But many teenage girls are attaching provocative images to their profiles, and providing details of their home town and school, making them easy to track down.

Although MySpace does not accept subscribers under the age of 14, teachers and parents remain concerned that the public nature of members' profiles could put teens in contact with online predators.

An additional concern for MySpace as a business is to attract advertisers to its site, and to do that it it must be able to provide assurances that an advertiser's reputation will not be sullied by objectionable content.

Marketing website AdAge recently said that, while social networking sites could offer a "potential eyeball windfall", offering the reach only dreamt about by advertisers, reports that they were attracting sexual predators left many marketers in fear of the associated negative publicity.

Posting on MySpace today shouldn't screw us tomorrow

2006-04-03T11:44:00.001-07:00

I just got into the whole MySpace thing recently and I admit that I'm hooked. It has far better features than Facebook, has access to over 32 million people and offers unfettered contacts with scores of bands. What's not to like? Even the name of it is narcissistically stimulating-MySpace. "This is my space." "MY SPACE!"

But last week the Chicago Tribune ran an article "When what happens on MySpace doesn't stay on MySpace" that details the many bad things that can happen when information placed on personal sites such as MySpace or Facebook become visible to the public. Many high schools, colleges and businesses have now begun to conduct background checks on potential/current students or employees in order to find out more about them. What this means is that too much of the wrong information on Yourspace can hurt Yourfuture.

As college students, this is cause for concern. Some of us have a tendency to be candid about some pretty incriminating things in our profiles--blogs of discontent with work or school, pictures of last weekend's party, etc.--that can come back sooner or later to haunt us. We have a tendency to mythologize our "coolness" for all our peers to see, and we rarely give second thought to a fifty-something boss finding our profile only to find out that, not only do we hate his guts, but we also like to do body shots off of exotic dancers.

But should we really be ashamed? We are young and should be having the time of our lives before the pink elephant of responsibility becomes too large to ignore. Only true criminals really have anything to hide. (On that note, it would be wise of us to refrain from bragging about underage drinking, vandalism, or some other misdemeanor that we partook in the preceding night. Some kids, sadly, are beginning to find themselves in handcuffs because now many police departments routinely scan Ourspaces to find who graffitied the water tower or where the underage party was last night). But if we get wasted with our friends or feel the need to vent about some personal injustice in the classroom or at the office without being racist or derogatory, should fear of getting in trouble stop us? It's Ourspace, not Theirspace.

We use sites like MySpace because, in this fast-paced, tech-savvy world, we need an outlet that still allows us to...hang out. If we have to work on the web, and we're told that we should shop on the web, then why can't we at least play on the web without the fear of scrutiny or victimization. I guess this means that, yes, Big Brother is watching us, but this big brother is an older generation that's semi-removed from the world of online connection sites. And it's what they can't understand and what we think is fun that is what they are willing to use to try to bring us down.
But that generation will pass into retirement and eventually we will be the ones hiring employees, admitting students or patrolling the suburbs. And by that time nearly everyone, for better or worse, will have Theirspaces and the subsequent juvenile skeletons poking out of the closets of their online domain. And maybe then we won't have to take everything in life so seriously anymore.

Myspace purges 200,000 questionable profiles

2006-04-03T11:44:00.000-07:00

IN A MOVE to make its site safer for US kiddies, the megahost site MySpace.com, has purged more than 200,000 "objectionable" profiles from its site.
The site, run by News Corp’s interweb division said that the purged sites included 'hate speech' and 'risqu' material.

However, Ross Levinsohn, said that objectionable sites were a problem that’s endemic to the internet – not just MySpace. He said that the purge will mean that the site has just become much safer.

Lately, Myspace has been at the centre of a row as to whether it is a place for teens to meet predatory adults. Teachers and police have been concerned after a number of high profile court cases in the US. They would prefer that kids used the Internet to do their homework.

Of course if this was applied to all News Corp’s portfolio, its tabloids would be toast.

Freewebs takes aim at new funding, MySpace.com

2006-04-03T11:42:00.001-07:00

Freewebs is $1 million closer to turning its Web site-building service into the world's next MySpace.com.

The Silver Spring company already has 10 million members using its tools to create Web sites, online photo albums and blogs. It makes money from fees for premium services and Google-placed ads based on the content of user Web sites.

Freewebs (www.freewebs.com) was set to close a $1 million bridge loan by the end of March and has met with more than 20 venture capital firms in this area and in Silicon Valley concerning a $5 million to $7 million first round of funding as soon as the summer.

Freewebs, founded in 2001, has paid its own way to this point. The company is profitable and generated revenue of $970,000 in 2004, according to Dun & Bradstreet. The company says 2005 sales were in the millions, but wouldn't provide details.

"We don't need the cash," says President and Chief Operating Officer Shervin Pishevar. "We're just looking for brainpower and wisdom to take us to the next level."

The platform for growth is online advertising, a market expected to increase in the United States to $18.9 billion in 2010 from $9.3 billion in 2005, according to New York-based JupiterResearch.

The rise of sites such as MySpace.com and Flickr, which are driven by user-provided content, gives hope to Freewebs and other sites with large numbers of users. Freewebs says it has 16 million unique monthly visitors and 500 million monthly page views.

Intermix Media, which has 27 million unique visitors through its MySpace.com and other sites, sold for $580 million in cash to News Corp. in October 2005. Flickr, which enables users to organize and search for photos online, sold to Yahoo last March for an undisclosed amount.

Freewebs will use its new funding to recruit more executives and engineers. The company says it really wants to tap the experience and contacts of backers such as Bobby Yazdani, venture capital firm Amidzad and an unidentified early Google employee who provided the bridge loan.

Yazdani is a serial entrepreneur who is founder and chief executive of Saba Software, a Redwood Shores, Calif. public company. Amidzad is a Palo Alto, Calif. early-stage venture firm.

The Google investor can guide the company toward its goal of becoming the next big thing by adding top talent and helping expand its membership base to 50 million users.

"We're trying to build as close to a Google-esque company as possible but to have it be Washington-Maryland-Virginia based," says Pishevar, who caters breakfast and lunch everyday for Freewebs' employees.

Yazdani, who shuttles between his Potomac home and California, sees the potential for Freewebs to take on iconic status in the local business community.

"I've seen over the areas just a great group of talent and entrepreneurs stepping up to the plate in the Washington area," he says.

Yazdani is active in the local tech scene. He is an investor in McLean Internet telephone company Aptela and in D.C. broadband television network Tvext, where he holds a board seat. Last May, Saba bought Baltimore-based Thinq Learning Solutions for $20 million.

e-mail: bhammer@bizjournals.com phone: 703/312-8345

MySpace takes down rude profiles

2006-04-03T11:42:00.000-07:00

Networking site smartens up
By John OatesPublished Monday 3rd April 2006 08:41 GMT

MySpace has removed 200,000 profiles from its site in the last few months. The "objectionable" pages have been taken down for including hate speech or being too risqué.

News Corp internet division head Ross Levinsohn told press it was an internet problem rather than a feature of MySpace. The site contains thousands of profiles of individuals outlining their musical tastes and dating needs. It has also proved popular with school bullies setting up pages attacking their victims.

News Corp wants to smarten MySpace up to attract more advertisers and marketeers without alienating its users, who are attracted by its slightly anarchic feel. It is hoping to attract advertising from mainstream brands and is setting up an account team to help sell space across its internet properties.

Colleges tell student workers to keep Web posts tame

2006-04-03T11:41:00.001-07:00

Drew, Seton Hall warn of inappropriate content

BY LAURA BRUNO
DAILY RECORD

The same college students who police underage drinking and inappropriate dorm partying must also police their own photos and dialogue on social Web sites the likes of Facebook and MySpace -- or risk losing their campus-based jobs at area private universities.

Drew University and Seton Hall University officials recently met with resident assistants and peer mentors, and issued a warning: As student employees, who represent their colleges, online posts including profanity or partying are not proper Web fare.

"How can student leaders expect to earn their peers'respect if they flaunt policy-breaking behavior on their Facebook page?" said Frank Merckx, Drew's associate dean of educational and student affairs.

In the past, Drew asked its RAs to keep their voicemail greetings tame, avoiding long musical interludes or shouting friends in the background. When a parent called to express concerns that their child's student mentor had an online profile with a photo showing a water pipe -- better known as a "bong," often used for smoking marijuana -- the college realized it was behind the times, Merckx said.

"A lot of students believe it's a private forum, but it's more public than anything," Merckx said.

College students across the country are learning that their misplaced sense of privacy on these sites is not only naïve, but also can result in losing a job or a coveted slot on a team.

For example:

• Two Louisiana State swimmers were kicked off their team last spring for criticizing their coaches on Facebook.

• An employer who was ready to hire a student from Vermont Technical College changed his mind after seeing the student's Facebook page.

• A University of Colorado offensive tackle was suspended from a bowl game in December for sending a racially threatening message through Facebook to a Colorado cross-country runner.

Facebook founder Mark Zukerberg has said he doubts college students will give up the sites completely over the crackdowns.

"Some people may get busted by administrators if they're doing things that are stupid, but on a day-to-day basis, the ability to communicate ... is so valuable that everyone keeps using the site and they probably will keep using the sites."

Officials at Drew, Seton Hall, Fairleigh Dickinson University and the College of St. Elizabeth said they will not search Web sites looking for violations, but they know plenty of others are looking. Professors have Facebook profiles and so do administrators, including Merckx, who said officials use the forum at times to post notices of campus events.

Involving families

In cases where something inappropriate was discovered, it was due to another student or family member notifying the university, Merckx said.

So far, at St. Elizabeth and Fairleigh Dickinson's Florham Park campus, officials said they have not received reports of student employees posting items that reflect poorly on the schools. All students have been alerted in general to the lack of privacy on these sites, they said.

Makenzie Sandler, 21, a junior psychology major at Drew and an RA, said she was surprised at first when campus officials discussed the issue.

"I didn't know how a private Web site had anything to do with the university," Sandler said. "Especially with Facebook, I thought it was private because only people in colleges can see it."

Sandler said she uses both Facebook and MySpace to keep in touch with friends and didn't think anything she posted there could get her in trouble at Drew. She's been on MySpace since high school. She has since removed one picture that showed a friend consuming alcohol.

"There are a few who felt like it was an infringement of their rights, but I think most everyone understood," Sandler said. "It makes sense ... If (other students) see us breaking policy, it will be harder for them to take us seriously. It would be totally hypocritical."

Following links

At Seton Hall, a student brought to officials' attention potentially troubling aspects of a peer adviser's online posting, which got administrators on the sites and looking.

Kevin Clark, who oversees student discipline at Seton Hall, said he looked at one posting, but then followed links from the students' page to friends of friends.

"There were quite a few folks with questionable content and pictures," Clark said. "It wasn't illegal acts, but it was things we don't want portrayed by our student leaders.

The undesirable postings included profanity and references to drinking and drugs, Clark said.

"We were very ignorant to the extent of the problem," Clark said.

Like Drew, Seton Hall gathered its RAs and peer advisers and asked them to remove certain types of photos and posts. They also explained that potential employers can easily do Web searches and find the same sites. Even with Facebook, which is limited to those with college e-mail addresses, students may be facing alumni for jobs -- alumni who may have access to current Facebook profiles.

"Most understood, but some didn't like it," Clark said. "Some thought it was Big Brother-ish. It's not like I'm sitting out there spending vast amounts of time researching their sites."

Student education

Clark, too, said he will not seek out student-employees' Web sites -- but if something is brought to his attention, he will check it out.

The college's recent education on the matter will become a two-hour online course during freshman orientation, when laptops are handed out to the incoming Class of 2010.

The course will discuss Internet safety and appropriate conduct on Facebook and MySpace, along with basic computer technical support guidelines, Clark said.

Drew junior Rebecca Gambale, 19, an English major and RA from the Long Valley section of Washington Township, said she didn't understand officials' concern at first, either. Then she got to thinking about how pervasive Facebook and MySpace are among the college set.

"I'm in my classes and you see people with laptops on Facebook," Gambale said.

Gambale said she was careful with her profiles because she sensed her residents might look up her profile. They had gossiped enough already when she posted a picture of her and her boyfriend.

"You don't want to give anyone any reason to question your authority," Gambale said.

Lewis, the 5-year-old black-and-white longhaired cat

2006-04-03T11:41:00.000-07:00

Fairfield's so-called "Terrorist of Sunset Circle" has some new friends in his kitty corner. Lewis, the 5-year-old black-and-white longhaired cat who made international headlines this week, now has a profile on MySpace.com
The Connecticut Post first reported on Lewis last week after his owner was arrested and he violated his house arrest, put in place following alleged attacks on an Avon representative and neighbors in the Sunset Circle area of Fairfield. Fairfield Animal Web surfers can visit www.myspace.com/lewisthecrazycat to view his member profile, created by out-of-state fans who admit they have never met Lewis. The site was created on Thursday; as of Saturday, Lewis had 25 registered friends on the MySpace online social network The Connecticut Post first reported on Lewis last week after his owner was arrested and he violated his house arrest, put in place following alleged attacks on an Avon representative and neighbors in the Sunset Circle area of Fairfield. Fairfield Animal Control Officer Rachel Solveira issued a restraining order on Lewis after determining he posed a potential threat to town residents.Lewis's owner, Ruth Cisero, fed him Prozac twice a day for two months in an effort to forestall any unruly behavior, but weaned him off of the drug when she felt he was suffering a negative reaction. Solveira arrested Cisero for failing to comply with the restraining order and for reckless endangerment after Lewis escaped the house and attacked another person. One victim, Donna Greenstein, sued Cisero following the attack.

Cisero confirmed that Lewis is under lifelong house arrest and that now one of the victims is pushing to have him euthanized. "My biggest fear is someone reporting that [Lewis] got out when he has not, and I will be arrested again," Cisero said. She has a hearing at Bridgeport Superior Court on April 25.

Lewis has made international news, with coverage on local stations as well as CNN and BBC. Perhaps it's only appropriate that Lewis joined MySpace.

"As long as the media and law hold him to 'person' standards, he might as well have a MySpace profile, too," said Ryan Tompkinson, 25, of Pine Hill, N.J., one of Lewis's new MySpace "friends."

Friends Erin Reeves, 23, of Sudbury, Mass., and Chandana Ravi, 22, of Oak Park, Ill., created the MySpace profile as a joke amongst their friends.

"[Ravi] and I were talking last night and thought this would be funny, so we made a page," Reeves said. "[Reeves] thought it would be funny to do a MySpace page from the cat's point of view, since the only one not really represented in the stories is Lewis," Ravi said.

While some people express concern for the condition and treatment of Lewis, others wonder at the widespread attention this story has garnered.

"It's absurd that a cat story would be aired on 'respected' new programs, preempting actual news," Tompkinson said.

But Cisero is grateful that her side — not to mention Lewis's — is being represented.

"I am so appreciative of all the good trying to be done by most of the media," she said. "The only thing I want is the truth so that people can make a fair judgement."

After all the hype, the creators of Lewis's profile have a soft spot for the confined kitty. "I've never seen the cat, nor do I know the owner. I just kind of felt bad for him," Reeves said.

"I did feel bad for a cat that is forced to take Prozac, has a restraining order against it and is under house arrest," Ravi said. One of Lewis' MySpace pals thinks the profile will serve an additional purpose for the house-ridden feline.

"Maybe we can even find a Louise the crazy female cat for him on here, too," Tompkinson said, "because every crazy cat needs a counterpart."

School district to host Internet Safety Forum

2006-04-03T11:40:00.000-07:00

CATSKILL - The Catskill school district, concerned that students may be inadvertently sharing personal information with the world over the Internet, will host an Internet Safety Forum this month.

The forum, which is intended for a mature audience, will focus on Internet safety and abuse, as well as the Web site MySpace.com, which some critics say attracts predators. State police Investigator Daniel Bien of the Cyber Terrorism Unit said he will give a presentation and take questions during the forum, which is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. April 11 in the Catskill High School auditorium.

"Our primary impetus in putting this forum on is to be proactive in our community," said Assistant Principal William Ball. He said there has been increasing concern about students using MySpace; some are posting profiles containing personal information, not realizing the information becomes accessible worldwide, not just to their friends.

Ball said inappropriate photographs and references to criminal activity and bullying have been seen on MySpace. He said there have been instances where police involvement became necessary due to situations found on the site.

Bien said he when he talks about MySpace, he recommends that parents allow their children to use the site because it is a way for them to express themselves and be creative. However, he said parents need to review the content of the site and discuss it with their children. He said there are ways to secure the site so personal information does not become available.

"One of the things I tell parents is that all of your daughter's friends know what your daughter looks like, so she doesn't have to put her pictures online," Bien said.

MacKenzie Zajac, 17, said she uses MySpace to talk to her friends but not to meet new people. She said her parents know about the site, which she visits at least once a day. Zajac, a high school junior, said the site could be dangerous for people under 15 because they may not be aware of pedophiles or older people posing as young people.

Amanda Hutchings, 16, a sophomore at the high school, said she too only talks to her friends from the site and does not use MySpace to meet new people. She said she does not know of anyone who has had problems with the site, but noted that she and her friends keep their comments simple and do not reveal where they live.

According to information provided by MySpace, no one under 14 is allowed to use the site. The site's terms and conditions read, in part, "Your MySpace.com profile may not include the following items: telephone numbers, street addresses, last names, and any photographs posted by you may not contain nudity or obscene, lewd, excessively violent, harassing, sexually explicit or otherwise objectionable subject matter." The site also posts tips for using MySpace, including a reminder that the profiles and forums are public spaces.

In addition to discussing MySpace, Bien said he also talks about things like phishing scams - in which con artists posing as legitimate sites try to get credit card and other personal information; e-mail security, hoaxes and get-rich-quick schemes. He said he also touches on the terrorism aspect of Internet safety.

"A lot of the hoaxes and the scams have been traced directly back to funding terrorists," he said.

MySpace Weeds-out Risque Content

2006-04-03T11:39:00.001-07:00

In a "Get Clean" drive of sorts, the Web site MySpace.com has removed over 200,000 "objectionable" profiles from its site in the last few months.

MySpace.com which is run by News Corp's internet division, said that the pages have been taken down for including hate speech or being too risqu .

Ross Levinsohn, head - internet division, News Corp, said that this kind of content is fast becoming a problem that is intrinsic to the internet as a whole, and not just MySpace.com. He said that culling the objectionable material only meant that the site was being made safer.

Of late MySpace.com has been in the news... for all the wrong reasons...

Sometime back a California-based middle school student created a group on MySpace.com wherein he allegedly posted expletive remarks about a female classmate, besides threatening to shoot her repeatedly in the head. Not only did the boy face expulsion, but twenty of his classmates were suspended for viewing the posting.

MySpace also hit the headlines as the centre of controversy - whether the Web site was becoming a convenient place for predatory adults to solicit young teenage customers

MySpace Teen Safety Clean-Up May See Backlash

2006-04-03T11:39:00.000-07:00

In an effort to promote teen safety, social network MySpace recently deleted 200,000 "objectionable" accounts, but the move may have been a risky one, writes Business 2.0.

When Friendster - another social networking site - began removing profiles it found too risque or offensive, users ran for the exits, helping to spur rival social networks' growth, including MySpace. MySpace may suffer similar consequences, but with 250,000 new accounts each day, the removals seem hardly able to deter MySpace's growth, according to the article.

Related topics: Buying, Demographics, E-Commerce, Entertainment, Interactive, Media Department, Opinion, Planning, Regulatory, Youth...

MySpace takes down 200,000 "objectionable" profiles

2006-04-03T11:38:00.000-07:00

MySpace.com officials have decided that 200,000 "objectionable" profiles had to be removed, as they were containing either "hate speech" or "risqu?content", the Financial Times reported. This action aims to ensure the safety of the social network for young internet users.

This decision was announced by the president of News Corp's Internet division, Ross Levinsohn.

MySpace.com has been acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corps last year. The site has almost 66 million users and, and 250,000 new ones are signing up every day, making it one of the best internet destinations for young people.

This decision is part of News Corp's strategy to make MySpace.com more appealing to advertisers. However, according to FT, the company is faced now with two major challenges.

First of all, MySpace must keep young users from switching to other sites. Second, the site must convince advertisers that they won’t be associated with "inappropriate content".

The Future of Web 2.0

2006-04-03T11:37:00.001-07:00

Slashdot has a blurb about an article that gives the state of Web 2.0, the future of web software. It is well worth a read if you are interested in what the internet as we know it will become!

Despite some disdain for the term Web 2.0, the underlying ideas seem to be genuinely taking off from the seed of successful techniques of the first generation of the Web. Here's an in-depth review of the future of Web 2.0 and online software from Web 2.0 proponent, Dion Hinchcliffe. Like or hate the term, the actual ideas in Web 2.0 are turning out to not only usable but a growing cadre of companies are actively being successful with them. This includes the Ajax phenomenon being actively pursued by Microsoft and Google, widespread social software, and massive online communities like MySpace. These trends are all leading to predictions on the ultimate fallout of these changes, something increasingly called social computing.

In response to advertising industry concerns over Internet security, MySpace.com has removed 200,000 "objectionable" profiles from its social network

2006-04-03T11:37:00.000-07:00

Monday April 03rd 2006, 6:08 pm
Filed under: News
By: Sharon Khare
MySpace.com, the social networking website, has removed 200,000 “objectionable” profiles from its network saying that the purged sites included ‘hate speech’ and ‘risque’ material. This is an attempt to reassure parents and advertisers about the safety of the site as it recently attracted criticism over fears that online predators might be interacting with young people using the site.

A number of US schools have banned the website in order to protect students against the threat of online predators even as a 17-year-old high school student was charged with publishing threats to kill two teachers and a 14-year-old girl on MySpace, last month.

The site run by News Corp boasts 65 million users and 250,000 news users each day attracting mainly people betwen 18 and 30 years of age.

MySpace Removes Objectionable Content in Advertising Bid

2006-04-03T11:36:00.000-07:00

By Jennifer LeClaire
www.EcommerceTimes.com
Part of the ECT News Network
04/03/06 10:38 AM PT

Though MySpace's policy requires users to be at least 14 years old, some suspect even younger kids are members. That is likely with the popularity of online social networks among teenagers and the growing Internet traffic in this demographic.

In response to advertising industry concerns over Internet security, MySpace.com has removed 200,000 "objectionable" profiles from its social network. The site erased profiles containing risque or hate speech content.

Ross Levinsohn, president of MySpace parent company News Corp.'s Internet division, made the announcement at the Bank of America Media, Telecommunications and Entertainment Conference in New York. News Corp. acquired MySpace last year for US$580 million.

MySpace.com boasts about 67 million users. It adds 250,000 users each day and accounts for 12.5 percent of all online display ads. It is officially one of the most 10 popular sites on the Web, although most users have probably never visited it.

"MySpace's policy says no nudity, but there are certainly posts that slip through. But there is no policy against R-rated language so such language is likely to remain," Scott Allen, author of "The Virtual Handshake," told the E-Commerce Times.

Advertisers Speak Out
Panelists from Universal McCann Interactive, Pepsi-Cola, McDonald's, NBC Universal, Campbell's Soup and Subway said that they do not advertise on the site because of its objectionable content and the recent swirl of controversy surrounding the network.

"I am sure MySpace is having trouble attracting certain advertisers, but I can't imagine it is really having problems filling up the ad inventory. If it is not having any problems filling up the ad inventory, then who cares? There are companies that won't advertise in the Sports Illustrated swim suit issue, but there are plenty that do," Allen said.

Amid Controversy
The MySpace controversy was stirred up by concerns that pedophiles use the site to target kids. Two men were arrested in March for allegedly engaging in sexual contact with minors whom they met on MySpace.

MySpace members can make public their e-mail addresses, hobbies and other information on their personal sites. Critics said this could put them at risk.

"There are predators hanging around playgrounds and schools, too. If you want to talk about how easy it is for predators to get information, consider how easy it is for predators to get hold of a yearbook with every kid's picture, grade and activities," Allen said.

Though MySpace's policy requires users to be at least 14 years old, some suspect even younger kids are members. That is likely with the popularity of online social networks among teenagers and the growing Internet traffic in this demographic.

Pew's Take on Internet Safety
A Pew Internet and American Life Project study found that the number of teenagers using the Internet has grown 24 percent in the past four years. Eighty-seven percent of kids between the ages of 12 and 17 are online. Compared to four years ago, teens' use of the Internet has intensified and broadened as they log on more often and do more things when they are online, according to Pew.

At the same time, researchers found that 81 percent of parents feel that the teenage population is not as careful as it should be online and that 65 percent of teens do things online that their parents don't know about. Sixty-four percent of all teens confirmed that they do things online that they wouldn't want their parents to know about.

Murdoch's MySpace Cracks Down On Problem Content

2006-04-03T11:34:00.000-07:00

London - Express yourself--but mind News Corp.'s rules. Its recently acquired social networking site MySpace.com has clear tenets on objectionable content and the Web division of Rupert Murdoch's media empire has been disconnecting those who don't abide by them.

According to media reports, more than 200,000 "objectionable" profiles have been removed from its site in the last few months for including hate speech or being too risqué as the site tries to quell guardian and teacher fears about the safety of the network for young users. But Ross Levinsohn, the chief of News Corp.'s Internet division, told a conference Friday that objectionable content was swiftly fast becoming a problem germane to the Web as a whole, and not just confined to MySpace.

MySpace does offer users a set of instructions for safer use, and urges users to report "harassment, hate speech and inappropriate content" to it or the authorities. "Don't post anything that would embarrass you later. Think twice before posting a photo or info you wouldn't want your parents or boss to see!" the site also advises. And finally it warns: "Don't mislead people into thinking that you're older or younger. If you lie about your age, MySpace will delete your profile".

Of course, on a site that touts tens of millions of members, there's bound to be an orchard or two of rotten apples. Detectives have recently used profiles posted on the site to identify six suspects in a rape and robbery in Colorado. And some users are heeding the call to report bad behavior. A group of boys created a fake profile of a 15-year-old girl to cheer up a friend who had recently split up with his girlfriend. But when an older man tried to meet the fictitious teenager for sex, the boys called the police.

High-tech rumors

2006-04-02T20:48:00.000-07:00

By Jim Hand/Sun Chronicle Staff
When police made a traffic stop in front of Attleboro High School during a tense period last week, students immediately started text messaging each other about the incident.

As the story made the rounds, it grew in magnitude.
Soon students were telling their friends that there had been a shooting at the school.

Nothing of the sort happened.

But because some students had received threats the day before through a teen Internet site called MySpace.com, the story was apparently believable to some.

Parents became alarmed and started calling the schools and The Sun Chronicle.

Similar incidents are becoming almost commonplace in schools across the country, experts say.

They are fueled by technology's ability to speed communication, and by teens' inability to edit themselves, the experts said.

`` More and more, we are seeing the dark side of technology,'' said Kenneth Trump, the president of School Safety and Security Service, a consulting firm.

`` We are definitely seeing more instances where technology is coming into the fold with school safety issues.''

Al-Obaidi Jabbar, chairman of the communications department at Bridgewater State College, said the fault lies not with the technology, but with the people using it.

He said people using the Internet or text messaging have to be aware of the possible harm they can do by spreading false rumors.

`` With technology comes responsibility,'' he said. `` We have to think of the consequences or social responsibility when we use technology.''

That includes making a better effort to consider the accuracy of the information we are passing along.

`` With new technology like text messaging and the Internet, there is no way to verify the information.

`` There is no way to weigh the credibility of the information,'' he said.

Rumors can put a school into an uproar, he said.

`` People have to realize they can cause a panic,'' he said.

Last fall, 1,000 students at Moose Lake High School in Washington state stayed out of school around Halloween because of rumors of pending violence.

Ten police officers were stationed at the school for three days in preparation for trouble that never came.

`` Rumors have always been very disruptive to the educational process,'' Trump, the security consultant, said.

`` Student rumors -- and rumors by adults for that matter -- have always spread like wildfire. But with new technology, they spread exponentially.

`` For school and police officials, it is now more difficult and more challenging to control them,'' he said.

Attleboro Police Capt. David Proia said his department spent days tracking down rumors of pending violence at Attleboro High, especially on MySpace.com.

`` But we hit a dead-end every time,'' he said.

The rumors started after a fight between Attleboro and Pawtucket youths at Emerald Square mall in North Attleboro.

For two weeks there were rumors that gangs from Pawtucket would come to Attleboro High School to resume the violence.

There were even rumors passed along MySpace.com that weapons would be brought into the school, according to students.

Attleboro Superintendent Joel Lovering said the rumors that were spread reminded him of the childhood game in which children take turns whispering a secret into each other's ears.

By the time the secret had been passed to the last child, it had completely changed and was blown out of proportion.

Jabbar urges parents and teachers to take time to talk to teens about the proper use of technology and the trouble misuse can cause.

Trump said school officials should use their own technology to their advantage to knock down rumors and disseminate correct information.

Schools should use their Web sites, cable television stations, group e-mail, and, if they have them, mass telephone services to alert parents, he said.

Lovering said Attleboro is in the process of purchasing a school telephone system that can call every parent instantly.

When installed, the system will allow a school official to record a message and instantly send it to every home in the school district, he said.

The system should be up in about two months, he said, but it would have come in handy during the high school situation.

Ironically, in the case of Attleboro, students were miles ahead of the school in terms of available technology.

School and police officials did hold assemblies and meetings with students during the trouble.

An assembly concerning MySpace.com is scheduled for next month.

Lovering said another concern has been expressed by testing companies that fear students will use text messaging to pass word of test questions and answers.

Trump said students in some schools have used camera phones to pass along photos of tests.

In the meantime, Attleboro students and school officials said the rumors have begun to go away, and things have returned to normal at the high school.

`` Right now, everything has died down,'' student John Fertitta said.

Internet 'friends'

2006-04-02T20:46:00.000-07:00

So says one self-described 17-year-old girl in Saratoga Springs whose favorite team is the Blue Streaks, her favorite magazine, Cosmopolitan, and whose future mate would be 'a boy who would beat the crap out of someone if they called me fat.'

The writer is one of hundreds of teens in Saratoga County and millions of people everywhere who are using the Internet to talk to friends, make new ones and bare their souls to total strangers.

But who's real and who isn't?

'The problem is that kids have this false sense of security online,' said Joseph Donahue, a State Police investigator who works in the Albany headquarters of the Computer Crime Unit's ICAC (Internet Crimes Against Children) Task Force.

'If they're not meeting people face-to-face, they feel like they're 8 feet tall and bulletproof. They feel nobody can bother them, but that's naïve and makes them much more vulnerable.'

What has raised the concern of law enforcement is MySpace.com. Since it was launched three years ago, the Web site now counts more than 60 million members, and is growing daily. The majority of those congregating are teenage girls, according to Donahue.

The secret to its popularity is in its simplicity. With an e-mail account, users can join up and create their own personal pages, post photographs, movies, music and share diary-like commentary with the world.

Using the site's extensive search engine, millions of users can be found around the globe, sharing like-minded interests.

Thousands of online friends are in the Saratoga region alone, and they find one another by school name or any number of area clubs. Many sites share frank discussions and photographs.

'You can pose as anyone you want online and there's all kinds of scams predators can use,' Donahue said.

'Come summertime, they'll be online claiming to be kids. 'I'm a new student,' they'll say. 'Who's a good teacher?' They have learned to use technology very well.'

Personal info online

Too much information is being offered for 'the bad guys,' Donahue believes.

Here, for instance, is an excerpt from a site that was easily located by this reporter, with the names deleted but the punctuation and grammar kept as it was posted:

'My name's xxxx xxxxx. i live in toga, new york and im 15. i row. its like my life. i love shopping and going to the movies and hanging out with my friends. my best friend is xxxxxx xxxxx. ive known her since i was 4. I love summer. i have a house on lake xxxxxxx.'

The writer describes herself as straight, 5'5', white, a Virgo, and a high school student in the Class of 2008 who'd like to have children some day.

Although dangerous cases related to MySpace are few, entries loaded with personal information worry law en-forcers.

'The old notion of a predator hiding behind a tree wearing a raincoat is a thing of the past,' Donohue warned. 'Today, they don't have to worry about being seen. They can safely stay online and slowly groom the child fairly anonymously.'

In March, a 48-year old California man was booked for investigation of attempted lewd and lascivious conduct with a child he thought he was meeting on MySpace.

A 22-year-old New York City man and 39-year-old Pennsylvania man were both arrested on allegations they had illegal sexual contact with minors they met through the Web site. And according to The Middletown Press, police in Connecticut are investigating seven cases of sexual assault of minors by alleged MySpace predators.

A few years ago, it was chat rooms that posed the most concern.

Today, the popular places for people to congregate are Web sites like Xanga, FaceBook and MySpace. Many people post their birthdates and name clubs they belong to, as well as likes, dislikes and goals. They describe where they work, what they do and where they go for recreation. Many use their real names along with identifiable photographs, some of an intimate nature.

'Don't U wish UR girlfriend was hot like me?' asks the self-professed 26-year-old 'Sexy Bitch from Stillwater' posing in her underwear.

'Uncle John' goes to Saratoga Springs High School, Class of '08, and has a fixation for the music of the Grateful Dead. He posted a message about everyone coordinating to take a specific day off from school. He wasn't starting the idea he said, only asking if anyone had heard the circulating rumor. 'Think about it,' he wrote. 'Teachers show up and nobody in class.'

Another group from the same school call themselves 'Reefer Tokers of Saratoga Springs.' It is a group small enough to gather for a photograph in which they smile back at the camera with bottles of beer and what appears to be a handgun.

While Donahue hears from parents who are concerned about photographs of minors who are posing with alcohol or drugs, he said it is difficult to prove that laws have actually been broken.

'A lot of the problems that parents complain about are really parenting issues,' Donohue said. 'They say, 'There's a naked picture of my 15-year-old daughter on there' -- but it's their daughter. Parents can be ignorant. They go out and buy a $500 computer, throw it in the kid's bedroom and forget about it.

'The kids don't realize that MySpace is not 'Their Space' -- they're out there in the public domain. It's not private, it's not their own little environment,' Donahue said. 'What goes on there goes up worldwide.'

Teens feel protected

Some area teens with MySpace sites say they are aware of potential dangers and have taken steps to protect themselves.

'Almost everyone has it,' said Casey Slone, a sophomore at Saratoga Springs High School, who put up his site last summer. 'I used it a lot when I first started, but these days, I just check it out if I get a request.'

Requests come in for people wanting to be 'friends.' Users then have the option to either 'invite' the friend in, or to refuse.

Users also have the option of choosing whether to make their site private -- where only a select, invited list can enter -- or public, where anyone can join.

'I don't take requests from people wanting to be a friend from anybody who is not from Saratoga because you just don't know who to trust out there,' Slone said. 'I keep a message board for people to say hello and I used to have pictures up but I took them down because I heard about a lot of the dangers from teachers and parents.'

K.C. Conway is an 18-year-old senior at the school who discovered the site as a good resource for his band. He started his site in December and counts 82 friends among members.

'My parents say it's OK'

'The good thing is you can meet new people and make new friends,' Conway said. 'My parents know about my site and they say it's OK as long as I don't put up a picture or my real name.'

Maddie Choppa, a junior at the high school, set up her MySpace account in November.

'Mine is public. That way, my friends from school can find me on there,' she said.

'It's a good way to get to know your classmates better. People put up posts and surveys go around, but all of my friends are people that I know,' Choppa said. 'My experience has only been good. If you find provocative pictures, you can report them to MySpace headquarters and they will take care of that.'

At Saratoga Springs High School, a block on the computers prevents students from logging on to MySpace at school.

'It is the new wave of communication for this generation,' said Principal Frank Crowley. 'I have received a number of complaints from parents that there is a lot of personal information that students are including that could reveal personal information to the wrong people. For security reasons, we're very concerned about the information people are putting up on that site.'

So are parents.

'What scares me is that children seem to have this double personality,' said one mother whose daughter is a junior at Spa Catholic High School.

'You go on there and read that they say they're fat or ugly and that they lack self-esteem,' she said. She wonders what college and employment recruiters would think if they checked into an applicant's history of postings.

'They ask questions like: 'How many times have you had sex? When was the last time you got drunk?' When I saw this stuff I felt bad for these kids. It seems like they're crying out for someone to talk to,' she said, insisting her daughter take down her own site after searching the computer's history of sites she was visiting.

'There are pictures of kids from (area) schools at parties with beer bottles in their hands, doing shots of liquor, and some boys making remarks that were just rude,' said the mother. 'Are their parents oblivious to this garbage or do they just not care? There's no respect out there -- not for one another, not for religion and not with any morals. ... But my daughter thinks it's no big deal.'

'My mom didn't like it because of the swearing and some of the surveys that people took,' said the daughter, who is in her upper teens. 'MySpace is a good way of keeping in touch with your friends. I think if you're old enough, you realize what's sketchy and what's not. When you're younger than 16, you don't really know what's going on. But most of my friends have their sites set to 'private.' People need to make a request to be your friend.'

Grace Killion is a ninth-grader at the Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs. She has about 90 friends with whom she keeps in contact. Her 15-year-old classmate, Hannah Anteler, finds it a good resource to promote her band.

Both say they are careful about who they choose to be online friends.

'These are all people that I have met or have known for awhile,' Killion said. 'I think parents and teachers assume it's a dangerous place because there's that possibility of something happening. But kids can go private, and decrease the chances of something happening.'

Says Grace's mother, Carolyn: 'I don't look at MySpace any differently than I do sending your child to the mall alone the first time. You have to teach your child about other people, but then you have to trust them about what they have learned.'

Weighing the pros, cons

There are indeed two sides to these sites.

'MySpace is both extremely helpful and potentially hazardous,' said Richard DeMartino, psychologist at Saratoga Springs High School. 'On the one hand, it caters to the developmental needs of kids: Who am I? Where am I going?

There is the ability to connect, to belong and MySpace does a great job in developing that -- but with some of the information being so easily identifiable, they've just given this information to creepy people as well.

'The goal of teenagers is not to get hurt by somebody. It is to talk to people, and in the case of someone who may be shy, there is the ability to 'meet' people without having to have that face-to-face contact,' DeMartino said. As for the dangers, he said, 'There is a disconnect. They disassociate themselves from it. Kids tend to deny that it could happen to them.'

Lt. Gary Forward stood inside the Saratoga Springs police station trying to strike the delicate balance of being connected to the world and being protected from it.

'Kids are so trusting by nature,' said the lieutenant. 'In a perfect world, it would be a beautiful thing -- but this world isn't perfect,' he said. 'If it was, I wouldn't have a job.'

©The Saratogian 2006

Popular sites attract criminals

2006-04-02T20:44:00.000-07:00

Programs help parents acquaint themselves with computer dangers

By Mike Belt (Contact)

Sunday, April 2, 2006

“I rock.”

“I got killer looks.”

“Girls just want to have fun.”

“I’m a college guy just trying to get by.”

Nifty catchphrases, photos with suggestive poses and revelations of someone’s innermost desires.

All that and more can be found with a few keyboard strokes and the click of a mouse button at Internet diary Web sites. In Lawrence, more than 8,000 people — some as young as 12 — are willing to share their personal stories with anyone who wants to browse one of those Web sites known as MySpace.com and Xanga.com.

Created just two years ago, MySpace has taken the lead in the social networking sweepstakes. Many young adults create personal pages on the sites to promote a business or band, or just meet up with others and their friends.

But there is also a seedier side, especially for young teens. The threat is Internet predators.

“The kids feel safe because they are behind a computer screen, but the guys who are predators know how to get around things,” said Don Hicks, a school resource officer with the Lawrence Police Department.

There are numerous hunting grounds for those predators to explore. A Google search for online diaries brings up more than 70 million pages.

MySpace and Xanga are so popular that last year the Lawrence school district blocked those sites from being accessed by classroom and library computers.

“The librarians were concerned that students were spending more time on Xanga than doing research for their classes,” said Nancy Horner, the district’s information specialist in charge of the libraries.

At MySpace, people 14 and older can start an account and begin writing their own blog and profiles and begin chatting online and instant messaging with others. But there is no way to verify anyone’s age.

Members often display e-mail addresses, hometowns, pictures and other personal information that could be taken advantage of by predators, Hicks said.

“I’ve seen some pretty racy profiles posted from even Lawrence kids,” he said.

Lawrence police have investigated incidents that originated from online diaries. A 14-year-old girl received “inappropriate” messages until the messenger was tracked through a complex Internet trail that led to a juvenile boy in Philadelphia, Hicks said. Police in that city took over the investigation and paid the boy a visit. No charges were filed.

Lawrence police have received reports of online bullying, in which Web sites are used to post messages that attack a youth. Web site owners have taken down those sites, Hicks said.

In November, Hicks and Officer Jon Barta began conducting two-hour evening seminars for parents about the dangers of the Internet, including online diaries. The classes also show parents ways to monitor their children’s use of the computer.

A total of about 30 people attended two sessions held at Quail Run School, and more than a dozen parents and teachers attended a session last week at Pinckney School.

“It was pretty interesting that many of the people attending the session really had a limited knowledge about use of the Internet and the sites,” Quail Run Principal Paulette Strong said.

Lyn Coleman tries to keep a close eye on what her 10-year-old daughter does on the computer. Still, she found the seminar at Pinckney to be an eye-opener.

“It is shocking to me, the amount of stuff that you can get to (on the Internet), and I know no amount of blockers are going to stop somebody if that’s what they really want to do,” Coleman said.

Here is a list of dates and schools where police will conduct Internet training seminars for parents:

• 6:30 p.m. Monday, Southwest Junior High School.

• 6:30 p.m. April 11, Sunflower School.

• 6:30 p.m. April 12, Lawrence High School.

• 7 p.m. April 19, Hillcrest School.

'Whoa. We can do something'

2006-04-02T00:17:00.001-08:00

Using 21st-century technology, young Latinos join forces, discover power of protest
By Scott Gold
LOS ANGELES TIMES
LOS ANGELES - Shuffling her feet in her Garden Grove home last weekend, Mariela Muniz stared into the carpet and suffered, as teenagers do, the silent deliberation of her parents. Soon, her father nodded and her mother uttered the words she'd been waiting to hear: "Lo puedes hacer."

You can do it.

The next morning, the 15-year-old sophomore at Garden Grove High School in Orange County -- with the permission of her parents, both of whom are factory workers and Mexican immigrants who became U.S. citizens after entering the country illegally -- skipped school for the first time in her life.

Following in the footsteps of those who led the first of the student walkouts on March 24 and the adults who organized the massive protest March 25 against proposed immigration legislation, Mariela became one of a few dozen students in Southern California on the front lines of a national exhibition of civil unrest, one of the largest and most boisterous since the civil rights movement four decades ago. By the end of Friday -- in Fresno, in Monterey Park, in San Diego -- more than 40,000 students in California were estimated to have walked out of their schools to protest proposed immigration reform.

There is little question that some students took advantage of the protests to ditch school. Some acknowledged they had little idea what all the fuss was about. Others took the opportunity to throw bottles at police and to shut down freeways. Law enforcement officials criticized them for diverting resources from more pressing needs, and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told them to go back to school.

But for the small group of students who instigated the walkouts, most of whom hadn't been politically active but merely smart and popular, it was a transformative week.

Using modern technology -- mostly their communal pages on the enormously popular MySpace Web site -- they pulled off an event with surprising speed and dexterity. Planned in mere hours on little sleep, lacking any formal organization, the protests were chaotic and decentralized and organic.

They were also a reminder that there are more than 35 million Latinos in the United States, about 40 percent of them in California. At least 8 million are in the country illegally. But many of their children -- including many of the student leaders -- are citizens by birth. And they represent a voting bloc that could help shape the politics of the West for years.

"I think it is the beginning of something," said Louis DeSipio, a professor of political science at the University of California at Irvine. "You have the foundation for a new kind of Hispanic politics."

Many of the student leaders attended last weekend's Gran Marcha, which brought 500,000 demonstrators to downtown Los Angeles, stunning even the event's organizers, and said they were awed by the event.

"I've always been proud to say that I'm Hispanic," said Rafael "Ralph" Tabares, 17, a Marshall High School student and an organizer of his school's walkout. "But on Saturday, I thought: Whoa. We can do something. And we can do it right."

The protest staged by Mariela and two friends in Orange County was typical of the student leaders' efforts.

They had heard about the March 24 walkouts at several high schools in Los Angeles and decided to launch a protest of their own. Last Sunday they posted a bulletin on MySpace announcing that anyone wishing to participate should stand up at the 8 a.m. tardy bell on Monday morning and "meet in front of the school."

On the Internet site, which serves as a free-of-charge, virtual gathering place, users can send bulletins to all of their MySpace "friends." Word can be passed along in seconds.

It didn't take long before most of Garden Grove High School's roughly 2,200 students knew what was coming, without the knowledge or involvement of teachers or parents.

Soon, the bulletin crossed over an invisible but critical line between teens who were friends but attended different schools. Students began posting phone numbers, and soon dozens more pledges to participate were obtained through phone calls and instant text messages.

Still, when the tardy bell rang Monday morning, Mariela had no idea what to expect. She waited in front of the school. Soon, the doors opened, and scores of students -- most of them Latino, but a handful of whites, blacks and Asian Americans, too -- joined her. They marched through Garden Grove and Anaheim, picking up students at several other schools as planned through MySpace bulletins. By 1 p.m. they had walked 10 miles. An estimated 1,500 students had walked out. Mariela was a truant and, to her friends, a hero.

School administrators have since informed her that she'll have to perform community service as penance. Back at her home, a humble ranch-style house with family photos on the wall, she said it was worth it.

"Sometimes you have to stand up for what you believe in," she said. "We did. And it worked."

On the Web, the world gets smaller fast

2006-04-02T00:17:00.000-08:00

It seems to be taking a lot of sex tapes, e-mail scandals and idiotic Web site postings for people to understand that the Internet is a virtual open-mike night, a cable access channel where anyone can get on the air and anyone can tune in.

The latest people to learn this lesson are officers in the Lexington Police Department whose careers are now in jeopardy because they didn't realize it might not be a good idea to post their loathsome views about the entire city on the World Wide Web.

The operative terms are "world" and "wide," people.

Of course, this isn't even the first time in the past year that the halls of power in Kentucky were rocked by electronic communications.

E-mail isn't as obviously public as the Internet, but in the recent hiring scandal, many officials in Gov. Ernie Fletcher's administration have found that hitting "delete" is hardly as final as putting a handwritten note through a paper shredder.

And geez, ask any celebrity about the kind of life videos of their most intimate moments take on the Web. The phrase "Paris Hilton sex tape" generated more than 4 million items on Google.

OK, we can see how intimate and personal the computer can seem. As I write this, I am alone at my kitchen table. It feels as if this is between me and my keyboard, even though I'm aware I'm writing something that will be published in nearly 150,000 papers. It's easy to see how someone who doesn't publish for a living might not fathom how public the Web is. I found that out when I got to the Herald-Leader and my articles were going up on www. kentucky.com. Suddenly, there's a national audience. Just two weeks ago, I received several responses from Europe to a column I wrote about new James Bond Daniel Craig. I still receive e-mails regarding articles I've written years ago that have stayed alive on cyberspace.

All of which is to say, you can sort of see how these officers might have viewed their www.myspace.com pages as private jokes. "Hey buddy, look what I put up on MySpace now. Heh heh heh." It might never have occurred to them that Police Chief Anthany Beatty would get a look at them, that thousands of the citizens they were sworn to serve and protect would get a look at them.

But that's what happened, and it should serve as a cautionary tale to everyone.

Already, these guys will be disciplined under rules governing officers' conduct, and the chief is looking at more explicit language for the employee rules regarding the Internet. It would be smart for other offices to do the same.

I know a number of people with Web sites or blogs out there whose employers probably would be chagrined if the contents were made widely public and associated with the employees' day jobs. But they probably never thought of that.

Recently, the media, schools and churches have been filled with information about the Internet and kids. Just three weeks ago, I attended a seminar about MySpace.com and the risky information kids post in their pages on the popular Web site. One of my church's youth pastors did a ZIP code search for girls 18 to 19 years old in a 10-mile radius of 40508 on MySpace -- the type of search a sexual predator might do -- and it returned 1,865 people.

The message was: Teach your kids about how to carefully use the Internet. Apparently, someone also needs to talk to the adults.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Teens share too much e-information

2006-04-02T00:16:00.000-08:00

By Alexa Aguilar
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
04/01/2006

One of the most popular Web sites for teenagers - MySpace.com - announced last week that it had purged 200,000 profiles from its site for objectionable content.

Sound like a lot? Consider that 250,000 new users - many of them teens - sign up on the site every day.

And although thousands of offensive profiles were removed, parents and teachers still might find plenty to object to among the site's 66 million profiles.

A site search of some ZIP codes in the St. Louis area found hundreds of profiles of area teens. Profiles usually consist of some pictures (many awkward self-portraits), audio clips of favorite songs, blogs and postings from other MySpace users.

"Students are treating these sites like a diary," said Jason Leahy, principal at Highland High School. "I'm concerned about how that can be used against them."

As sites such as MySpace and others such as Xanga and Facebook explode in popularity, school leaders and police are catching on. When teens post pictures and write with abandon about the weekend's exploits, they may not consider who could be looking - college admissions officers, potential employers, school principals and predators. All it takes is an e-mail address and a password to browse through any of the profiles.

The profiles often reveal more than how much the teen loves Chicken McNuggets, why she wants to meet Jessica Simpson and whether he prefers country or rap music.

Some profiles contain references to drugs or drinking and include pictures of the teens surrounded by bottles of alcohol or posed suggestively. One Ellisville teen posted pictures of a birthday party in a hotel room that her boyfriend had paid for and included pictures of the boyfriend grabbing her between her legs. The profile of a 20-year-old man from Troy is filled with racial epithets. Many profiles include students' names, ages, where they go to school, their school activities and class schedules, even their cell phone numbers.

Mike Bazzell, an Alton detective who also serves as director of the Regional Computer Crimes Enforcement Group in the Metro East area, said he could count on a weekly call related to sites such as MySpace.com from parents worried about harassing messages posted on their child's profile by classmates or a man who won't stop calling their daughter after seeing her name and picture online.

"Anyone can browse the pictures," Bazzell said. "It's wide open to the public."

Beyond the obvious safety factor, teens can also find their reputations - or future prospects - damaged by what they post. News accounts in recent months report that students have been turned down by colleges or for jobs after an admissions counselor or potential boss checked the site. A teen in Colorado was arrested after posting pictures showing him holding handguns. In California, 20 students were suspended from school for threatening to kill one another and using anti-Semitic slurs on a MySpace group.

Many schools have blocked the sites on school computers. But knowing that many parents aren't as computer-savvy or wouldn't imagine what their child is sharing online, some school leaders are considering hosting seminars about the dangers.

Principal Phil Trapani at Alton High knows firsthand about the site - some students at the school created a fake profile for him and put it online, complete with picture. At first, he thought it was funny, but when more offensive material showed up he asked that the profile be removed. The school had to punish some athletes after they posted pictures of themselves drinking on a weekend.

"Most of the kids are using it to have a good time," Trapani said. "But the ones who aren't as mature can't handle it."

Bruce Umbaugh, an assistant dean at Webster University who researches cyber ethics, said that although today's adolescents had a vast amount of computer knowledge, that didn't mean they had a sophisticated understanding of the potential implications of what they're posting.

"Adolescents are famously blind about the long-term consequences of their behavior," Umbaugh said.

Umbaugh said the sites could feel very private to most people. With so many millions of users, teens may think they won't be noticed. And because the visitors who post on someone's site are people that person has approved, it's easy to think of it as a private online world.

Adults shouldn't be naive enough to think that the profiles are necessarily representative of a teen's life, Umbaugh said.

Teens like to show off about the things that make them look older, so they'll play up the drinking and the suggestive poses, he said.

Many profiles, though, include nothing worse than a little swearing and a few surveys that include questions on whether a teen prefers summer to winter, or chocolate to vanilla ice cream.

Bryan Ryan, an Edwardsville senior, likes to use MySpace.com to check out information on bands and music. He has added audio from music he and his friends have written to his profile. His parents have seen it, he said.

Most teens at the school have a profile; some check and post daily, others less frequently, Ryan and his friends said Friday.

"It is a little addicting," said junior Andrew Josselyn, who posted pictures of himself at track meets. "You can see a lot about someone's personality by looking at (their profile)."

aaguilar@post-dispatch.com 618-659-3636

NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Rocklin, CA, United States, 04/01/2006 - A young California skate company is tapping into the power of the estimated 41 m

2006-04-02T00:15:00.000-08:00

Because News Corp. is salivating over the potential millions in ad revenue advertisers eager to reach 60 odd million MySpace members may dump in its lap, the company is cleaning up MySpace, removing racy profiles and "offensive" images. It may all be for not as teens and twenty something will likely say "screw it" to News Corp's attempts at cleanliness and move to other social media spaces or create ones none of us has heard of yet. MySpace became a guerrilla overnight. It could fail overnight too. These days, it's too easy for people to gravitate to a place where they feel comfortable rather than put up with corporate censorship simply to please advertisers. It's the advertisers who will have to adjust rather than the corporations.

It's an endless cycle, of course, with no resolution as advertisers will never be comfortable placing their ads next to a teen in a thong and teens will never stop posting pix of thongs. It's a battle with no end. Today, it's MySpace. Tomorrow, it might be Tagworld. The next day, who knows but it will never end. Individuals will create environments they like and if advertisers don't accept that, every move they make to "clean up" an environment will destroy the very environment they were so excited to tap in the first place.

One can debate the negative aspects of what appears to be the pornification of the teenager but it's really no different that it has been since teens first walked the Earth. The thoughts and feeling were always there but there was never a channel through which to express them. Now, every thought anyone has can be as public as they choose to make it for the entire world to consume. Whether or not those thoughts should be publicized is, again, debatable.

Certainly MySpace will be around for a while but it's lost it's cool. You can just hear the moan of 60 million people wondering what happened to what once was the coolest place to hang. The Internet's done many things but the bigest ting it's done is create an endless supply of continuous change.

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Skate Company Builds MySpace® Army to Promote their Store

2006-04-02T00:14:00.000-08:00

NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Rocklin, CA, United States, 04/01/2006 - A young California skate company is tapping into the power of the estimated 41 million MySpace® subscribers by providing them with a steady stream of news.

The company, Roller Warehouse, has taken the existing articles from their corporate skating blog and transformed them into a cool, scrolling newscast. By cutting and pasting a few lines of code, kids all over the world have an instant scrolling news ticker on their own MySpace page. Included are articles on new product releases, upcoming skating events and contests, equipment reviews and tips on learning skate tricks.

"Our customers are a moving target" says Rick Davis, one of the company's owners. "They are extremely passionate and fiercely loyal. Skating is not a sport, it's a lifestyle. If you can win them over, they will go to end of the world for you."

So how do you win these kids loyalty? Davis says "Almost everyone underestimates them. These are intelligent, savvy kids. They have been exposed to the most extreme marketing techniques in the history of mankind since their birth. A 13-year old can smell a sales pitch coming from a mile away." So what is the trick? According to Davis, there's not one. "Just be sincere. You have to be truly sincere in what you do and say. Be absolutely consumed with delivering whatever is best for your customer. They know the difference. Try to fake it and they'll leave you cold."

Fueling this MySpace marketing concept is the age old snowball effect. On the news ticker that Roller Warehouse developed, each topic delivered contains the first 30 to 40 words of the article. Each topic is hyperlinked; clicking it will take you back to the company's original blog page where you can read the entire text. On the blog page, the option to add the news ticker to your own page appears. Thus, the cycle is repeated.

Since starting the program, sales on the company's main shopping site are up over 10%. Davis won't say how many kids have added the news ticker on their MySpace pages. He only hinted that "It's mind-boggling how fast this has grown. If this keeps up, we'll be shopping for new computers to handle the demand."

About Roller Warehouse:

Roller Warehouse was started in June of 1994. They are considered the Godfather of Aggressive Skating and their bi-annual color catalog is widely referred to as The Bible by skaters.

MySpace Continues to Grow Amid Heavy Criticism

2006-04-02T00:12:00.000-08:00

The site currently has over 67 million users, with 250,000 new members every day

MySpace.com, the popular online social networking site with millions of users from around the world has deleted accounts belonging to 250,000 underage users and borderline content. Because of the popularity of MySpace, the site is now under heavy criticism after some people claim the site doesn't do enough to protect minors. There have already been several incidents of sexual predators using MySpace to exploit minors. Rupert Murdoch's News Corps acquired the site for $580 million last year and has been battling to keep MySpace since the acquisition. According to the Financial Times:

Ross Levinsohn, head of News Corp’s internet division, said some of the material taken down contained "hate speech". Some of it, he said, was "too risqué".

The site currently has over 67 million users, with 250,000 new members every day

MySpace.com, the popular online social networking site with millions of users from around the world has deleted accounts belonging to 250,000 underage users and borderline content. Because of the popularity of MySpace, the site is now under heavy criticism after some people claim the site doesn't do enough to protect minors. There have already been several incidents of sexual predators using MySpace to exploit minors. Rupert Murdoch's News Corps acquired the site for $580 million last year and has been battling to keep MySpace since the acquisition. According to the Financial Times:

Ross Levinsohn, head of News Corp’s internet division, said some of the material taken down contained "hate speech". Some of it, he said, was "too risqué".

Wilson student expelled over threat

2006-04-02T00:10:00.000-08:00

Burning out principal mentioned on MySpace

By STEPHEN T. WATSON
News Staff Reporter
4/1/2006

Wilson High School has expelled a student for threatening to burn down the principal's house in a message he posted on the MySpace Web site.
The 16-year-old junior was suspended and then kicked out for the rest of the year after the threat was brought to the attention of school administrators, according to students, parents and school officials familiar with the case.

"They're sending a message that, if it happens, and they catch it, this is how they will respond," said Sandy Walch, president of the Parent Teacher Student Association at Wilson High School.

Wilson school administrators won't comment on the threat, but the incident is common knowledge at the school. It illustrates the ease with which MySpace and other Web sites can be misused.

Shortly after the student was expelled, someone set up a fake MySpace page using the name and photo of Daniel Johnson, the high school principal, and crude comments about his personal habits.

"This is no different than anything that happened 20 years ago. It's just a different technology," said Jeff Dabill, Wilson Teachers Association president.

MySpace has become an Internet phenomenon, particularly among teens. A search of the social-networking site this week found that 135 Wilson High School students have MySpace profiles, not counting users younger than 16.

The student who made the threat was using MySpace and visiting someone else's page when he left the threat as a public comment, Wilson students said in interviews.

The Buffalo News is not identifying the teen because he does not face criminal charges. A parent or teacher learned of the arson threat a few weeks ago and contacted the high school, students and parents said.

"[The student] told me that half an hour after he left the comment, someone called his house about it," said one classmate, Tara Paglino, a 10th grader.

Johnson suspended the student and the student was expelled after a meeting with the superintendent, friends said.

In another comment posted March 9 on a MySpace page, the student wrote "[his initials]=expelled. Peace out dude."

The school did not refer the matter to the Niagara County Sheriff's Department, sheriff's Investigator Daniel Brown said.

Friends say they don't know why the student wrote what he did, although several said the student recently had gotten in trouble with the principal. But they said they believe the threat was intended as a joke and they don't take it seriously.

"He likes to kid around a lot," said Janelle Kenny, an eighth-grade Wilson student.

The student didn't return a message left on his cell phone this week. The News could not reach his parents for comment.

The student's family is acquainted with the principal, friends and parents said, and the student and his mother live near the principal on the same street in Wilson.

Johnson and Wilson Superintendent Michael Wendt declined to comment on the case.

Dabill, the teachers' union president, downplayed the incident.

"As far as the staff is concerned, it was addressed and dealt with and it's over," he said.

It's not clear whether the expelled student created the fake profile that appeared later.

"I don't think he would have done that, because he already got in trouble" for the first MySpace comment, said Stacey Beutel, who is in the 10th grade and knows the student.

Another MySpace profile, under the name "On Behalf of Wilson Central School," still uses the same photo of Johnson framed by the words "Big Brother is Watching You."

These are the latest in a series of incidents directed at Johnson.

His home and property were the target of vandalism twice in the past three years, most recently two years ago.

Wilson isn't alone in confronting Internet abuses.

A survey in 2003-04 by i-SAFE America, a non-profit foundation, found that 42 percent of children have been bullied online and 35 percent were threatened online.

A cursory review of news sites this week found that teenagers in Georgia, Massachusetts and Australia are facing charges after threatening on their MySpace pages to kill fellow students or teachers.

Legislators have introduced a bill in the New York Assembly and Senate that would make online harassment a felony.

In interviews outside Wilson High School this week, students said they thought it was unfair to expel the student for something he wrote on MySpace.

"He was kidding, and MySpace has nothing to do with school," said Becky Henning, a 10th grader.

For the students, this is a cautionary tale about what they should write on MySpace.

"I don't put anything on there that I don't want anyone else to find," said Kaitlin Thompson, who is in the eighth grade.

Or, as seventh-grader David Evans put it: "It just says that Big Brother is watching you."

e-mail: swatson@buffnews.com

We've nixed a quarter-million underage users, MySpace says

2006-04-01T06:33:00.000-08:00

By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
The social networking Web site MySpace.com has canceled the accounts of 250,000 underage users since it was founded three years ago in the hopes of stopping incidents like the one in which a 13-year-old Jersey City girl was fondled by a 20-year-old after meeting his roommate on the site, a spokesman said yesterday.

MySpace rules forbid anyone under the age of 14 from holding an account, but Jersey City police say the 13-year-old used the site and met the roommate of Sebastian Osorio, 20, of Kamena Street in Fairview.

Osorio has been charged with having criminal sexual contact with the girl, who police say sent harrowing text messages to her mother after going missing March 6. The messages said the girl was being held captive in a basement and being forced to do "disgusting" things, officials said.

The girl was found a few days later in Times Square in New York City unharmed, officials said. Police said afterward that it appeared the girl left home with a change of clothes and took a bus to meet Osorio and had consensual sexual contact with him but that it was still illegal because of her age.

The MySpace spokesman, Matthew Grossman, said the company uses a three-pronged attack to keep underage users off the site, including education, technology and a customer care department made up of more than a third of the company's employees.

"It is an effort to prevent the kind of thing that happened in New Jersey," said Grossman. "Clearly, the majority of users have a great experience on the site. The vast majority of 67 million people have entirely safe experiences on the Internet."

The company was founded in 2003.

Grossman said the task of sorting out underage users is a tall order.

"Very often the kids know what's going on online more than the parents do, but these are not issues just isolated to MySpace," Grossman said.

MySpace has 67 million users and in February alone it had 37 million unique users logged in, said Grossman. During that month the site had 25 billion page visits, Grossman said.

But Hudson County Prosecutor Edward DeFazio said there are inherent dangers when juveniles meet people on the Internet.

"This is troublesome and worrisome and sometimes can be dangerous," DeFazio said yesterday. "I think they certainly have to be even more vigilant, but there are limits on what we can expect from the operators of these sites. The adult family members must monitor the conduct of juveniles online."

The MySpace phenomenon

2006-04-01T06:28:00.000-08:00

By PATRICK CARLSON

Google. Amazon. Yahoo.

MySpace?

While the first three monikers have become famous throughout the world, MySpace.com, a social networking Web site is closing in on the big brands of the Internet. Its popularity has come in a way much different than many other successful Internet sites.

Rather than selling goods or helping people search and navigate the Net, MySpace has achieved billions of visits by connecting visitors to its most valuable product — each other.

MySpace, created in 2003, has more than 66 million members, with 255,000 more joining every day according to a recent report in the Financial Times. The Web site lets members build their own pages, create their own URLs, post photos, blogs and music.

Beyond giving people an easy and convenient presence on the Net, MySpace is best known for connecting people with other members through a networking process where users create a group of friends. Through this group, which for many members includes dozens or even hundreds of people, users post messages on each other’s pages, send bulletins and organize events.

A recent walkout by more than 36,000 high school students in Los Angeles County to protest federal immigration legislation was organized in part through communicating on MySpace, according to the Associated Press.

Hugely popular with young people, MySpace has become the primary form of communication for many of them, including here in Kittitas County.

Ellensburg resident Holly Godden, 23, has been a MySpace member for more than a year, and says she uses the site every day. She called it an easy way to stay in touch with old friends, and she also recounted a common story among MySpace members — the long-lost friend finding their page on MySpace and contacting them. Godden said she once received a message from someone she hadn’t talked to since the second grade.

One reason for this is that the site allows members to search its list of users by high school and graduation year, letting them experience that moment when the face of a old classmate appears. All that socializing can be habit-forming too, according to Godden.

“I think it’s a well-known thing among MySpace users that it’s kind of addictive,” Godden said.

Central Washington University student Leah Shelton, 23, expressed some apprehension about having a page on the site, and allowing anyone on the Net access to part of her life.

“I think everyone’s embarrassed to be on it,” Shelton said. “It’s like this guilty pleasure that everyone has, but we don’t want to admit to.

“It’s almost voyeuristic. You can see all these different things about people’s lives that you wouldn’t normally see.”

Shelton recounted the strange feeling she gets when she sees a person in one of her classes whose page she has seen on MySpace. She said it was odd to know so many details about a person who she has never talked to, details that are often very personal.

“People have filters on themselves in real life, but those aren’t there on MySpace,” Shelton said.

Shelton said people are even meeting their significant others online, but she’s also seen people’s MySpace pages that she knows contain lies.

“I’ve heard about some horrible dates that people have gone on,” Shelton said.

Godden said there is definitely an unsettling aspect to the MySpace phenomenon, especially when she interacts with people she doesn’t know.

“You do get the friend request from people you’ve never seen,” Godden said. “The Internet can be a kind of shady thing, so I use it with people I know in real life.”

Shelton still has concerns about privacy and the commercialization of MySpace. When she began using the site, Shelton’s profile contained paragraphs of information about herself — now it is a single sentence, she said. MySpace, barely two-years-old, is already the property of one of the world’s largest media companies, and was the second-most visited site on the Internet in February behind only Yahoo, according to Business Week magazine. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp bought the company that owns MySpace.com for $580 million in July 2005 in an effort to increase its presence on the Web.

Despite all the change and growth of the one-time unique hangout on the Web, Shelton said she plans on staying active on the site for now.

“I like MySpace when it comes down to it,” Shelton said. “It reconnected me with my best friend from high school.”

online, but she’s also seen people’s MySpace pages that she knows contain lies.

“I’ve heard about some horrible dates that people have gone on,” Shelton said.

Godden said there is definitely an unsettling aspect to the MySpace phenomenon, especially when she interacts with people she doesn’t know.

“You do get the friend request from people you’ve never seen,” Godden said. “The Internet can be a kind of shady thing, so I use it with people I know in real life.”

Shelton still has concerns about privacy and the commercialization of MySpace. When she began using the site, Shelton’s profile contained paragraphs of information about herself — now it is a single sentence, she said. MySpace, barely two-years-old, is already the property of one of the world’s largest media companies, and was the second-most visited site on the Internet in February behind only Yahoo, according to Business Week magazine. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp bought the company that owns MySpace.com for $580 million in July 2005 in an effort to increase its presence on the Web.

Despite all the change and growth of the one-time unique hangout on the Web, Shelton said she plans on staying active on the site for now.

“I like MySpace when it comes down to it,” Shelton said. “It reconnected me with my best friend from high school.”

News Corp. has grand plans for MySpace

2006-03-31T21:25:00.000-08:00

By Georg Szalai
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - While News Corp.'s recently acquired online community destination MySpace.com is thriving in its current form, the media giant already is devising plans to make the site even stickier and more profitable, possibly by acquiring so-called "Web 2.0" properties, enabling transactions between members and adding subscription offers.

"We're looking for technologies or feature sets that give users tools to participate in the media rather than just sit back," Ross Levinsohn, president of News Corp.'s Fox Interactive Media unit, told the annual Bank of America Media, Telecommunications and Entertainment Conference here Thursday.

He said News Corp. could find a middle ground between traditional push media and user-generated content by providing the seed of an idea or a topic that online users react to.

"I'm really intrigued by some upstarts," Levinsohn said. "They don't cost an arm and a leg, and they have feature sets that could get us places faster."

Web 2.0 refers to online destinations with more advanced interactive capabilities that allow people to share and collaborate.

Levinsohn mentioned such firms as photo management and sharing site Flickr and video-sharing site YouTube as examples of Web 2.0 players he respects, but he didn't specify possible takeover targets. He also said News Corp. feels there are no major Web players out there that it really needs to own.

Asked about social-networking site Facebook, Levinsohn said that company would be too expensive. "We are certainly not paying $2 billion for Facebook," he said, adding that he would look at a deal at a more attractive price and he wasn't even sure the company really was for sale.

BusinessWeek reported on its Web site this week that Facebook has turned down a $750 million takeover offer in the hope of getting a $2 billion bid. A spokeswoman later denied the report and said Facebook had not put itself on the auction block.

The music space and a couple of other areas are where his team is looking for subscription opportunities on MySpace, Levinsohn said, pointing out that the site on average serves about 50 million music streams a day.

In addition, he said there is a business in "enabling (users) to trade, sell or swap" things.

Plus, recent research by his team found that 10,000-15,000 of the pages on MySpace are run by such businesses as club promoters, theaters and the like whose support he signaled could become a business for MySpace as well. "Over the next six months or so, we will focus on this business-to-business opportunity," he said.

On the advertising side, Levinsohn also sees additional upside. A recently formed custom solutions unit already is negotiating "some big, big deals" with major marketers to capture opportunities across all of Fox Interactive's online assets, the executive said.

Levinsohn also told investors Thursday that he expects to have an ad-search deal in place with one or several partners within the next 45 days or so. "We have spoken to everybody and feel we have a pretty significant opportunity here," he said.

Overall, Levinsohn said he sees MySpace and others as the "new new-media" elite compared to such "old new-media" players as Yahoo! Inc. and Microsoft Corp.'s MSN.

Levinsohn also touted MySpace's recent efforts to improve its safety. The site has removed 200,000 "objectionable" profiles with hate speech and risque content, he said.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

MySpace Censors Content To Lure Marketers

2006-03-31T21:24:00.000-08:00

by David Goetzl, Friday, Mar 31, 2006 6:00 AM EST
NEWS CORP. WANTS TO TURN Madison Avenue into "ItsSpace" and the media giant is aggressively courting blue-chip marketers for its most prized Internet asset.

Ross Levinsohn, president of Fox Interactive Media, said yesterday the company is looking to broaden the advertising pool for MySpace.com to attract more "brand advertisers."

The pitch? Sounding much like MTV over the last two decades, Levinsohn said MySpace is the "number-one must buy" to "reach the youth of this country."

As it takes that case to major agencies, News Corp. is taking steps to bolster the ad environment on the social networking site. The infrastructure has been upgraded, accelerating page-loading time by 300 percent. Viral video and filmmaker sections have been added to bolster content offerings. And a deal to improve the search functionality is expected within the next 45 days.

But perhaps most importantly to advertisers, the company has added resources to monitor the site's mass of user-generated content. Advertisers have been reticent to experiment with MySpace since the content can be risqué and, in some cases, offensive. News Corp. now reviews 2 million images a day and has removed 200,000 profiles it felt included "questionable material." Still, Levinsohn said, the content is practically infinite with 66 million profiles, making it impossible to inspect it all.

"It's not for every advertiser, clearly," Levinsohn said.

News Corp. has also launched a "custom solutions team" to assist large advertisers who want to buy space across its Internet portfolio, which ranges from MySpace to FoxSports.com to AmericanIdol.com to gaming site IGN.com. The move could ignite ad buys on MySpace, since the sales force doing business with major advertisers for the Fox Sports or "American Idol" sites may be able to persuade them to experiment with MySpace.

Even as MySpace looks to entice the country's largest advertisers, the site already serves some 2 billion ads a day, though not always without kinks. "It's a challenge even for DoubleClick," said Levinsohn, referring to the site's back-end support provider. Such heavy volume and resulting slowdowns prompted the initiative to upgrade the infrastructure, which Levinsohn said is about 80 percent complete.

With MySpace essentially a canvas open for advertisers to fill with messages, Levinsohn said over time News Corp. may look to reduce inventory in order to "drive CPMs up."

Levinsohn made his comments during an appearance at a Bank of America investor conference in New York.

MySpace, acquired just last year, has become a News Corp. crown jewel. And it appears to be a strategic lodestar, driving the company controlled by 75-year-old Rupert Murdoch to focus on a younger demographic. "We're turning very much into a youth marketing company," Levinsohn said.

MySpace now ranked in top ten websites in the world

2006-03-31T21:23:00.000-08:00

The recent purchase of MySpace by News Corp. has yet to show data proving Murdoch’s purchase will make a killing on the acquisition but MySpace is still exploding in popularity.

But as the Internet social networking site MySpace moves up from the 14th most popular site in the world to the eighth, Murdochs purchase is showing a lot of promise. The site has recently been named the second most popular on the Internet in terms of page views.

"It looks like the best acquisition we've made in a long, long time," chief operating officer of News Corp.' Peter Chernin told Fortune magazine. "MySpace is the single biggest growth opportunity this company has."Purchased for $580 million merely eight months ago, MySpace is looking like the purchase of the century.

Third Teen Girl Charged In MySpace Pornography Case

2006-03-31T21:22:00.000-08:00

NORTH SMITHFIELD, R.I. -- A teenage girl has been charged with conspiracy in a child pornography case involving two other teenagers.

The 16-year-old from Lincoln was arrested and charged with conspiracy.

She's accused of taking explicit photos of two friends, Elizabeth Muller, 19, of North Smithfield and a 16-year-old girl from Lincoln whose name hasn't been released. The photos were later posted on their MySpace Web sites.

The name of the third girl, who was charged Wednesday, also has not been released.

The other two teens were arrested earlier this week and charged with child pornography.

Jump into your kids' MySpace; you'll learn a lot

2006-03-31T21:21:00.000-08:00

Sam Faircloth

Date published: 3/31/2006

I believe the Web site MySpace, which seems to be gaining both popularity with teens and criticism from parents and the media, is not at all a negative influence on our children's lives ["MySpace cadets," March 19].

I have two teens of my own, and my wife and I monitor their MySpace sites regularly.

By embracing the unknown, my wife and I have the opportunity to look into our children's lives from a point that our parents never had. I can see who their closest friends are, as well as enemies. I know when things are going well in school, as well as when things are getting tough.

By following their extended friends network, we gain a wealth of information. This is where most people have a problem with the Web site.

I agree that it is a problem if you don't follow through on the information you receive. By that, I mean you have to talk with your children about what you have seen.

If you find something you're uncomfortable with, have them remove it. Talk to them about it.

Explain consequences for things said and done, and things left unsaid.

Teach them how to be discreet. Teach them that once they've put something out there either in print or online, it has lasting effects.

Tell them about the predators on the Internet, and make them aware of what could happen.

Perhaps if we had had the Internet when we were younger, we wouldn't have the problems with identity theft that plagues the adult community today.

My children know that I'm watching, and now the predators know that I'm watching them, too.

The Internet is not going to go away. It's here to stay, and growing by the day. Embrace it, and use it to your advantage.

Sam Faircloth
Spotsylvania

Date published: 3/31/2006

Police Nailed over Myspace.com Postings

2006-03-31T21:20:00.000-08:00

Six police officers of Lexington, Kentucky, were charged after an internal investigation into postings and pictures placed on myspace.com. The postings were about details from work and some of the photos were of them in uniform.

Two of the officers were relieved of duty, but still remain on the payroll until the final outcome of the matter is decided. The other four officers will continue to work at their jobs, business as usual.

There is no current policy about what to do in such circumstances where police post information that leads to conduct unbecoming. As such, the policy is being revised.

Popular MySpace.com has its share of predators

2006-03-31T21:18:00.001-08:00

Cristina Soresca began using MySpace.com last year when the Web site exploded in popularity. The South Tahoe High School senior communicated through the site with friends in Santa Cruz and Southern California.

Others use it for different reasons. Teenagers and young adults use the free Web site to forge connections that could lead to casual hook-ups. Discussions, even surveys, on drugs and alcohol take place. Sexual predators loom.

Soresca said she doesn't use the site as frequently as she has in the past. She knows of the benefits, like communication with friends, and dangers, such as solicitations from those with ill intentions.

"I'm sure if other parents knew what was on MySpace.com, they'd be a little concerned, but that's the Internet: Anything can pop up. It just depends what you do with it," Soresca said.

Forum for parents

St. Theresa Catholic School eased several parents' concerns on Web sites similar to MySpace.com with a Tuesday forum on Internet safety for children.

Hosted by a member of the Sacramento Valley High Tech Crime Task Force, school Principal Danette Winslow wanted an opportunity for parents to learn about the dangers of the Internet for teenagers and children.

A member of the Sacramento Valley High-Tech Crimes Task Force spoke on a program titled "Parents' Guide to Cyber Safe Kids" on who lurks in chatrooms, MySpace.com and other sites.
Tips include placing a computer in a highly-used area of the house, such as the kitchen or living room.

Parent Diane Yarrow, who has a 19-year-old daughter and two sons, 17 and 13, was astonished by the presentation, especially the information on MySpace.com.

"I just think it's a pedophile's, predator's, whatever's dream because there's so much information out there," she said.

"I was just so glad I went," she added.

Teens lack 'world' view

Davis police Detective Brent Buehring, a member of the task force, stresses to students that a part of Web addresses includes "world wide."

"They don't have a global view," he said. "They really don't think where these pictures are going."

Winslow said children surfing the Internet can easily click on pop-up links taking them to a place "where they aren't supposed to be."

And while parents can look over their child's shoulder during Internet use, once the adult leaves so does the supervision.

"It's not because we don't trust the kids, it's just that it's a temptation for them and they have too much access for too many things," said Winslow, who hopes to have another forum in the fall.

Concern has mounted on the national level. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal recently asked MySpace.com officials via a letter to provide software enabling parents to block the Web site, decrease the easiness of pornography and other requests.

South Shore schools use firewalls in not allowing students access to inappropriate Web sites.

MySpace.com has 55 million users worldwide. It allows people to easily build free Web sites with photos, interests, lists of friends, surveys and other items.

Purchased last year by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for $580 million, the site's popularity has exploded. Frank Kovak, a teacher at South Tahoe High School who heads the yearbook class, said interest has been high enough that a page might be dedicated to the Web site.

"Obviously I endorse the idea of covering things that are on students' minds in the context of 'Is this something that is worth remembering?'" Kovac said.

Teen Web traffic climbing

In a study published in July of last year by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, found growing Internet traffic from teenagers.

"The number of teenagers using the Internet has grown 24 percent in the past four years and 87 percent of those between the ages of 12 and 17 are online," the report stated. "Compared to four years ago, teens' use of the Internet has intensified and broadened as they log on more often and do more things when they are online."

Another 2005 report from the organization detailed use of firewall protections for children whose parents don't want them on inappropriate Web sites.

"At the same time, parents are showing higher levels of vigilance about protecting their children online, there is striking consensus among parents and their teens that the teenage population is not as careful as it should be online and that teens do things online their parents don't know about," it stated.

Carly Strauss believes a "huge gap" exists between parents and their children on technology and Internet topics. Strauss, a counselor at Kingsbury Middle School, hinted all students at the small school know of MySpace.com.

Apart from the sexual predator issue, Strauss is irked by other characteristics on racy pages within the Web site. There are pictures of teenagers drinking or smoking or holding devices to ingest marijuana. There's also nudity. Since the site is used for social networking and is commonly used, Strauss referenced the amply opportunities for bullying.

Threats made

Two months go Carson High School Principal Sam Santillo requested vigilance from parents in supervising their children's use of MySpace.com after a student was threatened by another girl.

"We did not discipline anybody about that because it occurred off school grounds," Santillo told the Nevada Appeal. "We called everybody and said 'You need to be involved in what your children are doing' and that they could be using this a means to be disrespectful toward other girls."

Strauss said Kingsbury contacted an FBI agent to speak to school parents on Internet knowledge.

"It's totally one of those phenomenas you wouldn't have predicted," she said. "I think it can a be a very positive thing but it has taken a very negative spin."

Others agreed with the advantages provided by MySpace.com. A site search for Lake Tahoe Community College revealed a student rallying others to save the physics programs. Others listed advertisements for needing roommates and textbooks.

Buehring, a member of the high tech crimes task force, also noted the good qualities of MySpace.com and similar social-networking sites such as Friendster.com, Facebook.com and LiveJournal.com.

Soresca, the senior at South Tahoe High School, blocks unwanted messages from strangers. It helps her maintain her intention of communicating with friends on the Web site without interference.

"It depends on if you want to make it a negative place," she said.

Web alert

-- 81 percent of parents of online teens say that teens aren't careful enough when giving out information about themselves online and 79 percent of online teens agree with this.

-- 65 percent of all parents and 64 percent of all teens say that teens do things online that they wouldn't want their parents to know about.

-- Half of all teens and 57 percent of teens who use the Internet could be considered content creators by producing blogs or Web pages, posting original artwork, photography, stories or videos online or remixed online content into their own new creations.

Source: 2005 reports from Pew Internet and American Life Project

Alloy: MySpace's Little Sister

2006-03-31T21:18:00.000-08:00

By Tom Taulli
March 31, 2006

The MySpace phenomenon certainly demonstrates that there's an enormous business in the youth market. Unfortunately, another teen company, Alloy (Nasdaq: ALOY), isn't doing quite so spectacularly.

This week, Alloy reported its fourth-quarter results. Revenues increased only 3.3% to $43.2 million. During this time, the company posted a net loss of $23.8 million, or $2.01 per share, which compares to a loss the previous year of $73.8 million, or $6.88 per share. The major reasons for the loss were non-cash special charges, such as for asset impairments and reductions in goodwill because of less-than-successful acquisitions.

Yet the company was still able to generate free cash flow of $2.2 million during the fourth quarter. The company has $39.6 million in the bank.

Essentially, Alloy is a New Age marketing company that focuses on the Generation Y demographic, which includes 60 million boys and girls in the U.S. between the ages of 10 and 24. The company helps clients with marketing campaigns by using a variety of channels, such as direct mail catalogs, college and high school newspapers, websites, display media boards, college guides, and promotional events.

Ironically, Alloy missed the biggest phenomenon in its market: online social networking. Of course, the killer app is MySpace, which has a staggering number of monthly page views (23.5 billion) and could eventually exceed Yahoo!'s (Nasdaq: YHOO) base.

However, in late March, Alloy announced its purchase of Sconex, which is a social networking site focused on the high school market. During the past six months, there has been a threefold increase in visitors, although Alloy hasn't disclosed the user count. In fact, users spend an average of one hour per day on the site, which indicates that there's considerable value and stickiness there.

But so far, MySpace is still the place for social networking. Moreover, Alloy faces fierce competition from the likes of Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), Yahoo!, and Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) as they all try to get a piece of this market. A small company like Alloy faces a huge challenge in building a successful social network site. But if Alloy can pull it off, its marketing channels could have much greater relevance -- along with a prominent distribution outlet.

Microsoft is a Motley Fool Inside Value pick. Take the newsletter dedicated to top-shelf stocks at bargain-basement prices for a 30-day free spin.

Fool contributor Tom Taulli does not own shares mentioned in this article.

MySpace Focuses on Teen Safety Fears

2006-03-31T21:16:00.000-08:00

In an effort to calm fears concerning young users' safety, the networking website MySpace.com - which has over 66 million users and is growing rapidly among American teens with 250,000 new users signing up daily - has taken 200,000 "objectionable" profiles off of its website, reports the Financial Times.

According to Ross Levinsohn, head of the internet division of News Corp, some of the material removed contained "hate speech" or was "too risque."

"It's a problem that's endemic to the internet - not just MySpace," Levinsohn said. "The site, in the last two months, I think has become safer."

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp acquired the MySpace.com last year for $580,000 and has placed it at the centre of the company's internet strategy. A similar networking site targeting high school and college student, Facebook.com, recently turned down a $750,000 offer, hoping to sell for $2 billion.

As social networks like MySpace and Facebook experience more success, marketers are eager to capitalize on their advertising potential, but fear the lack of control over the sites' content. Some media buyers have avoided social networking sites for their major clients all together, not wanting to risk putting ads next to racy or offensive content like that MySpace has made an effort to remove.

Related topics: Buying, Demographics, E-Commerce, Entertainment, Interactive, Media Department, PR, Planning, Youth...

MySpace purge draws sharp reactions

2006-03-31T21:14:00.000-08:00

With the deletion of 200,000 profiles, is the social network losing its cool? Plus: Lenovo probe stirs up PC makers.
By Owen Thomas, Business 2.0 Magazine online editor and Oliver Ryan, Fortune reporter
March 31, 2006: 12:34 PM EST

SAN FRANCISCO (Business 2.0) - When Friendster started deleting profiles it deemed risque or otherwise objectionable, users bolted for the exits, helping to boost rival social networks like MySpace. Could MySpace be making the same mistake? Author Nicholas Carr characterized a recent move to close 200,000 accounts as a "purge." Ross Levinsohn, head of MySpace parent News Corp.'s (Research) Internet division, said the move was motivated by concerns for teen safety. That's certainly credible given the spate or recent incidents in which adults have been arrested for soliciting sex from minors met on the site. But mainstream marketers' concerns about questionable content may just go just as far in explaining its recent reform campaign. And with 250,000 new accounts opened daily, the closures hardly seem large enough to slow MySpace's momentum.

Lenovo probe riles PC makers

An investigation into Chinese PC maker Lenovo is making waves in the computer industry. On Monday, the U.S.-China Economic Security Review Commission said that it was looking into a recently awarded contract to purchase 15,000 laptops and desktops from Lenovo for use in the State Department. The theory is that the Chinese government could apply pressure to the PC maker to have espionage devices installed in the machine. One small problem with that theory, DailyTech points out: The machines in question are being made in Taiwan, Mexico, and Raleigh, North Carolina, not in China. The probe is worrying Taiwanese suppliers, most of whom outsource their operations to China. Their thinking: If Lenovo, who's not making the machines in question in China, is getting probed, what's to stop the U.S. government from launching investigations which could scare away customers?

Smarter phones cut text-message costs

In Europe, wireless carriers charge an arm and a leg for text messages -- and even more for sending photos to your friends. So far, they've been able to get away with such high fees because they've kept tight control over their networks. But cell phones are getting smarter -- and so are consumers. Alarm:clock, a venture capital blog, reports that a new generation of European venture-backed startups are breaking the carriers' lock on messaging, using phones' data capabilities to route messages more cheaply off of the carriers' proprietary networks and over the public Internet. One startup's founder, Doug Richards of Cambridge, England -based Hotxt, calls his company "the Skype of text."

EarthLink rescues New Orleans Wi-Fi

Despite a Louisiana state law banning municipal-run wireless networks, New Orleans has been operating a citywide Wi-Fi network under emergency dispensation. A third of the city still lacks working phone lines, months after Hurricane Katrina struck, making Wi-Fi a lifeline for many residents. Despite the network's essential function, the city's chief information officer claimed that BellSouth (Research) was lobbying the state legislature to have the network shut down. With the prospect of a shutdown looming, EarthLink (Research) has stepped in to take over the network, making it legal. EarthLink plans to offer a slower, free service and a high-speed, paid service for about $20 a month. While helping storm-battered New Orleans may seem like a feel-good move, the Internet service provider has been pushing to roll out and manage Wi-Fi networks in Philadelphia, San Francisco, and other cities as a way to gain new subscribers.

Fox cleans up MySpace for advertisers

2006-03-31T21:12:00.000-08:00

To try and quell fears from advertisers who might be reluctant to buy space on MySpace, Fox Interactive, which owns the social networking service, has begun instituting more thorough reviews of content users put on their profiles. Some marketers, who otherwise are anxious to gain exposure to the people who frequent MySpace, have been hesitant to do so over fears of attaching their messaging to content that is...well let's just say questionable. Because Fox is eager for those ad dollars they've not only upgraded the system to load pages faster but they're reviewing hundreds of thousands of images uploaded by users each day as well as the blog/profile pages themselves. So far Fox has removed about 200,000 profiles it felt contained objectionable material but that's just a fraction of the 66 million profiles on the service.

Like a MySpace cowboy

2006-03-31T21:11:00.001-08:00

MySpace.com, the online community that's skyrocketed to popularity, isn't just for teens and aspiring rockers. It can also be a digital doughnut hut for police officers.

According to a report in Kentucky's Herald-Leader, a handful of Lexington police officers may be reprimanded for comments and photos posted to MySpace.com that deride gays and the mentally disabled.

One Lexington police officer even described himself in his MySpace profile by saying: "I love to lock a mother f----- up ...," according to the report.

That's certainly shooting from the hip.

Posted by Stefanie Olsen

Alloy: MySpace's Little Sister

2006-03-31T21:11:00.000-08:00

Alloy is making changes, but MySpace.com is the company that found fortune in the teen market.

By Tom Taulli

Updated: 11:36 a.m. ET March 31, 2006
The MySpace phenomenon certainly demonstrates that there's an enormous business in the youth market. Unfortunately, another teen company, Alloy(Nasdaq: ALOY), isn't doing quite so spectacularly.

This week, Alloy reported its fourth-quarter results. Revenues increased only 3.3% to $43.2 million. During this time, the company posted a net loss of $23.8 million, or $2.01 per share, which compares to a loss the previous year of $73.8 million, or $6.88 per share. The major reasons for the loss were non-cash special charges, such as for asset impairments and reductions in goodwill because of less-than-successful acquisitions.

Yet the company was still able to generate free cash flow of $2.2 million during the fourth quarter. The company has $39.6 million in the bank.

Essentially, Alloy is a New Age marketing company that focuses on the Generation Y demographic, which includes 60 million boys and girls in the U.S. between the ages of 10 and 24. The company helps clients with marketing campaigns by using a variety of channels, such as direct mail catalogs, college and high school newspapers, websites, display media boards, college guides, and promotional events.

Ironically, Alloy missed the biggest phenomenon in its market: online social networking. Of course, the killer app is MySpace, which has a staggering number of monthly page views (23.5 billion) and could eventually exceed Yahoo!'s (Nasdaq: YHOO) base.

However, in late March, Alloy announced its purchase of Sconex, which is a social networking site focused on the high school market. During the past six months, there has been a threefold increase in visitors, although Alloy hasn't disclosed the user count. In fact, users spend an average of one hour per day on the site, which indicates that there's considerable value and stickiness there.

But so far, MySpace is still the place for social networking. Moreover, Alloy faces fierce competition from the likes of Google(Nasdaq: GOOG), Yahoo!, and Microsoft(Nasdaq: MSFT) as they all try to get a piece of this market. A small company like Alloy faces a huge challenge in building a successful social network site, but if it can pull it off, the company's marketing channels could have much greater relevance, along with a prominent distribution outlet.

Microsoft is a Motley Fool Inside Value pick. Take the newsletter dedicated to top-shelf stocks at bargain-basement prices for a 30-day free spin.

Fool contributor Tom Taulli does not own shares mentioned in this article.

MySpace growth continues amid criticism

2006-03-31T21:08:00.000-08:00

Popular community site MySpace is signing up new members at record speed. But along with that growth, the site continues to be the target of controversy regarding the safety of its users, a core group of whom are minors.

MySpace, which has accumulated 67 million members since its launch in 2004, is currently growing by an average of 250,000 new members daily, said Dani Dudeck, a MySpace spokeswoman. That phenomenal growth rate has pushed its ranking among popular sites to a par with such notable players as Yahoo.

With that growth, however, MySpace has come under increasing scrutiny. Earlier this month, for example, two men were arrested in separate incidences for allegedly engaging in sexual contact with minors, whom they met through MySpace. One of the minors was 14 years old and the other was 11.

Ross Levinsohn, an executive with News Corp., which acquired MySpace last year , addressed the steps the site is taking to keep its younger members safe. According to press reports, Levinsohn, who was speaking Thursday before the Bank of America Media Telecommunications and Entertainment Conference in Los Angeles, noted that the site takes down offensive content, from nudity to racist material.

MySpace, which requires its members to be at least 14 years or older to use the site, also will remove user profiles that fail to adhere to its policy. Since its debut in 2004, MySpace has removed 250,000 profiles of underage users, Dudeck noted. Dudeck declined to disclose the total number of profiles that have been removed for violations of the company's policy.

Regardless, the number is likely to represent a fraction of MySpace's user base, said executives from rival community sites Friendster and Tribe Networks.

"We're probably taking down 1,000 to 2,000 a week," said Kent Lindstrom, president of Friendster. "Every community site has to deal with pornography, hate messages or violent content."

But if MySpace is wrestling with offensive or illegal materials more than competitors, it may have to do with two issues. First, said Lindstrom and Jan Gullett, chief executive of Tribe Networks, much of MySpace's trouble comes from the demographic it targets--the preteen and teenage groups, which often need more guidance about acceptable behavior. The second problem, said Lindstrom, is that MySpace adopted a hands-off approach to the site early in its evolution.

Such a policy fostered an "anything goes mentality" which created an atmosphere of permissiveness on the site, said Lindstrom.

"That goes a long way with teens and preteens," Lindstrom said. "We've always taken (policing the site) very carefully, perhaps to a fault. But on the other hand, the same kind of culture never developed on our site."

MySpace, however, contends that many of its users are much older than people realize.

"Nearly 80 percent of our members are 18 years or older, and that speaks for itself," Dudeck said.

She added that the company does not take a "hands-off approach" to its user base, pointing to its other ongoing efforts to keep younger members safe.

MySpace assigns roughly 90 employees, a third of its workforce, to the task of monitoring the safety and security of members, Dudeck said. Using search and algorithm technologies, MySpace employees will review information for such inconsistencies as claiming to be a 14-year-old member while putting information in a profile about a 7th grade teacher and class.

As a result of the site's research, members who are not 14 or older will have their profiles removed, she said. MySpace also limits the amount of information displayed on profiles posted by 14- to 16-year-old members. If those members want to let a person view their entire profile, they can accept the potential visitor's request for full access. But the individual who gains access to the full profile is prohibited from allowing others to view the profile, Dudeck said.

Myspace: Good or Bad?

2006-03-31T00:18:00.000-08:00

by Miraya Berke

Does everyone that you know have a MYSPACE?

What is it about www.myspace.com that has gotten everyone in such a fuss?

There have been many stories of problems with Myspace. Fake Myspaces. Men pretending to be young boys and meeting young girl’s places. Friend drama. Gossip starting. Etc...

There are also plenty of good things about Myspace.

It is a wonderful place to chat with friends. People can figure out what their weekend plans are with friends, ask for homework help, and even discover fun new songs. Myspace originally was a dating service and is still used for that purpose. It is also possible to make friends with people from all over the world on Myspace. You can chat and compare how life is different in California than in England.

As long as people are responsible and smart about what they say and post on Myspace, then it is truly a harmless site. Myspace even offers an option to make your site private so only friends that you accept can view your pictures and comments.

If you are interested in joining in on the fun, go to www.myspace.com and just remember to be smart and stay safe!

MySpace.com users targets of malice

2006-03-31T00:15:00.000-08:00

PORT CHARLOTTE -- When Jessica Koehler made her account on MySpace.com, she thought it was a good way to keep in touch with family and friends -- and to make a few new friends along the way.

She recently found out it was also a way for someone to hurt her.

Koehler filed a report with the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office Monday claiming someone had posted an unauthorized site on MySpace.com, using her personal information and photographs of her and her 2-year-old son.

MySpace.com is a free Web site that allows users to post personal information and photographs. It encourages "friends" to hook up to other people's sites. The site includes blogs, forums, e-mail, groups, games and events.

The fake site characterized Koehler as a bad mother whose family is like those seen on the Jerry Springer television show and someone who wants to sleep with older men.

"I got a text message on Friday asking if I had posted a new MySpace because there was one of me that said all kinds of bad things about me," Koehler said Tuesday.

The 20-year-old Port Charlotte woman was shocked when she went home and found the bogus Web site.

"The next hour or two, I got e-mail and phone calls about the site," she said.

The site even reveals where Koehler works and talks about the father of her son. She said she doesn't know who would do this to her, but suspects it has to be someone who knows her, since most of the information posted was personal.

Koehler's mother, Dawn, said she's concerned now for her daughter's safety. She makes sure someone escorts Dawn to and from work.

"There are just not enough laws in place for this kind of thing," Dawn said.

Sgt. Gary Ellsworth agrees with Dawn.

"The laws have not been kept up with the Internet," he said Tuesday. "Hopefully, one day it will."

Ellsworth said people have to use common sense when putting personal information on the Web and to be cautious, especially middle and high school children.

"We are seeing this more and more frequently here in Charlotte County," Ellsworth said. "It's a growing problem all over the country."

Officials at MySpace.com could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Koehler's report was not the only one of its kind filed with the CCSO on Monday.

Nicole Toth, 23, filed a similar report with the same deputy later in the day. Someone had taken her MySpace information, burned it onto CDs and has been leaving them in various places, even as far away as Sarasota Mall and a Venice gym.

"Someone called me and told me they found the CD at the Sarasota Mall, so I went to pick it up," she said. "Later, someone else called saying they found it at a gym in Venice and wanted to arrange somewhere for us to meet. I told them no."

Now Toth is also taking extra precautions at work, since her place of employment was also listed on the CD.

"I'm a waitress and I had to tell the hostess that if someone comes in looking for me, to tell them I don't work there anymore," she said.

Both Toth and Koehler said they are now nervous about placing personal information on the Internet, although Koehler said she isn't going to remove her real MySpace site.

"I'm going to block my profile though, so only friends can see it," she said.

Toth is planning to remove hers.

Ellsworth said while proving who posted the site or made the CD is a challenge, people should still report these incidents when they happen.

"While proving who sat behind the computer is hard in these cases, there are still laws against cyberstalking and harassment," he said. "We will work all

cases that come in, and if there is enough evidence, we will prosecute."

O'Reilly Investigates MySpace Owned By Rupert Murdoch

2006-03-31T00:14:00.000-08:00

Reported by Deborah - March 30, 2006
There have been a lot of stories recently about sexual predators lurking and luring young girls on the internet site MySpace. Although an ideal story for Bill O'Reilly to cover, he has avoided it until tonight probably because it is owned by his boss Rupert Murdoch, head of News Corp. Tonight O'Reilly had cultural anthropologist, Danah Boyd, on The Factor to talk about a recent incident on the site involving a teenage girl. He didn't mention News Corp' ownership of MySpace during the report or discuss recent news stories implicating the site. 3/30/06

A 16 year old girl posted some sexually explicit photos of herself on the site and she was discovered by police from her school which then led to her arrest. O'Reilly claimed that the " dopey kids give personal information" which could be dangerous and he thought the nude pictures could be a cry for help.

O'Reilly seemed to know nothing about the site and asked Boyd to explain it. She reported that 66 million teens use MySpace for social networking. There is no charge and you must be 14 to post on the site. Boyd claimed that messages from adults are usually deleted by the kids and added that although MySpace is used mostly to get dates in school some kids are trying to draw attention from adults. Danah Boyd pointed out that the teens would prefer hanging out in person but the parents won't allow them to go out because things have become to dangerous forcing them to rely on MySpace for their socialization.

comment: In February, when Conneticut had announced that MySpace was about to be investigated, I wondered if O'Reilly would make MySpace his next crusade. I don't think that's what is happening now. First of all, there is no way that O'Reilly doesn't know that Murdoch owns MySpace. That fact is the only thing keeping Bill from running with this story which has all the ingredients for an O'Reilly crusade. It will be interesting to see if O'Reilly will take this anywhere. It looked like tonight's segment was a combination of sex and damage control. Viewers could visualize those raunchy shots of a 16 year old blaming her instead of the site. Of course it could always be a way to promote MySpace.com. for Murdoch. Why stop at 66 million.

MySpace Helping Students Organize Walkouts

2006-03-31T00:13:00.000-08:00

(CBS 11 News) It is well known that students are using popular internet sites to organize classroom walkouts that protest immigration legislation. School district workers knew this immediately. Students admit to using blog sites like MySpace to join together.

It appears to be a grassroots campaign lead by students, but many suspect that adults are behind the protests.

?They?re very good at text messaging. We really think that?s something that goes on,? said Mac Bernd, Superintendent of the Arlington Independent School District. ?We?re also quite sure there were adults outside student circles that probably, in some way or another, got this thing started.?

What some don?t realize is just how much the MySpace culture affects a student.

To see firsthand, go online and look for the number of hits the walkouts have received: 90,000 on ?immigration walkout? just in Texas.

Lori Varnell is a prosecutor and an expert on sites like MySpace. She says the website is like a telephone for this generation.

?They talk about their schools on MySpace. They talk about anything going on in their lives on MySpace. Raves, parties, whatever. It?s on there. That?s where they communicate,? said Varnell.

She continued, ?More so than the news or schools or anything else, those kids are getting their information from those blog rings. So, someone puts something on the blog ring and those kids just soak it up. So, it?s a great place to influence kids.?

There is little doubt that adult led groups fired up concern about immigration, but who was it?

There is really no way to tell, and those who are computer savvy can make certain that nobody ever finds out.

The internet works both ways though. Already, other MySpace bloggers are calling for protests against the protestors.

(CBS 11 News)

MySpace target of hybrid phishing scheme

2006-03-31T00:11:00.000-08:00

Dan Kaplan 30 Mar 2006 22:44
Users of the immensely popular MySpace.com social networking website are being targeted in a new "hybrid" phishing scheme aimed at stealing their identity, one security firm warned today.

Researchers at the Maitland, Fla.,-based Aluria Software said today that scammers are posting malicious links on MySpace, which is among the top five most visited websites, according to traffic-ranker Alexa.

"When you're dealing with an entity that large, people with malicious intent come and try to exploit that technology," said Hiep Dang, Aluria's director of threat research and engineering. "It's just like email."

Users who double-click on the links – located on some of the profile pages of MySpace's more than 50 million members – are sent to a bogus site that resembles the real thing, Dang said.

The MySpace member then is prompted to re-enter login account information, then captured by the attackers, Dang said. The hope is their MySpace username and password is the same information they use to access sites where online transactions are made.

The fraudsters combine some other malware, such as a trojan or keylogger, to determine where else on the internet the user might enlist that same login information, Dang said.

"They could potentially use it in their bank account," he said.

A spokesperson from MySpace did not return telephone calls seeking comment.

The attack purposely targets an attractive demographic – young people with money to spend, said Sam Curry, vice president of CA security management.

"There's value to being able to influence a community and being able to tap into it," he said today. "People are not in immediate danger, but they shouldn't click things and assume they are safe."

The phishing scheme also is troubling because many employees use social networking sites while at work, potentially opening the door for their company's networks to be compromised, Dang said.

He said that after clicking on an unknown link, users should observe the address bar to ensure they are at a legitimate site. Also, they should report any phishing attempts to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, of which Aluria is a member.

Google recently named MySpace, with 47.3 million visitors at the end of last year, the top gainer for 2005. Launched in January 2004, MySpace was purchased by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for $580 million last July. Industry analysts say MySpace now is valued much higher.

MySpace acts to calm teen safety fears

2006-03-31T00:00:00.000-08:00

By Joshua Chaffin and Aline van Duyn in New York
Published: March 30 2006 20:26 | Last updated: March 30 2006 20:26

MySpace.com, the fast-growing community website hugely popular with American teens, has removed 200,000 “objectionable” profiles from its site as it steps up efforts to calm fears about the safety of the network for young users
The site, which allows users to create their own profiles with details of their interests that can be viewed and linked to by other MySpace.com “friends”, was acquired by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp last year and its phenomenal growth has placed it at the centre of the media company’s internet strategy.

Ross Levinsohn, head of News Corp’s internet division, said some of the material taken down contained “hate speech”. Some of it, he said, was “too risqué”.

“It’s a problem that’s endemic to the internet – not just MySpace,” Mr Levinsohn said. “The site, in the last two months, I think has become safer.”

With 66m users, and 250,000 new users signing up every day, MySpace has become one of the top internet destinations.

Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer of News Corp, told the Financial Times that, although he and Mr Murdoch were very optimistic about its prospects when they acquired it last year, MySpace had exceeded their expectations.

“MySpace is more potent and powerful than even we knew,” Mr Chernin says. “And it is becoming a more integrated part of people’s lives.” However, as efforts grow to attract more advertisers to the site, News Corp is facing two challenges. Young users have to keep wanting to use the site, rather than switch to a “cooler” alternative.

Also, advertisers have to feel confident their reputation will not be tainted by “inappropriate” content. Teachers and parents are concerned that, because information on MySpace is publicly available, it might put teenagers in contact with predatory adults. In terms of retaining its appeal, Mr Chernin said users had to keep feeling the site was theirs. “We don’t want to change the fundamental look and feel of the site,” he said. “We do not want users to have any sense that it is corporatised.”

Dick Dale has a MySpace? Or, take MySpace with a grain of salt

2006-03-30T23:59:00.000-08:00

By Marty Garza

MySpace — the online “create your own blog, send messages to friends and complete and utter waste of not only your time but everybody else’s as well” site — is becoming quite an addiction. You can’t really swing a stick in a public place without hitting someone who compares crack with MySpace, though one is a life-destroying drug that carries unspeakable consequences for all who indulge and the other just proves that the Internet works fast at lowering everybody’s threshold for amusement.

Though I am poking fun at the unbelievably easy-to-poke-fun-at MySpace, it does harbor a cool idea, which is to allow the 15-37 age bracket to really prove that most of them have the mentality of a 7-year-old on a sugar rush when it comes to the Internet. To clarify, that would consist of sending the most inane pieces of trash to random friends and family. That is not always the case, though I too act like an adolescent boy who’s sucked down a pound of Pixy Stix and has been given access to a keyboard and a high-speed Internet connection.

MySpace is actually used for networking affairs ranging from sharing music, art and short stories to exchanging ideas. (This also extends to nerds angrily expressing their views on how “Star Wars” is vastly superior to “Star Trek” when everyone knows that “Galaxy Quest,” starring television’s Tim Allen, trumps them all.)

Among all the cyber-trash that burns like a flaming hill of tires, there is always the chance of finding out that your favorite bands, celebrities and writers may have a MySpace. And, to break the hearts of these hopefuls, it’s more than likely a scam.

Don’t get me wrong — such local sonic enjoyment as Rebekah’s Tape, Egon’s Unicat, The Hong Kong Electric Company and The Dancing Nancies all have MySpace accounts that are not forgeries, but I’m sure that the deceased Kurt Cobain does not have a MySpace...and he is not from Norfolk, Ky. Same thing goes for Frank Sinatra, Louie Armstrong, Scott Bakula, Fidel Castro and many other fan-run or hilarious inside joke accounts do exist, and most are not intended to be taken as the artist’s actual MySpace.

Even Dick Dale, King of the Surf Guitar, has a few MySpace accounts under his belt, though his first album was released in 1962, and I really don’t see the man as having the interest to run a MySpace.

Then again, there are about 20 different accounts listed under Modest Mouse, a few under The Flaming Lips, plenty under Mars Volta, and there’s a good chance that they are either run by a fan club president, somebody who just wanted to share their favorite Modest Mouse song with the people looking to represent Modest Mouse on their own MySpace account or some hack from their record company.

Then there are the jerks who send worthless bulletins every 5 seconds, ranging from threats of never having a significant other if their letter is not sent to 20 people in 7 minutes, to the promise of finding a significant other if their letter is sent to 20 people in 7 minutes.

The only thing I love more than a chain letter is a pyramid scheme, and to have those both on the Internet makes me a happy camper.

MySpace should be taken with a grain of salt. It is stupid and worthless, but most fun things really are a complete waste of time. Unless you’re in a band that plugs MySpace in the middle of their set — for which I wish upon you to become even less talented than you already are — I suggest to you a new addiction to scurry you away from the crack you apparently know a lot about, since the analogy between MySpace and crack comes up in conversation way too often for comfort.

MySpace: Harmless amusement or dangerous pastime?

2006-03-30T23:48:00.000-08:00

By Mary Friel

A majority of MySpace users are teenagers. And some of them are checking MySpace pages at school.

Mendota High School?s administration resorted to disciplining dozens of students for using MySpace during school hours. But even after being warned a number of times, students still feel the need to sign on to MySpace at school.

MySpace has become a problem for more than one reason.

Before disciplinary actions were taken, students were logging on to MySpace to chat with friends while class was in session. Lean Moiser, a computer programing and keyboarding teacher at Mendota High School, said, ?Internet usage logs are checked daily. Students found using school computers for non-educational activities are referred for discipline.?

But is that enough?

Most students with a MySpace page don?t think it?s a distraction from school.

Kevin Folty, 18, of Mendota and a senior at Mendota High School, has in fact said MySpace has become a distraction from his schoolwork.

?I have been in trouble for being on MySpace,? Folty said. ?I was on MySpace at school, and an image that was on my comments was accidentally transferred onto the desktop, and the computer administrator could not take the image off. I later showed him how to take the image off but still got in trouble.?

Folty also explained that since he got in trouble and can only be on the school?s computers with supervision, he now spends homework time on MySpace.

Students also tend to disregard the dangers associated with having a MySpace account. Adriana Sandaval, 18, of Mendota and a senior at Mendota High School said, ?I know there have been problems with MySpace. I think that kids shouldn?t put down personal information.?

In fact, to be eligible to have a MySpace account, all that is required is personal information.

?I don?t think it is safe for kids to be putting their personal information on display,? said Reagan Stevens, a Mendota High School teacher of classes that include keyboarding, computer literacy, consumer economics and accounting.

Stevens also stresses MySpace use is definitely not appropriate for use in school and is better off at home.

?Some very tragic events have occurred from innocent use of this site,? Moiser said.

MySpace has been a problem not only around this area but all over the United States. Just recently in California a number of students were expelled from school for being on MySpace during school hours. Actions were even taken to charge some students with a hate crime for comments made about a classmate on MySpace.

MySpace Is The Trojan Horse Of Internet Censorship

2006-03-30T09:43:00.000-08:00

Media elite's last gasp effort to save crumbling empire

Paul Joseph Watson & Alex Jones/Prison Planet.com March 16 2006

MySpace isn't cool, it isn't hip and it isn't trendy. It represents a cyber trojan horse and the media elite's last gasp effort to reclaim control of the Internet and sink it with a stranglehold of regulation, control and censorship.

Since Rupert Murdoch's $580 Million acquisition of MySpace in July 2005, it has come from total obscurity to now being the 8th most visited website in the world, receiving half as many page hits as Google, despite the fact that on first appearance it looks like a 5-year-old's picture scrap and scribble book.

MySpace is the new mobile phone. If you don't have a MySpace account then you belong to some kind of culturally shunned underclass.

What most of the trendy wendy's remain blissfully unaware of is the fact that MySpace is Rupert Murdoch's battle axe for shaping a future Internet environment whereby electronic dissent, whether it be against corporations or government, will not tolerated and freedom of e-speech will cease to exist.

MySpace has been caught shutting down blogs critical of itself and other Murdoch owned companies. They even had the audacity to censor links to completely different websites when clicking through for MySpace. When 600 MySpace users complained, MySpace deleted the blog forum that the complaints were posted on. Taking their inspiration from Communist China, MySpace regularly uses blanket censorship to block out words like 'God'.

Earlier this week Rupert Murdoch sounded the death knell for conventional forms of media in stating that the media elite were losing their monopoly to the rapid and free spread of new communication technologies. Murdoch stressed the need to regain control of these outlets in order to prevent the establishment media empire from crumbling.

MySpace is Rupert Murdoch's trojan horse for destroying free speech on the Internet. It is a foundational keystone of the first wave of the state's backlash to the damage that a free and open Internet has done to their organs of propaganda. By firstly making it cool, trendy and culturally elite for millions to flock to establishment controlled Internet backbones like MySpace, Murdoch is preparing the groundwork for the day when it will stop being voluntary and become mandatory to use government and corporate monopoly controlled Internet hubs.

The end game is a system similar to or worse than China, whereby no websites even mildly critical of the government will be authorized.

The Pentagon admitted that they would engage in psychological warfare and cyber attacks on 'enemy' Internet websites in an attempt to shut them down. The fact that the NSA surveillance program spied on 5,000 Americans tells us that the enemy is the alternative media and that it will be targeted for elimination. Google has been ordered to turn over information about its users by a judge to the US government.

The second wave of destroying freedom of speech online will simply attempt to price people out of using the conventional Internet and force people over to Internet 2, a state regulated hub where permission will need to be obtained directly from an FCC or government bureau to set up a website.

The original Internet will then be turned into a mass surveillance database and marketing tool. The Nation magazine reported, "Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants are developing strategies that would track and store information on our every move in cyberspace in a vast data-collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency. According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets--corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers--would get preferred treatment. Content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out."

The original Internet will deliberately be subject to crash upon crash until it becomes a useless carcass of overpriced trash and its reputation will be defiled by the TV and media barons cashing in on the perfectly streamlined Internet 2, the free for all network that just requires you to thumbscan in order to log on! Those with a security grading below yellow on their national ID card will unfortunately be refused access. Websites that carry hate speech (ones that talk about government corruption) will be censored for the betterment of society.

For the aspiring dictator, the Internet is a dangerous tool that has been seized by the enemy. We have come a long way since 1969, when the ARPANET was created solely for US government use. The Internet is freedom's best friend and the bane of control freaks. Its eradication is one of the short term goals of those that seek to centralize power and subjugate the world under a global surveillance panopticon prison.

Rupert Murdoch's MySpace and its ceaseless promotion by the establishment media as the best thing since sliced bread is part of this movement. In saying all this we do encourage everyone to set up a MySpace account, but only if you're going to use it to bash MySpace, Rupert Murdoch and copy and paste this article right at the top of the page! See how long it is before your account is terminated.

MySpace Ban Changes

2006-03-30T09:42:00.001-08:00

Instead of campus-wide, the ban may only affect 30 library computers.
by Nicole Curtis Hornet Local Editor

March 29, 2006

The LLRC is now asking to ban MySpace on the 30 research computers available to students instead of the campus-wide ban previously proposed.
Controversy surrounds the MySpace ban, as it is a question of infringement on free speech. At least one division, Humanities, voted against the campus-wide ban.

Now that the proposal has been changed to pertain only to the 30 research computers, many divisions will have to reconvene and discuss the pros and cons of the ban.

“I would support the practice and I think that the faculty would like to make sure that the research computers are being used appropriately,” said Claudia Stanger, member of the Humanities division.

The faculty senate meets on March 30 to vote on the ban.

News Corp. high on MySpace deal

2006-03-30T09:42:00.000-08:00

By Frank Barnako, MarketWatch
Last Update: 10:48 AM ET Mar 30, 2006

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- In the eight months since News Corp. acquired MySpace.com, the social networking site has become the second most popular on the Internet in terms of page views.
The purchase price for the three-year-old company was $580 million. A bargain, says News Corp.'s (NWS : news corp cl b
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NWS17.56, +0.07, +0.4%) Peter Chernin, chief operating officer. "It looks like the best acquisition we've made in a long, long time," he told Fortune magazine. "MySpace is the single biggest growth opportunity this company has."
There's been a lot of growth already. MySpace.com has nearly 66 million members, and adds a quarter million a day. The site is notoriously strong with Web users under the age of 20, which has led to concerns about its accessibility by young people and sexual predators.
Chernin said almost a third of MySpace's 280 employees work on online safety issues. He told Fortune the company is also experimenting with software aimed at identifying uploaded pictures with a high proportion of bare skin. "We need to be in a leadership position about protecting minors," Chernin said.
Net video use becoming routine
Research released by the Online Publishers Association said that 25% of Web users watch online video at least every week and that almost half do so each month. Watching videos online is becoming common, said the OPA. The study by Frank N. Magid Associates said two-thirds of respondents saw an online ad and nearly a third of them visited a related Web site and 8 percent made a purchase. While humor gets the buzz, news and current events are the most frequently viewed online video category, the study found.
Blog software makers add widgets
Developers of two popular blog services are making it easier for customers to include weather forecasts, job searches, and music players on their Web sites. Six Apart Inc. said it partnered with dozens of companies to offer 32 "widgets" or companion applications that can be easily added to TypePad blogs. Options include content from Weatherbug, e-commerce from CafePress, and search tools.
Automattic Inc., developer of the WordPress blog service, rolled out its versions of widgets about a month ago in test mode, and chose today to open for all to use. "On the surface, they're just things you can use to personalize your WordPress site without knowing HTML," the Wordpress blog explained. Its offerings allow bloggers to easily add links to services from Google (GOOG : google inc cl a
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Frank Barnako is a vice president of MarketWatch, and is based in Washington. He has owned shares of AOL Time Warner since 1995.

Google Gets Greedy

2006-03-30T09:41:00.000-08:00

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz (TMFBreakerRick)
March 30, 2006

Just minutes after Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) tacked on $17.78 a share -- or 4.7% -- on Thursday, the dot-com headline hog squandered most of those gains by announcing a secondary stock offering of 5.3 million shares.

Bad move.

Google had already diluted investors back in September with a secondary offering. It closed out the year with $8 billion in cash, so it's not as if it needs the money. And with the $1.6 billion in cash flow it generated last year, it wasn't going to have to tap into its balance-sheet greenery to keep itself going.

Acquisitions can be a drain on a company's finances, but Google has been pretty quiet on that front. Beyond closing on its $1 billion purchase of a 5% stake in Time Warner's (NYSE: TWX) AOL.com this week, Google hasn't been stuffing any pinatas with blank checks. If anything, it has been suspiciously quiet as what would have been logical purchases of MySpace, Ask.com, iVillage (Nasdaq: IVIL), and Skype have gone to other companies.

There are still a few big-ticket content sites out there worth owning -- like recent Rule Breakers recommendations The Knot (Nasdaq: KNOT) and CNET Networks (Nasdaq: CNET) -- but that doesn't seem to be where Google is heading.

Thanks to the Fed and Google's buoyant share price, the secondary offering is unlikely to be dilutive to earnings in the near term. In the fourth quarter, Google generated $70 million in net interest income on its $8 billion cash balance -- an annualized yield of 3.5% that is likely to inch even higher here in 2006.

Based on last night's close and analyst estimates that are calling for Google to earn $8.82 a share this year, Google's trading at 45 times this year's bottom-line forecast. The company would have to earn an annualized yield of 2.2% or better after taxes on its new capital to make the offering accretive in 2006, which is likely. Unfortunately, the secondary offering doesn't look so rosy the further you step out of 2006.

This can all change if Google is serious about putting its money to good use. If the secondary offering is successful, Google's cash balance will balloon to $9 billion after accounting for the $1 billion that went out to Time Warner. Let's just hope that Google isn't simply building up its cash arsenal to match Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), because it will take several more secondary offerings for that to happen.

The one thing that truly bugs me about this offering -- beyond the timing -- is Google's ridiculous justification for the deal.

"This offering will partially meet the anticipated needs of index funds to purchase Google Class A common stock when Google is added to the S&P 500 Index at the close of trading on March 31, 2006," reads the press release.

Um, what happened to letting folks buy shares in the open market and allowing the interplay of supply and demand inch a stock's price higher? Wasn't that what drove the stock higher last week, when the company was officially invited to join the popular stock index?

Just know what you're doing, Google. This had better not be some ploy to squeeze an extra penny per share in interest income to satiate the analysts who were burned this past quarter. You'd better have a $9 billion plan. And I hope it's better than simply buying 1,500 bionic Steve Austins.

Microsoft is a Motley Fool Inside Value recommendation, and Time Warner is a Motley Fool Stock Advisor pick. Take any of our investing services for a free, 30-day trial.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz is a huge fan of Google, and it would be his homepage if it weren't for Fool.com taking up that piece of real estate. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story. The Fool has a disclosure policy. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.

MySpace and ‘choking game’

2006-03-30T09:38:00.000-08:00

By Noah Farr
nfarr@seacoastonline.com

RYE - Amid periodic whispered exclamations of "Oh God" and "You gotta be kidding me," 20-plus Rye parents listened to a presentation on the dangers of Internet communication and a form of getting high known as "the choking game" among youth.
Wednesday night’s meeting was presented by Rye Police Officer Heather Porciello and singled out Web sites such as MySpace.com and the Instant Messenger program, which have become hugely popular with both children and teens in recent years.

"When they post themselves online, anybody can look at them," she told the gathering at Rye Junior High School. "And nobody knows who’s looking at them."

Porciello said sites such as MySpace.com, which essentially provide kids with their own Web page, are easy to access and easy to navigate, allowing anybody to view another person’s profile.

She said actions like sharing buddy lists, leaving detailed away messages and personal information such as eye color, age and cell phone numbers were all ways to attract unwanted attention.

"Kids just don’t know that there are that many predators out there," she said. "The anonymity is amazing."

That anonymity extends to law enforcement as well. Porciello said she monitors a group of almost 50 local kids.

Because everyone’s MySpace profile can be viewed by anyone else with a profile, she can sometimes determine where a party was or will be held.

She said she found a Portsmouth High Student who had taken his picture next to a marijuana plant he had been growing.

"It’s like walking a double-edged sword," said Jenny Galvin, a mother who attended the forum. "Kids want to talk to each other, and the reality is MySpace is here to stay."

Porciello said that keeping the computer in a room where a child’s activities can be easily monitored and talking to them about the dangers of the Web site were the best courses of action.

Also discussed was "the choking game," in which kids intentionally choke themselves in an effort to get a rush or "high" from the lack of oxygen that results.

Though Porciello said there have only been two deaths in the state since 2001, when she asked sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders if they had heard of it, nearly all of them raised their hands, and one-third knew someone who had tried it. "It’s happening here," she said.

Porciello said many kids think it’s a safe alternative to drugs, when in fact it is not.

Principal Jan Yorst said the game itself isn’t new - what’s new is the fact that many kids have become addicted to the feeling and are doing it at home by themselves with ropes and belts. "If they go and pass out, who is going to release the noose?" she asked.

"It’s not just your at-risk kids," added Porciello. "It’s your honor student. It’s your popular kids."

Alone on the web? Local teens face dangers on MySpace

2006-03-30T09:37:00.000-08:00

By Dan Trudeau
STAFF WRITER

Alison Drzinski thought she had a pretty good grasp on her 12-year-old daughter's Internet usage. Drzinski keeps her family computer in the kitchen, and her children never surf the web without an adult hovering close by.

So when she found out what her daughter had concocted on MySpace.com, Drzinski was understandably shocked.

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After a little web snooping, the mother found a MySpace profile with personal information and fabricated info about her daughter's age.

"I just think the scariest thing is they have no idea putting all this stuff on the Internet could actually harm them," said Drzinski, who is the sister-in-law of Millennium Middle School Principal RJ Webber. "They're very, very naive."

In addition to false ages and personal information on her own daughter's web page, Drzinski found profanity, sexual material and provocative photos on the pages of her friends. The Dearborn mom moved quickly, contacting MySpace directly via a link on the bottom of the site's main page.

Within days her daughter's personal page — along with the pages created by her middle school friends — had all been removed. It gave Drzinski some comfort, but her overarching feeling was concern.

"Some of those girls were probably on there again the next day," she said.

South Lyon kids use MySpace
If such a thing can occur in Dearborn, it can — and does — happen in South Lyon as well, a fact which has local teachers, counselors and parents anxious about MySpace. A quick search of the site conducted by Herald staff members shows their anxiety is well-founded.

In approximately two hours, Herald reporters found the following examples of potentially dangerous behavior being carried out by area teens on MySpace.

Multiple students posted profanity and sexually explicit language.

A Millennium Middle School student claimed to be 19 years old on her page, saying that she loves to party.

A middle school student posted pictures of herself in tight clothing and provocative poses. She said she was 18 years old.

Two local girls — one 13 years old and the other 15 years old — exchanged phone numbers on a MySpace message board, where they can be viewed by anyone with a MySpace ID.

A South Lyon High School student posted his address on the site, advertising a party he was planning at his parent's house.

A 15-year-old girl admitted to stealing and drinking in the past month.

A pair of teens used the site to post negative — and potentially libelous, one local police officer said — statements about another classmate, saying the girl spread false rumors and calling her a "whore."
School officials show concern
It's that kind of thing that keeps Dottie Frazzini up at night. The Centennial Middle School guidance counselor said she gets terrified when she thinks of Centennial students being kidnapped or victimized by strangers they meet on MySpace.

The site has become a major concern for Internet safety experts, who say that sexual predators are trolling user pages for unsuspecting young girls and boys.

Frazzini said that some students protect their information by setting their MySpace pages as "private," meaning that only those whom they approve have the opportunity to view it.

Still, she said, far more students are willing to send their personal thoughts and information out into the ether, where it may be used to harm them.

And while most students use the site primarily to socialize with friends from school, Frazzini is concerned that many do not understand the risk.

"The kids love it. They're telling me they spend a lot of time on it," she said. "They're spontaneous to the moment. They don't look at the big picture. When you write on there that you're 18 and you're really 13, that's scary."

Other school administrators are showing concern as well. South Lyon High School principal Larry Jackson said he is arranging an assembly for students on MySpace, in addition to an informational session for parents in the coming months.

One father's (cop's) advice
Oakland County Sheriff's Sgt. Jeff Crockett has a web link on his computer desktop at work. It takes him directly to his son's MySpace page.

As commander of the Lyon Township sheriff's substation, Crockett has dealt with issues of identity theft and online security before. When his 17-year-old son put identifying information on his MySpace profile, it didn't take long before a red flag went up in Crockett's mind.

In addition to the potential danger of sexual predators, Crockett said MySpace could also be a treasure trove for identity thieves. Apart from senior citizens, young people are the biggest targets for identity theft, he said.

They're frequently trusting and won't obtain a background check on their credit for years. By putting addresses, phone numbers, names and other information up on MySpace, Crockett said teens are giving crooks a head start toward stealing their identities.

"Kids turn 18, they go to get a credit check and find out they have thousands in credit card debt," Crockett said.

Crockett instructed his own son to wipe any identifying information off of his MySpace page. As a further precaution, Crockett regularly visits his son's site and the sites of his friends to monitor their behavior.

And even though he's a senior in high school, Crockett said his son never surfs the web at home without his parents knowing it.

"My son's 18, and to this day he doesn't know the password to get on the Internet," Crockett said. "It's his mother's account and she has to sign him in to go on the Internet."

MySpace operates on a set of rules and regulations, but with hundreds of thousands of users on the site, violations frequently fall through. As a result, experts say teenage users can't count on the site to keep them safe. As usual, interested parents are often the first, last and best security measures.

Dan Trudeau is a reporter for the South Lyon Herald. Reach him at (248) 437-2011 or at dtrudeau@gannett.com.

Murdoch Will Earn A Payday From MySpace

2006-03-30T09:34:00.000-08:00

Clem Chambers, ADVFN 03.30.06, 6:00 AM ET

NEW YORK - One of my favorite sites on the Internet is Amazon.com's little-known Alexa, a traffic-ranking site that finds out its data from a browser toolbar. This toolbar links up similar sites of interest for the user so if you went to, for example, “a pet site,” it would give you links to other popular pet sites as indicated by the behavior of other Alexa users.

The Alexa toolbar "phones home" traffic details to its servers so Alexa can keep track of site popularity and surfing habits. People get paranoid about this kind of thing because less ethical companies than Amazon (nasdaq: AMZN - news - people ) use this type of "phoning home" for spyware purposes like browser hijacking and pop-up serving. However, Alexa doesn’t go in for nasty tricks and is so useful to me that I won’t surf without it.

In return for this intelligence, Alexa makes Web site ranking data free on its site and produces what I find to be the most effective market intelligence on the Net. For obvious reasons, expensive market-research people hate this free service, but like many free products on the Web, it has outperformed expensive B2B equivalents. Well, thank you, Amazon. However, it is not Alexa that is exciting me right now; it’s an investment opportunity that it leads me to.

Of the top global sites in the Alexa rankings, six are U.S.-based. They are, in order, Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ), Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ), MSN from Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ), eBay (nasdaq: EBAY - news - people ), MySpace and Passport (again from Microsoft ). In terms of market cap, Yahoo!’s is $46 billion, Google’s is $115 billion and eBay’s is $56 billion. I leave Microsoft out of the picture because it is hard to say what part of its market cap can be attributed to its Web site properties, but one would expect that it would be a decent amount of its $280 billion market cap.

The reason I’m pulling up these numbers is that MySpace, the social networking site for 18- to 30-year-olds, is a peer, and while it’s not a pure play, market-listed Internet property, you would expect its worth to be somewhere in the region of its counterparts in the global top ten.

If this is the case, then its parent company, News Corp. (nyse: NWS - news - people ), is simply trading at the wrong price. News Corp. bought Intermix, owner of MySpace, last year for a mere $580 million, which in hindsight looks like the purchase of the century.

Contrary to its billing in the media, MySpace is not a "kids’ site," not unless you call 18- to 30-year-old kids. Instead, a quick surf around the site throws up the faces of the young demographic that advertisers so crave. The 18-30 crowd make MySpace its Internet home in the same way that the previous generation made AOL theirs. What is more rare is the fact that more women are on MySpace than men. MySpace is a Net phenomenon that is happening right now; the traffic graphs on Alexa show it all.

Having worked with AOL in a period when the company went from 1 million subscribers to 40 million, I find MySpace’s growth to be uncannily similar. Again, Amazon’s Alexa highlights what is going on. In recent weeks, MySpace has gone from the 14th most popular site in the world to eighth, a mighty jump in the World Wide Web space, where traffic is measured on logarithmic scales when absolute ranking is involved.

Of course, a viral social-networking service should grow exponentially, but when this kind of growth kicks in, valuations of the business involved must change just as fast.

News Corp. has a market cap of $53 billion, a figure that hasn’t changed much in two years. Its stock has traded in a channel between $15 and $19, and in a pattern that must have made "swing traders" good profits. In short, News Corp. has been going nowhere for two years. Does the market realize the implications of News Corp.’s purchase of MySpace?

Without MSN’s new site demographic tools, which are in beta and only available to advertisers, you wouldn’t know that more than 50% of MySpace users were female. And if you didn’t know about Alexa, you couldn’t tell that MySpace traffic was growing ballistically. So perhaps the market doesn’t know. That, however, is bound to change.

Detractors will say the site will be hard to monetize, but then they said that about search engines and, before that, about portals. News Corp. does $20 billion in sales from its fleet of world-class media properties and has been on a recent Internet buying binge, which would seem to be paying off magnificently. The MySpace purchase puts News Corp on the front grid of Internet companies, and this single stellar deal will soon earn the company a re-rating.

Even though News Corp. is no Internet darling, has no Silicon Valley headquarters and no train set running around Ruport Murdoch’s office, it has nonetheless vaulted the new-media abyss that so many established old-media companies are set to tumble into. In any event, there is no sign in News Corp.’s stock chart of the impact of its owning a global top ten Internet property. That surely is set to change.

Clem Chambers is CEO of stocks and investment Web site ADVFN. E-mail him at clemcham@advfn.com

Blumenthal: Parents' role crucial to kids' safety online

2006-03-30T09:32:00.000-08:00

By Martin B. Cassidy
Staff Writer

Published March 30 2006

As MySpace.com and other social networking Web sites grow, tighter technological safeguards are needed to protect children, state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said last night at a meeting in town.

But parents must keep tabs on the increasingly computer-savvy children to make sure they are using the site in a safe manner.

"Parents are the first line of defense against Internet predators and other online dangers," Blumenthal said.

Last night Blumenthal met with residents at the Greenwich YMCA as part of a statewide tour about his effort to get the site's owners to make changes, including weeding out links to pornography and developing software for parents to keep their children off the site.

Blumenthal has also asked News Corp., the site's owner, to raise the site's minimum user age from 14 to 16 and to enforce it.

Because News Corp. bought MySpace to rake in ever larger advertising dollars on the strength of its 63-million-member user base, it has an interest in policing it as well, Blumenthal said.

"They recognize that it's in their self-interest," Blumenthal said. "I don't think MySpace wants the bad stuff on its site, and they've had some push-back from advertisers who are worried about their image."

Weston Police Officer Matthew Brodacki, who conducts computer forensics investigations, also gave a quick demonstration of how parents can access MySpace and find their kid's profiles.

Brodacki said the site's open and public nature has police on edge, pointing to federal charges against two men for sleeping with teenage girls they met on the site.

Brodacki said many adults are under the false impression that MySpace's technology blocks people from viewing the pages of children under 16 without permission.

Brodacki showed parents preselected pages belonging to teenagers on MySpace to point out that they often include pertinent information such as ZIP codes that predators can use, and that young teenagers often lie about their age to get on the site.

In Weston, police arrested an adult MySpace user who went to a teenage girl's house, where she and friends were having a slumber party.

"They think they are completely anonymous, but they are not," Brodacki said.

But Brodacki advised parents that banning the technology might be counterproductive, prompting kids to set up pages on other similar sites.

Other changes Blumenthal wants to see MySpace make:

* Develop a system that prevents anyone under the age of 18 to view adult material.

* Banish porn merchants who repeatedly post links on the site to adult material, and stop those seeking casual sex on the site from speaking with minors.

* Hire an independent watchdog to monitor inappropriate material, sexual predators, and other problems on the site.

Town resident Lynn Kelly, the parent of a 16-year-old daughter, said after the talk that for her peace of mind she will insist on seeing her daughter's profile and making any needed changes.

"Before tonight I just made strong suggestions, but now I will have to make sure it's clean," Kelly said.

Nancy Risman, also of Greenwich, who has an 11-year-old daughter, said today's children are more computer savvy, which can be daunting for a parent who wishes to keep tabs on them.

Even with safety measures in the home, children can access inappropriate material and talk to dangerous people online at coffee shops and libraries, she said.

"Not to sound too 'Star Wars,' but this universe of the Internet has grown so rapidly that no matter what restrictions you put on children, they can do it if they want," Risman said. "It's an overwhelming issue."

Copyright © 2006, Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc.

Ky. police suspended over MySpace.com Web pages

2006-03-30T09:27:00.001-08:00

Associated Press
Thursday, March 30, 2006 6:00 AM

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Two police officers were suspended and four others face disciplinary action after posting comments and photos on MySpace.com.
The comments included discussions about police work, including the recent arrest of country music singer John Michael Montgomery on DUI charges, and derogatory language about gays and the handicapped.

Police officers Joshua Cromer and Gene Hayes were "relieved of sworn duty with pay" pending the outcome of an investigation into Cromer's Web pages on MySpace.com, Lexington police said yesterday in a written statement.

Cromer was charged administratively with unbecoming conduct. Hayes faces an administrative charge of unbecoming conduct and intervention.

Three other officers face an administrative charge of unbecoming conduct. A fourth officer faces charges of public appearance and statements violations.

Several of the officers published comments on Cromer's MySpace.com Web pages. In some of the comments, officers wrote that they work for the "snobby people of Lexington" or the "Lexington Fayette Urban Communist Government." Many of the pages featured Lexington police badges or photos of the officers in uniform.

Montgomery was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol in February. On Cromer's Web pages, officers discussed the case and congratulated Cromer on such a high-profile arrest. His Web pages also included an altered photograph -- posted by Haynes -- of Montgomery and a fan, in which Cromer's face had been placed on the body of the fan.

The police statement said the investigation is ongoing.

Job applicants' online musings get hard look

2006-03-30T09:27:00.000-08:00

By Diane E. Lewis, Globe Staff | March 30, 2006

Lis Riba says she learned about indiscreet blogging the hard way.

In October 2002, after an interview for a job at a nonprofit, she said, someone at the organization read her blog, where she had broadcast to the world that she wasn't actually all that interested in the job and didn't plan to stay for even a year if she were hired.

No offer was forthcoming.

On a routine check of her server logs, she found that somebody from the nonprofit's site read her blog after her interview. ''I really believe I lost that job offer because of careless blogging," said Riba, 35, of Melrose. ''It was something I hadn't considered, and it taught me a lesson about discretion."

AdvertisementRiba, who now designs and writes software requirements for a Massachusetts company, hasn't stopped blogging, but she's developed a personal blogging policy, with rules such as not identifying her employer in online postings, not identifying colleagues, and not revealing proprietary information.

Employers hoping to gain insight into the character and personalities of job applicants are increasingly likely to peruse blogs, Google, and social sites such as MySpace.com and Friendster for clues about the applicants' likes, dislikes, and habits.

''For potential employees, it is not uncommon for senior executives to have a media search conducted that would include all public statements the individual has made," said Tal Moise, chief executive of VerifiedPerson, which performs online background checks for US employers. ``What the public needs to understand is that whenever information is in the general domain, assume it is not private."

Aware of the trend, college counselors are also advising students to watch what they say on social websites or post in blogs. The message: A suggestive photo, an obscene comment, or unsavory postings about one's private life could nix a job offer.

Catherine Amory, interim director of career services at Northeastern University, says she sent an e-mail to members of the class of 2006 earlier this month. The title? ''Digital dirt may hurt."

''It is a tricky issue, though," she said. ''I'm not so sure that students shouldn't be free to be themselves. On the other hand, if they intend to work for a conservative institution, then they need to be more careful."

Bill Wright-Swadel, director of career services at Harvard, said the university sent messages to students last fall telling them to be careful about the information they reveal about themselves online.

''Part of the reason was our conversations with employers who said they were using the information," said Swadel. ''Once we knew that, we felt we certainly had to talk to students and let them know."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a California-based digital-rights group, offers an online legal guide to students and employees who blog. Spokeswoman Rebecca Jeschke, pointed out that the First Amendment protects free speech, but some states go further. In Massachusetts, for example, there are laws that protect the speech of public school students, which includes all written expression.Continued...
But that doesn't mean bloggers should say whatever comes to mind under their real names. Instead, says Jeschke, they should protect themselves by using pseudonyms, posting anonymously, or requiring password protection to block unwanted visitors from their sites.

Many college students assume employers can't see their postings on Facebook.com because online profiles are available only to people with college or university e-mail accounts. But employers can work around that impediment. Rebecca Flynn, a senior at Northeastern, said she interned for a company that asked her to check out co-op applicants' profiles on Facebook.com.

''They would get resumes from a kid and I would go on Facebook.com for them," said Flynn, 22. ''I've been really careful about not putting anything inappropriate on that site."

Last year, Tina Mello, associate director of career services at Northeastern University, logged on to Facebook using her college e-mail address and checked the profiles of 17 of her 20 students.

''Some of them actually gave dorm information," she said. ''Most of them had benign pictures, nothing that raised red flags. But when I asked them, 'How many of you think this is private?' Almost half raised their hands. . . . They have the technical savvy, but they do not have work-world savvy."

Social networking sites could be immensely valuable to employers looking for the kind of detail they can't get from a resume or in an interview, said Bruce M. Sabin, director of Institutional Research and Effectiveness at Webber International University in Babson Park, Fla.

''The opportunity to glean the kind of information students willingly post on MySpace is a potential goldmine for employers," Sabin said in an online posting. ''Employers would probably not be impressed to find . . . students discussing their 'booty calls,' or posting self-portraits that could only be described as soft porn."

Michael Sciola, director of the Career Resource Center at Wesleyan University, said people who use social sites should understand that any information that appears online is there forever and cannot be deleted. Even material that is withdrawn from the Web is cached by search engines and Internet archives.

''These things have consequences," Sciola said. ''I don't know anyone who has not Googled their own name to see what comes back. Once you put stuff up, it is out there, and it is gone. You cannot get it back."

Natalie Gioella, a senior at Northeastern University, knows students who received offers for internships and co-op jobs, but were later turned down because of their postings on Facebook.com. So, Gioella, 23, doesn't post.

''Employers are looking," she said. ''They want to see what people do in their free time."

Diane E. Lewis can be reached at dlewis@globe.com.

Make sure kids' MySpace use isn't your nightmare

2006-03-30T09:26:00.000-08:00

What the kids of today don't seem to understand is the Web is forever. That photo of them with their underwear on their head may be kinda funny to them today, but won't be all that amusing 10 years later at their Senate confirmation hearing or their job interview for law partner.
By James Derk

W ith all of the furor and hype going on about MySpace I think it is time to take a step back and give parents (and teens) a little perspective on what's going on here.

First, the basics -- MySpace is an interactive networking Web site with more than 65 million users. It's the fastest-growing site among young people in the world and is in the top three in the total Internet.

The goal is to put up a Web site all about you and your life then connect to a "network" of friends. Then you're interconnected with everyone they know and eventually you have a large spiderweb of buddies.

On the surface the idea is fine, but like most things it has become reflective of the worst of society. MySpace has been taken over by teens and young people ("tweens") who are putting up all manner of content about themselves on the sites. We're at a perfect storm here when it comes to issues like these.

First, kids now have access to digital cameras and can take photographs of themselves and their friends that never pass through the editors of my day, namely my parents and the photo lab. That means MySpace is full of risque photos, to put it politely.

What the kids of today don't seem to understand is the Web is forever. On the practical side, that photo of you with your underwear on your head using a beer bong may be kinda funny to you today, but won't be all that amusing 10 years later at your Senate confirmation hearing or your job interview for law partner.

Child advocate Nancy Willard said this:

"Teens are clearly using places like MySpace to establish social status. How do young males establish social status? By posting manly, daring images and information that demonstrate independence and bravery and by being listed as a friend on as many profiles of 'hot girls' as possible. And how do girls establish social status? By posting sexually provocative pictures and titillating information that attracts the attention and friendship links of manly guys. How does any teen attract attention? By posting hot, intimate information. The teens who are into playing these games are the ones who are most likely playing these games on places like MySpace."

Then there's the creep factor. I typed in my hometown in MySpace and found dozens of kids that I know in less than 10 minutes of browsing, including several that need to have a note dropped to their parents. And there have been numerous cases in the media of stalkers, pedophiles and rapists using MySpace.

What should you as a parent do, right now?

Take an hour, sign up for a fake MySpace account and browse your kids. Find out what is on their profiles. What could you, as a stranger, find out about your kid?

Then browse their friends and who is in their networks

Myspace presents concerns to police agencies

2006-03-30T09:25:00.000-08:00

It's the newest craze and everyone who's anyone has a myspace.com Internet account - including gang members, pedophiles, and criminals.

And chances are, so does your child.

Law enforcement agencies around the state have discovered a new cyber playground that has not only gained in popularity with the average citizen and student but with the criminal element as well.

“Myspace is turning out to be a place of amazing stuff that is of interest to police,” said Ceres Police Chief Art deWerk. “It seems people readily advertise things that are criminal in nature.”

De Werk said while “a lot of people can't relate to it,” myspace has become mainstream for youth. He recommends that parents stay on top of their children's use of the website and others. It's not uncommon for teens to upload photos of a sexually suggestive nature “and talk very intimately about their personal lives” which may come back to haunt them later.

“The solution is to teach kids about implications of doing stuff like that,” he said.

Arrests have been made in conjunction with Internet stings that have caught grown men posing as teen-agers trying to procure sexual favors from prepubescent girls and Internet task forces have been assembled within every faction of law enforcement, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation in an attempt to catch those who are trying to pervert the system.

MySpace, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, gives users a free online space, allowing them to customize their profiles, post photos, share images and even play their own theme music, so to speak.

In short, it's part cyber diary, yearbook and part Internet party central and it's become one of the biggest draws on the web for its unique and seemingly innocent nature.

But, as industry analysts have discovered, with more than 60 million users it's really a one-stop shopping center for whatever, or whoever, you might be looking for.

Although MySpace moderators issue a warning that children 13 and younger are not allowed to post profiles and such profiles are routinely flagged and removed, savvy teens know how to get around that particular rule. They simply lie about their age.

Oakdale police had heard about the MySpace connection to the local gang scene but until they were able to find a way into the circle of kids involved, they had to wait for the opportunity to strike.

“We knew they were using it but the opportunity didn't present itself until recently,” revealed school resource officer Brian Shimmel of the Oakdale Police Department.

That opportunity presented itself when the local juvenile who had proudly displayed gang material on her profile had revealed her account to the vice-principal, who then relayed that information to the police department.

A search warrant was obtained for the girl's residence, computers were confiscated, and the girl's parents were given an education.

The girl's website was littered with gang art, pictures of people throwing gang signs, and nearly all of the people listed on her friends' list were affiliated in some fashion to the gang.

The discovery was a jackpot for local police and the missing piece in a puzzle that started roughly two months ago.

“We'd heard that gang members were actively recruiting kids through the MySpace site,” said Shimmel. “And that they were also using the site to coordinate certain efforts in other cities.”

One such planned event was a fight that was supposedly going to happen at Davis High in Modesto involving two different groups from the Modesto and Oakdale area.

“Oakdale kids were supposed to be there,” said Shimmel. “But they never showed.”

Still, police realized more was going on than the average tiff between students.

“The gangs are using different tactics these days to recruit new members and even conduct drug transactions,” said Shimmel. “They're using technology to their advantage and trying to put a positive spin on being a gang member by promoting ‘Brown Pride.'”

And many parents are completely oblivious to the threat living right under their nose.

The open nature of the website's design is part of its draw and its weak spot.

In a rash of similar sex abuse cases around the country, adult MySpace users are accused of preying on underage girls. Recently, a 26-year-old Santa Cruz man was arrested on charges of molesting a 14-year-old girl he met on MySpace while allegedly posing as a teen-ager himself. In a similar case, a 22-year-old Bakersfield man is facing criminal charges after allegedly molesting three underage girls he met through MySpace. Last week, a 27-year-old Maine resident was sentenced to three years in prison for his relationship with a 14-year-old girl he met on the site. She claimed to be 19 in her MySpace profile but he continued to pursue the relationship even after learning her real age. - By JEFF BENZIGER & KIM VAN METER /Ceres (Calif.) Courier

Ky. police busted for bad MySpace account

2006-03-30T00:33:00.000-08:00

LEXINGTON, Ky., March 29 (UPI) -- At least four Lexington, Ky., police officers are being investigated for allegedly posting derogatory comments on their MySpace.com accounts.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports one officer discussed the recent arrest of country music star John Michael Montgomery, including posting pictures.

Montgomery was charged with drunken driving, weapon and drug charges.

Another officer had a picture of a disabled child in a race with words that read: "What's better than winning the Special Olympics? Not being retarded."

Many other sites had homophobic slurs.

Police Chief Anthany Beatty said the four officers, and possibly more pending an ongoing internal investigation, face anything from a reprimand to firing.

Lt. Gov: MySpace site for networking with voters

2006-03-30T00:32:00.000-08:00

(Columbia) March 29, 2006 - After revelations about the Lt. Governor's driving record came to light, critics have pointed to another aspect of the Lt. Governor and his office that they say should be examined.

It's a controversial website aimed at teens. The Lt. Governor says his office is using it to network with potential voters.

With just a couple of clicks anyone with access to a computer can see Lt. Governor Andre Bauer in his Senate robe with President Bush on the website MySpace.com.

It's a popular site for teens and 20-somethings.

"It's mainly like college-age I guess," says Ashley Akin about the MySpace audience. Akin is an intern in the Lt. Governor's Office. WIS caught up with her on the job, and she also has a site on MySpace.

Everyone has a site on MySpace, according to Ashley, "I mean, everyone. The Lt. Gov. has one and several interns have one so we look at it every now and then."

MySpace is free. Through the site members create web pages with short bios, photos and messages.

WIS asked Bauer about his site as he walked through West Columbia to file for re-election, "I've let anybody that wanted to sign up and learn about me. I want them to learn about it."

On Bauer's page 160 people are listed as friends. They're people who can write him messages. To become a friend, Bauer has to say it's okay.

Ashley told us Bauer asked to be on her site. Bauer told us it's actually one of his staff members, John McGill, who runs the site for him, "My staff is instructed to be very cautious to anyone who writes in."

Listed as Bauer's friends, a few women with links to pictures too provocative to show you and some young people under the age of 18.

All of those people claim to be on the Lieutenant Governor's staff. Most are interns, like Ashley, who told us that she checks the site at work once in a while.

But according to Lt. Gov. Bauer, that's not how the work computers are to be used, "I don't know anybody that says they've done it at work. But if they are, they aren't supposed to be."

Bauer says his site in a non-issue, and encourages everyone to check it out.

Parents Attend MySpace Information Forum

2006-03-30T00:31:00.000-08:00

March 29, 2006 - Parents at Cardinal O'Hara Wednesday night will be getting tips on how to keep their kids safe on the Internet. And none too soon. We've got yet another case of a sexual predator using the Internet to snare a victim across state lines. This time a Philadelphia man who lured a New Jersey teenager into a sexual encounter.

Police say 30-year-old Marcus Whitfield found his alleged victim on the popular MySpace.com website.
They say he started up a relationship with a 15-year-old boy and they agreed to meet near the boy's Strafford Township, New Jersey home last August.

The two allegedly had sex in Whitfield's car and then later checked into a room at a motel in Galloway Township where, police say, they had more sexual encounters.

When the boy returned home late at night, his parents started asking questions.

Myspace.com is a website where kids can create their own web pages. They're supposed to be at least 18-years-old, but many lie about their ages.

They compose elaborate profiles of themselves, sometimes including provocative pictures.

Anyone can view them, and many of the kids can be contacted online.

Police arrested Whitfield Monday after, they say, he confessed to luring the boy into a sexual relationship.

Whitfield lives in this house in Philadelphia's Frankford section.

Neighbors say he's a nice guy who spent a lot of time outside fixing cars.

Ethel Butler says the last time she spoke to Whitfield he was planning a new career.

Police say the computers have gotten him into deep trouble.

The Philadelphia Archdiocese has been trying to educate parents about predators on line and has been holding a series of seminars like this one at St. Matthews Monday night.

A similar seminar will be held here at Cardinal O'Hara tonight. Whitfield, in the meantime, won't be back online anytime soon. He's being held in the Ocean County jail on $175,000 bail, awaiting hearings in Ocean and Atlantic Counties next week.

MySpace Causing More Controversy

2006-03-29T19:19:00.000-08:00

Chelsea isn't this Columbus middle schooler's real name, rather it's what we're calling her in this story. Like many of her friends, Chelsea had a MySpace profile. But after getting into a fight with some classmates, doesn't anymore.

"They were asking me that I needed to start being a whore," Chelsea said. "I was like, 'No, this isn't who I am, and I'm not going to do it.'"

Chelsea says her classmates weren't saying those things in person, but typing them in an area of the site where users can leave comments.

"They're calling my child a whore," said Chelsea's mom. "They used profanity that I don't use."

Chelsea's mom says it's defamation, and Chelsea agrees.

"People down in Florida, they don't know you," Chelsea said. "They're reading this from their friend up here, then they can just make assumptions that that's who you are."

Both say parents are the solution to the problem.

"Take 5 minutes," said Chelsea's mom. "The comments are right there on the site. All you have to do is scroll down, and see what's there."

Then, Chelsea goes one step further.

"I think the whole thing just need to be wiped out," Chelsea said. "That's my opinion."

Chelsea's mom says one of the most concerning things is the psychological effects cyberbullying can have. Columbus Police are also monitoring the site. They tell me they're taking a proactive, educational approach with parents and children. For information about cyberbullying click here.

By-Amanda Iler

Trading ’spaces

2006-03-29T19:18:00.000-08:00

Why your MySpace page isn’t nearly as cool as Pinback’s
by Jed Gottlieb

So they just came out with this new thing that’s pretty awesome. The local bands are all about it—not just the cool ones, but all of ’em. It’s called MySpace. Heard of it? No? Oh, man, it’s all about that six degrees of separation shit and how the whole world’s connected through technology and the democratization of art and how our generation doesn’t need fucking radio or MTV or any of that shit to get our music out.

OK, while all of that is true (sorta) and, yes, MySpace is (kinda) mind blowing, we need to back up a minute.

First, MySpace was reportedly designed by super nerds who could have cured cancer if their dream hadn’t been bringing people (and stalkers) together online. So why are so many bands’ pages either really boring or look like a 9-year-old designed them on a Speak & Spell?

And if it’s all about individuality and creativity, then why do all these bands’ fans (read: mostly young women) look so alike (read: mostly slightly blurry camera-phone pics of young women with puckered lips slathered in a dozen tubes’ worth of cheap lip gloss)? Surely, there’s more to MySpace than this.

Determined to prove that San Diego’s music community is being all it can be, CityBeat went looking for local bands with cool, creative pages. It wasn’t easy—there’s a lot of great music but little innovation—however, we did find some hidden treasures.

The logical starting point in a search for inventiveness seemed to be Pinback’s page. With many locals aspiring to be Pinback, they need to also aspire to the near perfection of the band’s MySpace page. And it’s not that difficult. Simply follow Pinback’s template.

1. SPRUCE IT UP: Swap the dull gray background for a more distinctive color, sprinkle the page with cool, non-distractive images and ditch the standard band photo (the black-and-white glossy of your band standing in front of brick wall with the bassist squatting menacingly isn’t doing it).

2. USE IT ALL: Fully load the music player (and add some video if possible) and occasionally rotate in new songs. Feel free to ignore comments such as this post: “I had boo as my song, gahhh. Funny though, I was listening to Penelope earlier today and thought to myself, ‘This song should be on the myspace!’ We clearly have a psychic connection,”

3. INTERACT WITH FANS ON YOUR TERMS: Update the blog regularly, but not obsessively (see Step 2 in reference to comments from fans about not blogging enough).

4. OWN IT: Remember, MySpace is your public face. Make it reflect your own super-special uniqueness. If funny, be really funny. If you rock out, rock out hard.

For some excellent examples of the four-step plan at work, CityBeat dredged the bowels of cyberspace, proving you don’t need to be Pinback to pimp your page.

New Loser Studio follows the steps to a T. The page is painted in a blend of lime and army green with a Ron Burgundy-chic photo. The music player has different appropriate images to go with each song. And the blog screams MySpace phenom. Sample exerpt: “I would like to talk to you today about a plague which is destroying our fine country. The taking of naps. Everyday across the U.S. naps are taken and never returned.... The ‘liberal elite media’ would have you believe that the taking of naps is as American as apple pie, a Fourth of July bbq, or perhaps destroying a small town’s economic infastructure [sic] by opening a Wal-Mart.”

Just as New Loser’s page reflects its audience (note: not a single person has commented on New Loser’s blog, so we’re using a loose definition of “audience”), Project Brutality carefully caters to its fans. Arriving at Brutality’s page, guests are greeted by a pulsating, inverted pentagram, an earful of death metal and a cursor transformed into a Crucifix. The cursor actually looks like a plus sign, but the point is made: These guys are demonic.

The whole site (like the band’s music) is, at best, headache-inflicting. At worst, it could kick off a lifetime of seizures. But it clearly follows Pinback’s template—especially Step 4’s ethos of staying true to one’s self. Even Brutality’s friends’ comments fit perfectly: “omg, u guys SUCK! … wtf. im serious p.s, im joking and... IM THE COBRA COMMANDER!”

While most local bands don’t reach the heights of New Loser Studio and Project Brutality, there are plenty of pages that show promise. Robot Crew has cool art and a freaky welcome song; Rookie Card is redefining the art of blogging; and Kill Me Tomorrow’s page is a beautiful disaster. Yes, San Diego MySpace music fans have a long way to go, but when placed next to Weezer or Billy Corgan’s boring pages, we’ll take New Loser any day.

3/29/06

Parlour Boys win V Cast / MySpace band contest

2006-03-29T19:17:00.000-08:00

Indie rock band Parlour Boys won the Calling All Bands contest hosted by Verizon Wireless and MySpace to get their music promoted on V Cast Music. Parlour Boys isn't signed to a record label and beat out 4,000 other bands entered into the contest. Parlour Boys' song Lovers will be turned into a full-length download, music video, ring tone and ring back tone.

To hear the Parlour Boys, visit their MySpace page.

MySpace's Gold: Teens Seek Identity, Identify with Brands

2006-03-29T19:15:00.000-08:00

Marketers who wish to communicate with teens on social-networking site MySpace should adopt the approach of cultural anthropologists to decipher teens' various subcultures, according to MySpace.com SVP of marketing and content Shawn Gold, writes MediaPost. "We take a sociological approach to building MySpace, and advertisers need to be cultural anthropologists," he is quoted as having said during a keynote at the OMMA Hollywood Conference & Expo.

Social networks are "about individuality and identification and connecting with others," he said, and teens want to both belong and seek self-expression; they want recognition, appreciation and knowledge. "We think that every feature on the site needs to tie in with these core needs."

Gold showed how those needs result in teens' incorporating brands into their online identities and interaction; one page, for example, shows images of the LA Lakers, an Aston Martin and other auto brands. "There are thousands of brand programming opportunities that have yet to be exploited," Gold said, referring to niche communities on MySpace

Gold pointed out MySpace programs with Aquafina, the Beastie Boys and Wendy's, which has gained 94,000 friends on MySpace and on its page offers downloads, wallpapers, screensavers, AIM icons, slides, audio and video. Verizon Wireless, the Honda Element, and Toyota are among those with MySpace profiles.

"MySpace is the No. 2 site on the web behind Yahoo in content consumption. About 15 million log on to the site, 30 million songs are streamed, 11.5 million friends are added, and 15.5 million comments are left each day," writes MediaPost.

News Corp. (hearts) MySpace

2006-03-29T19:11:00.000-08:00

The media giant recently bought MySpace, the popular networking site for youth -- and it looks like a grand-slam.
By Marc Gunther, FORTUNE senior writer
March 29, 2006: 10:53 AM EST

NEW YORK (FORTUNE) - When News Corp. (Research) paid $580 million for MySpace, an Internet site for teens and young adults, some people figured that Rupert Murdoch's fascination with all things digital had once again led him to overpay for a new-media property.

Half a billion dollars was a whole lot of cash for an asset that a year earlier had been valued at $44 million, when a Silicon Valley venture capital firm bought in.

What's more, Murdoch's track record in new media ventures was less than reassuring. He lost money buying an Internet service provider called Delphi, embraced so-called "push" technology and wildly overspent for Gemstar/TV Guide, whose on-screen TV guides were touted as the gateway to television.

This time, though, the News Corp.'s purchase of MySpace is looking like that rarest of rarities in the media world -- a much-ballyhooed acquisition where it turns out that the buyer underpaid.

MySpace has simply exploded since the deal was done last July. Measured in terms of page views, MySpace has become the second-most popular site on the Internet -- behind Yahoo! (Research), but ahead of MSN (Research), AOL (Research) and Google (Research). It has 66 million members, and about 250,000 new ones sign up each day. That's a mind-boggling growth trajectory for an Internet site that was launched less than three years ago.

"It looks like the best acquisition we've made in a long, long time," Peter Chernin, the second-in-command at News Corp., said in an interview with FORTUNE. "MySpace is the single biggest growth opportunity this company has."

You don't have to take his word for it. A social-networking site called Facebook, which attracts mostly college students, is reportedly on sale, with an asking price of $2 billion. A media-industry source says Facebook's owners turned down a $750 million bid from Viacom (Research). (Viacom declined comment.)

Facebook is a huge phenomenon -- both my college-age daughters swear by it, and it's among the top 10 sites on the Internet -- but it is not as big, by any measure, as MySpace. So if Facebook is worth even $1 billion, MySpace has to be valued at three or four times as much.

Give Murdoch and Chernin credit. One's 75, the other's 54, and yet they saw the potential of a site that, to most adults, still looks like a wild and woolly, unintelligible, almost unreadable hodge-podge of home pages, music by unknown bands, amateur videos, scantily-clad babes and unabashed self-promotion.

The best explanation of MySpace's appeal that I've read comes from not from the business world but from a Berkeley Ph.D. student and social researcher at Yahoo! named danah boyd who describes the site as the virtual equivalent of classic 1950s hangouts like the roller rink or burger joint -- a place where kids can go to escape parental (and other) authority, to try out different identities and, of course, to connect with one another. She gave a lecture about MySpace at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, of all places, that you can read here and she blogs at length about it here.

The greatest risk facing MySpace is what boyd describes as "moral panic" -- a growing backlash from parents, teachers, religious leaders and law enforcement officials, along with some media outlets. They warn the site is an inappropriate and potentially dangerous place for teens to hang out. While many MySpace users are in their 20s, people as young as 14 are permitted to sign on.

More to the point, there's no way, as a free site, for MySpace to verify the age of its users. You can read an excellent story about the backlash by clicking here.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, a vocal critic of MySpace, recently wrote to News Corp. asking the company to provide parents with software to block the Web site, ban kids under 16, institute new measures against pornography and take other steps to protect children from sexual predators and inappropriate material.

When police arrested a Middletown, Conn., man who allegedly sexually assaulted an underage girl he met on MySpace, Blumenthal declared, "This case is a tragic, real-life example of why allowing children to mix with adults seeking sex is a recipe for disaster."

The critics are right when they say that sexual predators and porn stars hang out at MySpace. So do cops, politicians and clergy. That's what happens when 66 million people -- or, actually, somewhat fewer, because many people post more than one profile -- come together on the Internet or anywhere else.

In some ways, the backlash against MySpace echoes the uproar in the 1950s over comic books, or the 1960s over rock music, or the more recent crusades against rap lyrics and violent video games. What will those crazy kids do next?

But if some of the criticism is overblown, Chernin has no choice but to take it seriously. Only if MySpace is seen as an advertiser-friendly site will News Corp. be able to realize its potential. The very tricky challenge for the media giant is to somehow manage MySpace, without taming its cool factor.

"We don't want to change the cultural feel of MySpace," Chernin says.

Of the company's 280 employees, about a third work, at least in part, on online safety issues. They screen photos being submitted to the site and take down profiles of users who are found to be underage. About 220,000 profiles have been eliminated, according to a company spokesman. The company is also experimenting with software aimed at identifying pictures with a high proportion of bare skin, believe it or not.

"We need to be a leadership position about protecting minors on the Internet and, more importantly, giving the parents the tools they need to protect them," Chernin says.

In the meantime, MySpace is rushing to add more ad sales people. It had been selling its home page for about $100,000 a day. The price is moving up to about $750,000 a day, according to Chernin, who says he's been told that Yahoo! commands about $1 million for its prime real estate.

"There is more opportunity in monetizing the amount of traffic we have on MySpace than I think exists anywhere in the media business," Chernin says.

MySpace also has a lot of information about its users -- their ages, musical tastes, interests -- that could be very valuable to advertisers who want to target their products. Current advertisers include movie studios, fast-food outlets, soft-drinks and cellular phone companies. Some are getting creative. Wendy's (Research) created a MySpace page for its square burger here.

All of this -- the ramping up of ad sales, the efforts to improve online safety, the creation of new tools for users -- is happening at Internet speed.

"They've got to change the tires while they're doing 80 miles an hour," Chernin says.

Yes, it sounds like the late 1990s all over again, a time when all the media giants rushed online, often with disastrous results. It'll be fascinating to see if, this time around, News Corp. can ride the wave.

Plugged In is a daily column by writers of FORTUNE magazine. Today's columnist, Marc Gunther, can be reached at mgunther@fortunemail.com.

Kids share on MySpace, but with who?

2006-03-29T06:08:00.000-08:00

Parents warned to monitor personal information children post

By MIKE CHALMERS
The News Journal
03/29/2006

He speaks German, likes the band Coldplay and has 195 friends, including Matty Mac, Lauraaah and Chi Chi Man. He greets visitors with a sunset picture and a Shakira dance beat.

Welcome to Ryan McWilliams' little corner of the Internet. The 19-year-old business major at the University of Delaware created it one night in December through MySpace.com, a free social-networking Web site that has boomed in popularity among teenagers and young adults in the past year.

"Among my circle of friends, MySpace is very popular," McWilliams wrote in an e-mail interview. "I was bored one night at about 1 a.m. and most of my friends were already on MySpace, so I figured I would try it out and see what it was all about."

Since its launch two years ago, MySpace has grown to more than 65 million subscribers. Along the way, it also has worried parents, teachers and Internet safety experts, who are concerned about how much personal information young people are putting out there for the world to see. In some cases, the sites include full names, ages, school information and schedules, as well as racy pictures and chatter.

About a month ago, the Delaware Department of Education decided to block MySpace. com from its network, which serves all public schools.

"We just couldn't see an educational value to those sites," said Wendy Modzelewski, an instructional technology consultant with the department's Delaware Center for Educational Technology.

But banning it in schools doesn't stop people from logging on at home, so experts encourage parents to get educated and keep alert.

"The kids have been using it for a long time," said Robin Martin, who teaches computer skills and safety at Patton Middle School in Kennett Square, Pa. "It's just all of a sudden blossoming for the adult community. It's just another cultural wave we need to be educated about."

Keeping it fun, safe

Parents also are trying to figure out what to do about MySpace, which is by far the most popular networking site. Others include Xanga and Facebook.

Sandra Duszak, whose 16-year-old son has a MySpace site, said she's concerned about what he might say to someone online or what he might be encouraged to do. Duszak recently had her son show her around his MySpace site, as well as those of his friends and others.

"The challenge is it puts a young person in a situation where all the values they've learned are challenged, at a time when they're trying to seek out their own identity," she said.

Lauren Frigm, a freshman at Charter School of Wilmington who built her site about 1 1/2 years ago, said she only associates with people she already knows and is careful about posting anything too personal. MySpace shouldn't be blamed for the mistakes its users make, she said.

"I think it's really stupid that some parents are like freaking about MySpaces," Frigm wrote in an e-mail interview. "Just cuz some stupid 13 year old girl was dumb enough to agree to meet some creepo she doesn't know [doesn't mean] I'm gonna do that. So long as kids aren't being dumb then I think MySpace is totally, 100% safe."

Not everyone who has a MySpace site is so conscious of the safety issues. Some Delaware teenagers, for example, post information about their soccer team schedules, their weekend drinking binges and their opinions on classmates, teachers and coaches.

"This is kind of like the old lock-and-key diaries of the 1970s, but these diaries are open to everyone," Martin said. "Some of them write their most intimate thoughts on their sites. ... Some of them have explicit nude photographs. Profanity is pretty common."

Parents need to know

The sights and sounds of MySpace sites poured from a huge screen in an auditorium at Salesianum School recently.

Patricia Sine, director of the Office of Educational Technology at the University of Delaware, was there to explain the ins and outs of MySpace to a gathering of about 100 concerned parents. The Rev. Bill McCandless, principal of the all-boys Catholic high school in Wilmington, organized the event after senior Brett Chidester committed suicide in January. The 17-year-old's MySpace site included video of him smoking salvia divinorum, a hallucinogenic herb that his parents say may have led him to kill himself.

Parents need to know what their kids are putting on their MySpace sites, Sine said, but they shouldn't take everything literally. Much of what teenagers put on their sites is an attempt to figure out who they really are.

"Kids should be learning what skin they'll be comfortable in as adults," Sine said. "This is a place they can try on different personas."

One site Sine displayed was from "Spaced Out in Delaware," who said she was a 15-year-old girl who likes an obscure band named 2 a.m. Orchestra. Actually, it was Sine's own site, which she created to illustrate that people aren't always who they claim to be online.

That kind of deception can be dangerous. Police in Middletown, Conn., for example, said as many as seven local girls were sexually assaulted by men in their 20s who contacted them through MySpace pretending to be teenagers.

Jean Ann Crowe, of Newark, said she keeps the family computer in the first-floor living room, where she can keep an eye on what 16-year-old son Billy is doing. She attended Sine's presentation at Salesianum, where her son is a junior.

"We can't just go home tonight and talk to our kids about MySpace and then forget it," Crowe said. "You have to teach them."

Martin agreed that simply banning a teenager from having a MySpace site isn't the answer, nor is watching every keystroke. Instead, teenagers need to learn how to keep themselves safe.

"Knowledge can be dangerous," she said, "but if you don't give them the information to protect them, that can be worse."

The Associated Press contributed to this article. Contact Mike Chalmers at 324-2790 or mchalmers@delawareonline.com.

MySpace Exec: Teen Users Promote Brands

2006-03-29T06:04:00.000-08:00

by Tobi Elkin, Wednesday, Mar 29, 2006 6:00 AM EST
LOS ANGELES--MARKETERS NEED TO BECOME cultural anthropologists if they want to connect with people on MySpace.com. "We take a sociological approach to building MySpace, and advertisers need to be cultural anthropologists when they're thinking about their communications strategy on social networks," said Shawn Gold, senior vice president of marketing and content for MySpace.com, during a keynote on Tuesday at the OMMA Hollywood Conference & Expo in Los Angeles.

Social networks, including MySpace.com, are "about individuality and identification and connecting with others," Gold said, adding that kids on MySpace.com are looking to belong, and for discovery, access, self-expression, recognition, confidence-building, appreciation, and building knowledge. "We think that every feature on the site needs to tie in with these core needs."

In presenting a highlight video from MySpace.com, Gold showed examples of how teens are incorporating brand networking into their MySpace pages. One page showed images of the LA Lakers, an Aston Martin, and other auto brands. "Teens are brand networking on their pages--they are trend-setters and they want to be the first to know or to spread something," Gold said, adding: "that's the cultural currency of life on MySpace."

Gold mentioned MySpace programs with Aquafina and the Beastie Boys, as well as Wendy's, which has managed to rack up 94,000 friends on MySpace and boasts a variety of features on its page including downloads, wallpapers, screensavers, AIM icons, slides, audio, and video. Verizon Wireless, the Honda Element, and Toyota are among the marketers that are evolving profiles on MySpace.

Gold offered a few predictions when it comes to marketing to the "everywhere, always there consumer." He said consumer empowerment marketing is a "now and forever trend," that social networks/blogs are a publishing platform for early adopters, and that word-of-mouth has turned into citizen journalism as a trusted form of media. In addition, marketers will step up their focus on brand programming designed to "catch consumers in their stride as they communicate and connect," but he said, "people don't come to social networks to click on the advertising." Marketers that have turned to brand programming on MySpace include Boost Mobile, Best Buy, and TV properties like "The Family Guy." The marketing opportunity is to create mini social networks within a social network.

Marketers can slice and dice the database. "There are thousands of brand programming opportunities that have yet to be exploited," Gold said, citing niche communities on MySpace of DJs, comedians, filmmakers, and musicians. "A marketer could create a celebrity brand of the month because there is so much content that can be sliced and diced." Exclusive and original content, including previews of TV shows like "The Office," and albums ranging from artists like Audioslave and Madonna to Neil Diamond can premiere successfully on MySpace.com.

Gold told OMMA attendees that communications will become more important than marketing, and that choice will lead to an even greater fragmenting of the media landscape. "If an average person is getting 30 visits per day on MySpace, how do you maximize the opportunity? Smart marketers are trying to get onto people's home pages," he said. For example, for the film "She's the Man," MySpace enabled a member to take their Top 8 "friends" and categorize them as best-looking, most secrets, biggest crush, and so forth, and created a special HTML graphic for the feature. MySpace found that 82,000 people accessed the generator application and used it on their home page to maximize their personal reach.

Cause-related marketing on MySpace is growing, Gold explained after showing the video "Life Rolls On," about a young surfer who was injured and paralyzed doing the sport he loves. "Marketers will create cause-related programs that enhance their brand's position in society. Marketers can get behind some of these people."

Gold predicted that event marketers will lead social networking advertising by increasing their contact opportunities to get people more invested in an event. He cited Aquafina's tying in to a Beastie Boys concert for MySpace devotees, in which there was a contest to create a music video and a trip to the Sundance Film Festival for the winners.

As for advertiser skepticism and scrutiny of MySpace.com, Gold said: "Results are the only way to build advertiser confidence. We have enough major advertisers using MySpace right now--it's not who's going to go first, it's about not being left behind." In addition, "to really capitalize on the future and efficiencies of media, marketers need to credibly insert their message." Gold explained that walled gardens exist on MySpace where an advertiser doesn't have to be on a person's page, but can appear on the site's home, TV, and music pages where there's "exceptional reach."

MySpace stands for "empowerment of the individual" and "now you have this exceptional efficiency and intimacy to reach people. Advertisers somewhat have to unlearn tactics of traditional media in order to take advantage of it," Gold said, adding: "We know the audience really well, and we won't let advertisers do something it won't accept."

During a panel discussion after Gold's keynote, Doug Neil, senior vice president, new media at Universal Pictures, said his team is leveraging consumer-generated media to create buzz around the upcoming film "Slither." "It's all about personalization and customization. We allowed fans the chance to create their own 30-second spot for the film, and the winning spot will run in one of our TV ads," Neil said, adding, "We're empowering consumers to be part of the marketing message and to spread it virally." He hopes the effort will build awareness for the film by getting people involved early in buzz-building. Neil added that Universal put nearly 30 percent of its marketing budget into online media.

Gold said advertisers can deploy MySpace users and fan clubs to do their marketing for them, and added that MySpace is actively looking at how users can control which advertisers appear on their profile pages.

Some MySpace fast facts: As of Tuesday, there were 66 million people on MySpace, with 230,000 people joining each day on average. By year-end, that number is projected to reach 98 million. About 90 percent of MySpace users are from the United States.

MySpace is the No. 2 site on the Web behind Yahoo in content consumption. About 15 million log on to the site, 30 million songs are streamed, 11.5 million friends are added, and 15.5 million comments are left each day.

To the MySpace generation, "MySpace is not technology. A user's profile can be thought of as a metaphor for their life or apartment. The profile is a characterization of who users are, and they want to express themselves creatively," Gold said.

Tobi Elkin is Executive Editor, MediaPost.

MySpace - More than just a 'place for friends'

2006-03-29T06:03:00.000-08:00

Posted by Ken Yarmosh

MySpace continues to be in the news, whether it is Pete Cashmore saying you are a lametard for not "getting it" or more serious stories like those recently highlighted by Smart Mobs and Randy Charles Morin.

Smart Mobs links to a post from boingboing, related to how MySpace was used by students in response to a proposed immigration bill:

Joel Rubin, a reporter from the Los Angeles Times, just told the host of a news program on KCRW (the NPR affiliate station in LA), that the 15,000 high school students who walked out of school today organized today's march using MySpace.com over the weekend.
Then from CNN, Randy Charles Morin excerpts this article about how Colorado detectives used MySpace profiles to track down rape and robbery suspects:

Detectives used profiles posted on the MySpace social networking Web site to identify six suspects. [cut] The victim, whose name was withheld, became acquainted with the suspects through MySpace, authorities said. [cut] She knew only their first names but their pictures were posted on MySpace. [cut] "We pulled up her friends list. It helped us identify some of the players," said [Detective] Bartley
MySpace has proved that it is more than just "a place for friends". It is a place the can facilitate protests, a place that authorities can use to fight crime. If events like these continue to happen, MySpace and other social networking sites will definitely not exist as they currently do. After all, it is the perceived absence of authority that makes MySpace so appealing to teens and others.

What is MySpace?

2006-03-29T06:02:00.000-08:00

MySpace.com is a wildly popular social networking Web site where people around the world socialize and swap information. MySpace had more than 37 million unique visitors in February and was the second most-trafficked Web site after Yahoo, according to a story this week in Business Week Online.

Anyone age 14 or older may join. There are almost no limits on who can see a profile posted on MySpace.

MySpace is Your Film Space

2006-03-29T01:31:00.000-08:00

Anyone under the age of thirty has heard of MySpace. It's the new direction of the internet, the idea behind it being that the users create the content. At first, the networking site focused on people profiles, reconnecting former classmates and hosting pictures and forums of like-minded net surfers. MySpace has quickly become home to anyone looking to pimp (in the most tasteful of ways, of course) themselves out, though, with entire sections devoted to music and, you guessed it, film.

MySpace Film is an entity unto itself, a completely different world in a massive social network that seems to have far more focus that the cacaphony of profiles on the personal pages. The Film homepage entices, splashing featured filmmakers across the top, polls for user favorites down one side and the requisite search field in the corner. Resident reporter Filmmaker Magazine sets up shop at the bottom of the page; one click gets you to their inclusive profile.

What I find so fascinating about MySpace Film (which I suppose goes for MySpace Music as well) is the democracy with which filmmakers can promote their work. In a world driven by money, where the richest man becomes president and the studio dishing out the most moolah gets the Oscar, MySpace is needed more than ever. Countless DIY filmmakers (like this one, this one, this one and this one) are finally awarded the platform they deserve; I haven't heard of a MySpace catching any distributors' eyes, but I'd say it's just a matter of time.

Of course, it's not just the little guys that have harnessed the power of the 65 million MySpace users; creating a profile for a film is as normal now as commercials before movies in the theater. Major features like the latest Harry Potter, Walk The Line and V for Vendetta all hosted profiles to promote the film. But those profiles are often harder to find. It seems that, if MySpace had to pick sides, they'd be going to bat for the underdogs, the guy with a camera who just wants to make movies.

Do you know of any deserving filmmakers on MySpace or elsewhere? We're all for promoting the heck out of up and comers, so drop us a line and we'll do our part to get the word out there!

Shielding kids from online sex predators

2006-03-29T01:27:00.000-08:00

By Edwin Garcia
Mercury News Sacramento Bureau
SACRAMENTO - If parents notice that an older MOSS or MOTOS is asking for their child's A/S/L for OLL, they'd better have a serious F2F with the kid ASAP.

Translation: Members of the same sex and members of opposite sex are using the Internet to seek out children's age, sex and location for online love, and parents should speak with their kids face-to-face right now to prevent them from becoming victims.

That was one of several urgent messages a handful of online safety experts gave during a three-hour Senate committee hearing Monday to inform the public how to keep children safe when using Internet sites such as MySpace.com.

A representative from the statewide Parent-Teacher Association urged parents to learn the latest keyboarding lingo in the modern world of teen acronyms. Several experts implored teenagers to keep personal information off their Web pages on popular social-networking sites, namely MySpace.com.

``We're under-estimating our youth a lot,'' Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Fremont, said after the hearing. ``We just have to keep one step ahead to keep them safe.''

The Senate Business Professions & Economic Development Committee is not attempting to legislate Internet use in California, Figueroa said, but the hearing comes after multiple reports that sexual predators nationwide are increasingly selecting their victims by viewing teens' personal pages -- where they regularly post pictures of themselves and other identifiable details such as the name of their school and even cell phone numbers.

About one in five Internet users ages 10 to 17 has received an unwanted sexual solicitation online, according to U.S. Department of Justice statistics cited during the hearing. And 97 percent of the solicitors were strangers.

``The statistics are alarming,'' said Teri Schroeder, president and chief executive of i-Safe.org, a non-profit foundation that offers Internet safety curriculum to schools.

Larry Magid, a technology expert from Palo Alto and father of a teenage son, shared tips from a Web site he developed, www.blogsafety.com.

His advice for young bloggers: Be as anonymous as possible, so strangers cannot locate you; protect your information so only friends can visit your site; avoid in-person meetings with someone you met in a blog; think before posting photos; delete offensive feedback comments that other users leave on your site.

Software filters can help, Magid said, but only a ``relatively small percentage'' of parents use them -- in some cases because they lack the knowledge to install them.

Sen. Kevin Murray, D-Los Angeles, then asked at least 25 parents who were in attendance if they had installed filtering software on their home computers. Very few hands went up.

``The most important filter,'' Magid said, ``is not the one that runs in the computer but the one that runs in the child's head.'' He added: ``The key to all of this is education, is parenting.''

MySpace.com is one of several networking sites used by teenagers and young adults. Others mentioned in passing at the hearing were Xanga, Hi5, LiveJournal and Facebook. But MySpace.com has received intense scrutiny of late, in part because of a high-profile sting by Dateline NBC, which successfully used MySpace.com to lure and nab would-be predators.

A media representative from MySpace did not immediately respond to an e-mail request for comment Monday afternoon. The company has posted Internet safety tips on its site, reminding users to ``avoid posting anything that would make it easy for a stranger to find you.''

The hearing was attended by dozens of youths from Jack and Jill of America, an organization that teaches leadership skills to African-American teenagers.

A 14-year-old girl told senators how easy it was to create an account on MySpace, a company whose user agreement states that only those 14 and older can sign up, and regularly investigates whether children are misrepresenting their age.

In testimony that gripped the teenagers, a young San Francisco woman retold her online experience as a 15-year-old.

Katie Canton, now 19, said a 22-year-old man showered her with gifts and a pledge to marry her -- and she believed it. Her father, though, grew suspicious after speaking with a police officer friend.

Shortly before her online boyfriend was to fly to the Bay Area, her parents sat her down to play a computer game called ``Missing,'' which is made by a non-profit Internet safety firm, Web Wise Kids.

The players analyze chat room conversations to try to learn the location of a boy lured by a predator.

For Canton, part of the game was eerily similar.

She learned the man had been wanted by the FBI for a sexual relationship with a 13-year-old girl. And Canton finally saw him -- in a courtroom; she testified against him in the girl's case, and helped lock him up for 20 years.

Jon's Myspace Pick - Klaxons

2006-03-29T01:26:00.000-08:00

The magnificent Klaxons have their debut single 'Gravity's Rainbow' out now through Angular Recordings.

From Angular Recordings, Info. on the single:

'The debut single from the New Cross Neu Ravers, Gravity's Rainbow is an exuberant mix of falsetto vocals, pounding metronomic beat, thrashing bass and soaring pianos. On the flip, early 90s novelty rave hit 'The Bouncer' gets reloaded: part of rave discarded past re-imagined as power pop. White label white vinyl. Each copy with sleeve hand-drawn by Klaxons.'

The single is available in most good record shops having been released this week while copies are available (They're going fast!)

Check out their myspace page where you can hear their new single, the stunning 'Atlantis To Interzone' track and find out where they're playing live next.

Convert to Klaxonism by clicking the link below:

Myspace - Klaxons

Every Time I Die: Hating MySpace And Hawthorne Heights

2006-03-29T01:24:00.000-08:00

Tuesday March 28, 2006 @ 04:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff
by Shehzaad Jiwani

Every Time I Die have a reputation for being the fun-loving party animal's metal band. But after flipping their van, they can't be blamed for being a bit bitter. ChartAttack recently spoke with the band's outspoken vocalist Keith Buckley about their explosive new album, Gutter Phenomenon, touring, and a number of things the singer is sick of, including the heavy music scene and Myspace.

Every Time I Die

ChartAttack: The last time you came to Toronto, you played mostly old stuff. Has the new album grown on your fans in that time?
Keith Buckley: I think Toronto is one of the places we're most comfortable, aside from Buffalo. I think we changed the set list that morning so that we could play more old stuff, but this tour's been mostly new album. It seems to be going over really well. I figured it would. That's how everything with us is. It doesn't get immediate approval, but it eventually comes around and we're exactly the opposite of a flash in the pan. We don't come out of the gates too strong because people are always doubting us, but we have a lot more stamina and a lot more longevity than people expect us to.

The songs are always so chaotic, and on this album it's as if you wrote the hooks grudgingly. Do you have something against choruses?
That's more ADD, really. It's just a personal problem where we can't be getting bored. I just always feel like playing a song is supposed to be entertaining, but I feel more like I'm entertaining guests at my house. If we're going to just keep doing the same thing, I'm wondering if everyone's comfortable and how long I can go around for, so then we just get panicky and change it up.
I don't have anything against choruses if they're catchy enough. I just don't like people sort of resting on their laurels, like, "Oh, this part's coming up again so I don't have to write anything different or think of anything different."

The lyrics seem aimed at the current musical landscape, as if you're trying to distance yourselves from it.
I can't even take listening to music anymore. You know, pop music I can understand because it's a fluke and it's supposed to be a fluke. There's a song written by six Jewish guys and then it's given to Britney Spears, and that's understandable and there's no qualms about that. Nobody pretends that they don't know that. But heavy stuff, it used to be passionate but now it's a burden to try to follow it and listen to it and understand it, you know. I really think it's all just gimmicky right now.

You appeal to fans of metal, hardcore, punk and rock alike. Do you think you could cross over and write three minute pop songs?
I think so! With the right help, with the right mindset. I think if we were doing it knowing that the lyrics would be tongue-in-cheek, taking the piss out of ourselves for doing it. But I wouldn't want to do it with lyrics like Hawthorne Heights. I can't believe that's real. I can't believe that a man writes those words. I'm just befuddled. So I would never, ever try to make something like that.

But they, like you, gained a lot of fans through Myspace. How do you feel about it as a medium?
Oh?fuck. Next question. [laughs] I think it's completely robbed people of the ability to admire anyone or anything about anybody. As a fan of music and as a fan of people, I want there to be a gap. I want to feel like they're unapproachable. That's why music is fun. When you go to see a band, I don't want the opportunity to talk to the band, or think I'm talking to them by leaving them a message. That's just fucked. People have this familiarity that's just disgusting. I don't like that I read our website and these people that I've never met before are like, "Hey, you fucking asshole motherfuckers, can't wait to fucking see you faggots!" Like, what the hell? Is that a good thing? Are we buddies now that we call each other names? I don't know you. I'm not a motherfucker faggot. I don't know what you're talking about. People think they're funny and cute and fuck, it makes me hate people so much.

All up in MySpace

2006-03-29T01:23:00.001-08:00

By Jimmy Greenfield
RedEye
Published March 28, 2006

Until a few weeks ago, Paul Marszalek's myspace.com page had photos of him and his friends partying, dancing and drinking alcohol.

Not anymore.

Marszalek, 18, a UIC freshman, deleted his MySpace Web site after becoming nervous that law firms where he was applying for internships might see the photos. "You never know who's looking at it," he said.

Marszalek isn't being paranoid. What you post online could catch up with you.

High schools, colleges and businesses have begun to use social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and Xanga to keep tabs on students and employees.

"Some of these [postings] are incredibly incriminating," said Steve Jones, a UIC communications professor who studies the Internet. "I wouldn't be surprised if 20 years from now, somebody who's running for an office has to answer a lot of questions to what they had on MySpace 20 years ago."

Some consequences are more immediate.

In Maryland, a high school freshman reportedly was suspended when school administrators found photos of him posted on an online image gallery.

At George Washington University, campus police broke up an underage drinking party after invitations showed up on a social networking Web site.

And here in Chicago, a recruiter withdrew a verbal job offer after reading about a drunken-driving conviction posted on a job candidate's blog, according to a Columbia News Service report.

Some colleges and high schools have reprimanded students for conduct displayed online, and some have even forbidden students to use sites like MySpace, which has more than 32 million users as of February, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.

"We are not out trolling online. But if somebody put this information in front of our face, we do have to react," Richard Justice, an associate dean and director of student conflict resolution at the University of Illinois, told Columbia News Service.

Many students have abandoned MySpace for Facebook to post their party pictures. Facebook, which has close to 5 million users, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, requires a university e-mail address for access.

But Jones said many students don't realize that alumni--who may include police or prospective employers--can get a university e-mail address at some schools and start snooping around Facebook.

Jones also thinks students need to consider another possibility when posting private pictures of themselves on Facebook. What happens if the site gets sold?

"In the future, if Google buys Facebook, who's to say they're not going to make all Facebook content searchable?" Jones said.

For now, Facebook users are promised a degree of privacy.

But pictures and diaries on MySpace are accessible to anybody. Even the police.

"If you don't want it to be my business, then don't post it," Barrington police officer James McNamee said.

McNamee, who specializes in Internet safety, said it's his job to keep tabs on anybody posting possibly incriminating information on MySpace. It's also very easy, he said.

He just goes to the "browse" section, types in criteria for age and gender, then searches for anything suspicious in a 5-mile radius using Barrington's zip code as a guide. MySpace doesn't require entering a city or zip code in your profile, but McNamee said many users do.

"Everything pops up," he said. "We'll look at the pictures and the names. We'll punch up on their site and see what we get."

McNamee has found sexually explicit pictures and personal diaries. He recently came across photos some high school students had posted of themselves painting graffiti on the school. He declined to say what discipline the students faced because they are juveniles.

"They basically posted a confession online," he said.

McNamee compares police officers searching MySpace to driving around in a patrol car looking for suspicious activity. He dismisses any suggestion that patrolling the Web is an invasion of privacy.

"Are you saying we shouldn't patrol it?" he said. "There's too much stuff out there."

The idea that police or employers are monitoring social networking sites doesn't sit well with everyone.

DePaul junior Christina Kobernat, who soon will begin an internship at Merrill Lynch in Chicago, says it would be wrong for her boss to keep tabs on her via her Facebook page, or in any other way when she's not at work.

"As long as I present myself at work in a professional manner, what I do outside of work shouldn't be of their concern," Kobernat said.

But what constitutes "outside of work" isn't always clear.

Mike Wolson, president of Naperville-based recruiting firm The Covington Group, said he recently received a call from a client who was considering firing some employees.

The client told Wolson he had come across several MySpace profiles maintained by his employees. On the sites were disparaging remarks about the company.

Wolson said before making a decision, the client was trying to determine if the employees had posted to MySpace on company time. The situation has not yet been resolved.

"What's really interesting out of all this is when people get a job, the background checks don't end there," Wolson said. "You're always on the clock."

Job recruiters say students' lack of discretion online will catch up to them in their professional lives. A 2005 study by executive job-search agency ExecuNet found that 75 percent of recruiters use Web searching as part of the applicant screening process, according to a Columbia News Service report. More than a quarter of these same recruiters say they have eliminated candidates based on information they found online.

"I hope that students get a wake-up call," said Steven Rothberg, who runs the largest national employment Web site for recent university graduates, collegerecruiter.com, in the Columbia News Service report. "I think of social networking sites much like a tattoo: It seems like a great idea at the time, but you have to live with it for the rest of your life."

Columbia News Service contributed.

Oak Lawn Students Suspended for MySpace Postings

2006-03-29T01:23:00.000-08:00

OAK LAWN (STNG) -- Two students were suspended at an Oak Lawn elementary school last week after the principal discovered questionable postings on a popular Web site, parents said. The MySpace postings allegedly contained foul language, a digitally altered photo of George Bush sticking up his middle finger, pop-ups of women in bikinis and disparaging references to St. Louis De Montfort School and its staff, parents said.

Administrators asked the eighth-grade class to delete their MySpace accounts and threatened to cancel graduation or confirmation ceremonies if they did not, parents said. A boy and girl who allegedly used vulgar words were suspended for four days, parents said. They return to school today.

Parents, who asked that their names not be used, did not necessarily approve of the MySpace postings. But they questioned how Principal Holly Gross accessed their children's pages and whether it was proper for children to be punished because the pages were not created while the children were at school. "She has no right to spy on our children in our own homes," one parent said.

Gross said parents portrayed the situation incorrectly but declined to clarify any misstatements in order to protect the privacy of students and parents. "We continue to act in the best interest of our students in respect to all areas," she said.

MySpace is a popular online hangout spot that lets users create their own Web pages and connect it to their friends and friends' friends. They can leave messages on each other's pages, publish a blog or post photographs and video clips.

Wired magazine ran a 2,500-word article last month tracking what they called the "great MySpace crackdown of '06." Across the country — and the south suburbs are no exception — educators are disciplining kids for their Web postings and sending letters home to parents warning them of the dangers of using MySpace unsupervised. Many schools are using filters to block the site.

Andrew High School athletes were suspended in February after school officials saw photos of them drinking on an online album that is similar to MySpace. Drinking was against the athletic code signed by the girls. Similar punishments have made headlines for Chicago, New Jersey, Tennessee and Nebraska schools.

Generally, public schools cannot punish students for activities outside of the school day that are not related to school, said Chicago ACLU spokesman Ed Yohnka. Satire and criticism are protected, as is sexual speech minus references to school, he said. Private schools, however, are not bound by the First Amendment right to free speech, he said.

Copyright 2006 STNG Wire, The Chicago Sun-Times. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Warning to young teens: Stay out of MySpace

2006-03-29T01:21:00.000-08:00

By Alexandra Bogdanovic
03/28/2006

Local teens aren't the only people visiting "social" Internet sites such as MySpace.com.

1st Sgt. Sal Torelli of the Fauquier County Sheriff's Office is a school resource officer assigned to both Warrenton Middle School and Auburn Middle School. At an Auburn PTO meeting last week, he explained that county police have been "operating" on MySpace.com for some time. Specifically, he said that they have assumed fictitious identities so they can monitor what is happening among users.

"Cpl. Otis Ellis (another school resource officer) brought some things on the site to our attention a couple of months ago," Torelli explained. "We started looking into it -- and I don't want to scare anyone, but I was shocked at some of the things I've seen."

Information on the MySpace.com web site indicates that users must be at least 14 years old. But it is easy to create false identities and there is no mechanism to verify someone's age, Torelli said. Consequently, many people -- including some area teens -- seem to be lying about their age in order to use the site, he added.

In some cases, Torelli said that students are posting pictures in which they have alcohol or in which they are actually consuming it. They sometimes post photographs showing themselves "dressed and posing in a provocative manner," he said.

In other cases, students post pictures of themselves posing with drugs and drug paraphernalia. On some pages, students speak openly about sex and with whom they've had sex, Torelli added.

One parent at the meeting said she discovered that both of her daughters use MySpace.com, even though they no longer have Internet access at home.

"It's embarrassing," she said. "I'm a working parent. I took the computer out of the house, but they used their friend's computer to (create accounts). I was livid when I found out what goes on (on the site). I was appalled."

Hidden dangers

Various safety tips are provided on the MySpace.com Web site. Administrators warn users not to post anything "you wouldn't want the world to know about." They also warn users that "people aren't always who they say they are," and that hateful and inappropriate speech should be reported.

Even so, students who use the site simply to chat with friends are inadvertently putting themselves at risk, according to police.

Many teens do put their personal information, including their name, address and school they attend, on the site, Torelli said. They can also list their hobbies and other seemingly innocuous information, such as their favorite sports or type of music they like.

But doing so makes them vulnerable to pedophiles who surf the Internet looking for kids, Torelli warned.

After the presentation, Torelli demonstrated how easy it is to create an account. All you need to supply is basic information and a valid e-mail address, he said.

"These pedophiles look at the things kids like in their profile, such as music, bands and other things that they list," Torelli explained. "The pedophile then cons their way into your kid's life."

During his presentation, Torelli noted that law enforcement agencies outside of the United States have already investigated "several cases" involving teens who were sexually assaulted by people they met on MySpace.com.

Two men in the United States faced federal charges that govern the Internet after they allegedly solicited to have sexual contact with girls from Connecticut, Torelli noted. The cases against them were the first two federal cases involving MySpace.com, he said.

"Sonny Szeto, a 22-year-old New Jersey man, traveled from Jersey City to Connecticut. He molested an 11-year-old girl at her home. He did this while her parents were asleep," Torelli said. "He met the girl on MySpace.com."

In another documented case, Steven Letavec, a 39-year-old man from Connecticut allegedly molested a 14-year-old girl while he was visiting in Elmira, Pa. He allegedly visited her several times.

"The girl signed on MySpace.com as an 18-year-old, but told him that she was only 14," Torelli said.

Other issues

In addition to being vulnerable to pedophiles, teens who use "social" Internet sites can be susceptible to other activities such as "cyber bullying."

Torelli said cyber-bullying occurs when a teen, preteen or child who goes online is being "tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated or otherwise targeted" by someone else on the Internet.

"Cyber-bullying is not usually a one-time thing unless it involves a death threat or serious threat to do bodily harm," Torelli said. "Children have killed each other and committed suicide after being involved in a cyber-bullying incident."

Under the Virginia Criminal Code, it is a Class 6 felony to make any kind of written threat, including those made via the Internet. Someone convicted of a Class 6 felony faces one to five years in prison; or up to 12 months in jail and a maximum fine of $2,500, either or both.

Police cannot take any punitive action based on pictures of students posing with drugs or alcohol on a Web site, however.

What's next

Torelli and Maj. Paul Mercer of the Fauquier County Sheriff's Office said they plan to do the same presentation at other schools throughout the county. Eventually they said they may also do similar presentations for students.

Meanwhile, school officials are doing what they can to make parents aware of potential problems that could arise if their children use social Internet sites.

In a letter about MySpace.com sent to parents on March 20, Superintendent of Schools Dr. J. David Martin said that students at Fauquier County schools cannot access the site from school computers since they are blocked by a filtering system.

Officers' Web site content stirs furor

2006-03-29T01:20:00.000-08:00

Comments touched on city, gays, disabled
By Cassondra Kirby
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER
Several Lexington police officers face disciplinary action for comments and photos they posted on the popular Web site MySpace.com, in which the officers discussed their jobs, commented on arrests they had made and used derogatory language about gays and the mentally disabled.

On one officer's site on MySpace.com, some Lexington officers openly discussed the recent arrest of country music star John Michael Montgomery, who was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol when he was pulled over by Officer Joshua Cromer in February.

Those comments appeared on Cromer's MySpace page, some of them congratulating Cromer for the arrest. His site also included an altered photograph -- posted there by another officer -- of Montgomery and a fan in which Cromer's face had been placed on the body of the fan. An attorney for Montgomery last night said he was "just appalled" at the web postings.

On other pages, all located on MySpace.com, officers say they work for the "snobby people of Lexington" or the "Lexington Fayette Urban Communist Government." They call each other gay and make fun of the mentally disabled. Many of the pages feature Lexington police badges, police cars or photos of the officers in uniform.

Police Chief Anthany Beatty said several officers were told last night that they will probably face internal administrative charges because of the MySpace postings. He would not say what the punishment might be, but said discipline can include anything from a written reprimand to suspension to termination.

Beatty shook his head yesterday as he flipped through printouts of four officers' sites on MySpace. The sites were created by Cromer, an officer since 2002; Richard Cole Sisk, an officer since 1999; Gene Haynes, an officer since 2001; and Aaron Richard Noel, who has been on the force for two years.

The four officers could not be reached for comment yesterday or did not return phone messages from the Herald-Leader.

Beatty said the police department -- with the help of the Urban County Government law department -- immediately launched an internal investigation into the sites after officials were notified about two weeks ago of possible inappropriate content.

Beatty would not say how many officers are being investigated -- but he said there are "possibly more" than the four -- nor would he say which officers will be disciplined because the investigation is ongoing.

He said part of the police disciplinary code "indicates that you should not, as police officers, do anything or say anything or act in any way that would reflect negatively on the agency.

"We assure the citizens that we are thoroughly investigating and will take appropriate action at the conclusion of the investigation, when all the facts are in," Beatty said.

Although many of the officers' Web pages have been cleaned up or deactivated in recent days, there could be damaging effects.

Officials are particularly concerned about the effect of Cromer's site on the case against Montgomery, who is scheduled to be back in court in April on charges including DUI, carrying a concealed deadly weapon and possession of a controlled substance.

The police department has notified judicial officials of the photo on Cromer's site, but no one could say yesterday what effect, if any, it might have on the case.

Montgomery's attorneys, Brent Caldwell and Jon Woodall, said yesterday that they had heard rumors about Cromer's site and the Montgomery photo. The attorneys are sending a subpoena to the operators of Myspace.com to obtain the photo since it is no longer on Cromer's site.

"We have had grave concerns from the first day of the arrest about the actions of this officer and the motivations in his arrest," Caldwell said. "We are frankly just appalled that a police officer would do something like that and just can't understand why he would do something like that."

The attorneys spoke with Montgomery yesterday about the photo and Cromer's site.

"Let's just say he wasn't very pleased about it," Woodall said. "There's so many good officers on the street, it is a shame that this officer is giving the department a black eye."

In addition to the Montgomery photo, Cromer's site included more general postings about his police work. In his biographical profile he identified himself as a Lexington police officer and said, "I love to lock a mother f----- up ..."

He also described an incident in which he wrote a ticket to a man who lives in his apartment complex because the man's car alarm woke him up. He then discovered the man had a warrant for unpaid tickets.

"Sorry ... don't take it personal, pay your f------ tickets and you won't have warrants," Cromer wrote.

Other officers' pages include crude images and comments.

At the top of Sisk's page, for example, he posted a photo of a mentally disabled child running in a race.

"What's better than winning the special olympics?" the photo read. "Not being retarded."

Bruce Edwards, a spokesman for Mayor Teresa Isaac, said last night that the mayor is aware of the police investigation. "It is being handled internally, and appropriate disciplinary actions will be taken if necessary," he said.

There are no Lexington police department policies specifying what sort of material officers may post on sites such as MySpace.com.

Beatty said the department will look at creating such a policy in light of these recent cases.

Still, officers know they must maintain a certain level of respect and professionalism, whether they're in public or on the Web, Beatty said.

"Specifically, they hear me say, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, economic status -- regardless of all the things that affect us in our lives -- the expectation is that everyone is treated with respect in every encounter that we have with them," Beatty said. "We preach that."

Asked yesterday whether he was disappointed, Beatty placed a hand to his lower lip and glanced down.

"Yes," he said softly.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
News researcher Linda Niemi contributed to this article. Reach Cassondra Kirby at (859) 231-3266, 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 3266, or ckirby@herald-leader.com.

Chad Love Uses Myspace.com to Promote Freshman Album “Speak No Evol”

2006-03-29T01:19:00.000-08:00

Hip-House Artist Chad Love has quickly created a new fan base by attracting Myspace users to log into his music and video.

New York, NY (PRWEB) March 29, 2006 -- Evol Records announced today that Myspace.com would be used to promote Chad Love. Myspace.com is a gigantic networking portal site being used to establish relationships between artists and patrons. New York City hip-house artist Chad Love is yet another emerging artist to utilize the 65 million+ Myspace.com users international to announce and market his first tuneful offering Chad Love “Speak No Evol."

Debatably hip-house’s most innovative polyglot, Chad Love is capturing an audience with his freshman album, “Speak No Evol.” In harmony with this release, Myspace.com technology has enabled Chad Love to have a promotion video displayed on his link
http://www.myspace.com/evolrecords.

"Introducing Chad Love to the Myspace market will let potential music fans and industry experts experience the talent of our innovative artist," said Scott Holland of Evol Records. "The ability for music fans to personally interact with Chad Love will significantly enhance the value of Mr. Love’s online marketing exposure of his album. Our objective is to grow Chad Love into a complete, internationally recognized hip-house artist." Holland added.

The video, “Keep Swinging,” upfront storyline imagines the seemingly magical lifestyle of someone who wants to become a famous rapper. The underlying message that “Keep Swinging” sends is that success, any success, requires hard work and the ability to light yourself self up and stay true and positive because if you don’t everything you worked hard for can be taken away from you. This video demonstrates Love's charisma and his kinetic ability to connect with the audience in a funny direct and energetic way.

Chad Love will provide fans next month with an exclusive underground release party at Club GoGo one of New York City’s new hip-house clubs, at this party one audience member will win a Jet Blue ticket to meet up with Chad Love and Da Entourage in Miami to promote his new freshman album after the Winter Music Conference.

Chad Love’s “Speak No Evol” features his “Lumpa Girls” and “Da Entourage”, J-Drama and D.A. The album merges the influences of hip-hop, house, and disco music. Additional information can be found at www.chadlove.com.

Chad Love has also recently created an album listening review page and would appreciate fan comments. www.cdbaby.com/chadlove

About Chad Love:
Chad Love is the next generation in the ever-growing hip-house game. After years of researching and experiencing the music and the Industry, Love has launched a new and fresh style, hip-house, upon the music world. Chad Love does not restrict himself to a single technique when taking control of the microphone, he is a chameleon who has the ability to make you laugh, cry and be energized through his creative lyrics, unique personal style and positive beats. Visit the website at http://www.chadlove.com or http://www.towerrecords.com/product.aspx?pfid=3377219&from1=QUIA#tracks

About Evol Records:
Evol Records is an emerging preeminent suburban entertainment company, encompassing a broad range of business including recording, music publishing, artists management, film production, web development, recording facility, marketing, advertising and apparel. For further information on Evol Records. Visit the website at http://www.evolrecords.com.

MySpace is the largest but there's now a sea

2006-03-29T01:18:00.000-08:00

By Heidi Dawley
Mar 28, 2006

When Rupert Murdoch swooped in last year to buy MySpace, paying $580 million, Wall Street suddenly perked up to the idea of social networking. It was a bit late, as is so common with things related to the internet.

MySpace may be the largest social networking site, the one getting the headlines, but it's just one in what has become an increasingly fast-growing sector. New players are entering the market, it seems by the day, and a number of sites are experiencing rapid growth. Networking sites are like virtual bars, where users post their profiles and interact with others sharing similar interests.

Just two years old, Facebook.com, a site for high school and college students, is now on the block, and BusinessWeek Online reports that its owners have just nixed a $750 million offer. They're holding out for as much as $2 billion.

If this seems like 1999 all over again, with wild offers flying about, it is not in one key regard. This time they are for ventures that have already proven their worth.

Still, social networking is a pretty recent thing, really only exploding as the internet has matured. That's because the activity pretty much requires a powerful internet connection. To grow, the sites needed people to migrate from dial-up to broadband.

Which explains their huge growth just in the last year. Facebook had 10.5 million unique visitors in the U.S. in February, up from 2.8 million in February 2005, an increase of 271 percent, according to comScore Media Metrix.

MySpace has grown even faster in the U.S., clocking 37.3 million unique visitors in February from just under 9 million in February 2005, a growth of 318 percent, according to comScore Media Metrix.

“That’s a boatload,” says Bob Ivins, managing director at comScore Europe. “It is great to see a site like this just take off because it talks to me about the huge opportunity that still exists on the web.”

Yet not all networking sites are prospering, and that makes it a tricky proposition for investors. What site's in, and which are not, can change in a heartbeat, or better, with the fluidity of the social whims and fashions of teenagers.

One early site, Friendster, has been more or less flat over the past year, with about a million unique visitors in the U.S., while Bebo.com has seen the number of unique visitors in the U.S. fall to 1.2 million in February from 6.1 million the year before, according to comScore.

What drives the growth of successful sites, and the rapid downfall of those on the decline, is what Ivins calls the network effect. People join because their friends join, so the more people who join one site the more reason for others to follow. And vice versa.

“If your friends aren’t on it, there is no value,” says Ivins. “The ones that aren’t growing will probably be left behind, unless they are for a very specific community of people.”

Says Ivins: “I think these types of communities will be around forever.” But whether the current biggies maintain their position is another question.

When what happens on MySpace doesn't stay on MySpace

2006-03-28T06:07:00.000-08:00

By Jimmy Greenfield and David Haugh
Tribune staff reporters
Published March 28, 2006

Until a few weeks ago, Paul
Marszalek's MySpace.com page had photos of him and
his friends partying, dancing and drinking alcohol.

Not anymore.

Marszalek, 18, a UIC freshman, deleted his MySpace
Web page after becoming nervous that law firms where
he was applying for internships might see the
photos.

"You never know who's looking at it," he said.

Marszalek isn't being paranoid.

What you post online could catch up with you.

High schools, colleges and businesses have begun to
use social networking sites such as MySpace, Xanga
and Facebook to keep tabs on students and employees.

"Some of these [postings] are incredibly
incriminating," said Steve Jones, a UIC
communications professor who studies the Internet.
"I wouldn't be surprised if 20 years from now
somebody who's running for an office has to answer a
lot of questions to what they had on MySpace 20
years ago."

Some consequences are more immediate, especially for
college athletes who are in the public eye more than
their fellow students.

Last May, Louisiana State kicked two swimmers off
the team after school officials found out the pair
had posted derogatory comments about their coaches.
At Arizona, several female athletes discontinued
their Facebook accounts after one of them feared she
was being stalked by someone who learned personal
details from the site.

Last December, Colorado banned the use of Facebook
in the student-athletes' academic lab computers
after a football player and cross-country runner
were caught sending racially insensitive threats to
another runner.

Athletic directors concerned

Many college students have abandoned MySpace for
Facebook to post their party pictures. One reason is
Facebook, which has close to 5 million users,
according to Nielsen/NetRatings, requires a
university e-mail address for access.

The site has become the cyberspace version of a
college singles bar, allowing users to communicate
by exchanging photos occasionally suggestive or
obscene in nature, letters and personal information.
The result is alarmingly open and unfettered access
into aspects of campus life previously left to the
imagination of parents and administrators.

But many students don't realize that alumni--who may
include police or prospective employers--can get a
university e-mail address at some schools and start
snooping around Facebook, Jones said.

After sifting uncomfortably through online profiles
at Facebook last fall, Loyola University athletic
director John Planek decided he had to do something
to protect the image of his school and the safety of
its student-athletes. Planek threatened to take away
the scholarships of Loyola athletes who did not
remove their profiles rather than expose them to
gamblers, agents, cyber-stalkers and embarrassment.

"I've gotten the `Planek is an idiot' stuff, but
when their moms and dads drop their student-athletes
off on our campus, I'm the dad here, and it's my job
to look out for them," Planek said unapologetically.
"I can't control the whole Internet, but I can do my
part."

Monday morning, for example, George Mason basketball
player Lamar Butler picked up 100 new names on his
"friends" list in about an hour for a total of
1,128. As popular as Butler had become, George Mason
might have to win the NCAA title to catch up to
Illinois star Dee Brown, who stopped accepting
online friends when the number had reached 2,000,
according to school officials.

"How many of the friends on an athlete's list are
ne'er-do-wells?" Planek asked.

Planek has found support around the country from
other athletic directors. Florida State officials
gave the school's athletes 10 days last December to
shut down their Facebook accounts--or else. Baylor
athletic director Ian McCaw used a blanket e-mail to
remind his 400 student-athletes that they were
"always in the public eye."

The trend toward curbing the computer habits of college students, even scholarship athletes bound by a behavioral code, makes some civil libertarians uneasy. Representatives from Facebook.com did not reply to e-mail requests for an interview, but the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union questioned how far a university or its athletic department should go to control its image.

Said Edwin C. Yohnka, director of communications for the ACLU of Illinois, "The notion that this sort of [free] expression gets tamped down at a university when students are ready to explore who they are is a real concern."

Patrolling Internet

Of course, there could be bigger issues for students than just getting busted in a photo with a beer in their hand.

"If you don't want it to be my business, then don't post it," Barrington police officer James McNamee said.

McNamee, who specializes in Internet safety, said it's his job to keep tabs on anybody posting possibly incriminating information on MySpace. It's very easy to do so, he said.

He just goes to the "browse" section, types in criteria for age and gender, then searches for anything suspicious in a 5-mile radius using Barrington's zip code as a guide. MySpace doesn't require entering a city or ZIP code in your profile, but McNamee has found that many users do.

"Everything pops up," he said. "We'll look at the pictures and the names. We'll punch up on their site and see what we get."

McNamee has found sexually explicit pictures and personal diaries. He recently came across photos some high school students had posted of themselves painting graffiti on the school. He declined to say what discipline the students faced, because they were juveniles.

"They basically posted a confession online," he said.

McNamee compares police officers searching MySpace to driving around in a patrol car looking for suspicious activity, and he dismisses any suggestion it's an invasion of privacy.

"Are you saying we shouldn't patrol it?" he said. "There's too much stuff out there."

Other worries

And then there's that future job market to consider.

"In the future, if Google buys Facebook, who's to say they're not going to make all Facebook content searchable?" UIC's Jones said.

Job recruiters say students' lack of discretion online will catch up to them in their professional lives. A 2005 study conducted by executive job-search agency ExecuNet found that 75 percent of recruiters already use Web searching as part of the applicant screening process, according to a Columbia News Service report. More than a quarter of these same recruiters say they have eliminated candidates based on information they found online.

"I hope that students get a wake-up call," Steven Rothberg, who runs the largest national employment Web site for recent university graduates, CollegeRecruiter.com, told the Columbia News Service. "I think of social networking sites much like a tattoo: It seems like a great idea at the time, but you have to live with it the rest of your life."

- - -

About the sites

MySpace.com

Founded: January 2004

Users: 32.2 million

Cost: Free

Min. age requirement: 14

Xanga.com

Founded: October 1998

Users: 6.5 million

Cost: Free (some pay services available)

Min. age requirement: 13

Facebook.com

Founded: February 2004

Users: 4.7 million

Cost: Free

Min. age requirement: 13

Users source: Nielsen/Net ratings

----------

jgreenfield@tribune.com

dhaugh@tribune.com

Windows skews Microsoft's web plans

2006-03-28T06:05:00.000-08:00

Tim Anderson

The software giant’s web technologies are making major advances, but Windows’ shadow looms large
IT Week, 28 Mar 2006

I’m writing this column from Las Vegas, where Microsoft is wooing web designers and developers with a conference called Mix06. Internet Explorer 7 is on display, and so is Atlas, a JavaScript framework that enables smoother browser applications that fetch data in the background and update only the portion of a web page that has changed.
Microsoft is also showing off hybrid Windows and web applications built for the Windows Presentation Foundation – the part of Windows Vista that includes XAML, an XML language for defining rich graphical user interfaces.
During a keynote session, the BBC’s Ashley Highfield, director of New Media and Technology, described plans to make the corporation’s entire output available for download for seven days after each show is first broadcast. The demonstration client application looked superb, with a 3D programme selector, transparency effects, and video of broadcast quality or better, with bandwidth requirements mitigated by peer-to-peer downloads.
A further endorsement of Windows Vista came from an unlikely source. Marc Canter, a founder of Macromedia, told me that the Vista GUI is “finally something to one-up Apple”, and that Flash was “a toy at best” in comparison.
That statement strikes me as an exaggeration; but even so the signs are that the disgracefully delayed Internet Explorer 7 will be a decent browser, Windows Vista a worthwhile upgrade to Windows, and Atlas-enriched ASP.Net a solid and productive platform for web applications. Canter, by the way, is no Microsoft puppy; he heckled the keynote with a cry of “Where are the open APIs?”
Aber Whitcomb, chief technical officer of the MySpace social networking site, told delegates that MySpace with 65 million members is now the second-busiest site on the internet, pushing MSN into third place. MySpace runs on ASP.Net 2.0 and SQL Server 2005, making it hard to claim that the technology does not scale up.
That said, if you strip away the Las Vegas glitz, the core of Microsoft remains Windows rather than the internet. It is a divided company, with one half – let’s call it Microsoft 1 – working hard to keep companies hooked on Windows and Office, while Microsoft 2 puts energy into cross-platform web services.
A shining example of Microsoft 2 here at Mix06 is the work Kim Cameron is putting into federated and secure identity management, using a system called InfoCard, which will be part of Windows Vista and also available for Windows XP.
The goal is a safer internet where security no longer rests on usernames and passwords. Cameron understands and promotes cross-platform interoperability as fundamental to InfoCard’s chances of success.
The technology on display at Mix06 is compelling, including the new possibilities for rich internet-connected applications in Windows Vista. But developers of public-facing web applications must be wary of building in a dependency on Windows clients.
This is what will hold back XAML, and why Flash will continue to be more than just a toy.

Sex predators use of Myspace.com alarms legislator

2006-03-28T03:56:00.000-08:00

THIS LEGISLATIVE HEARING NOTHING TO LOL ABOUT

SACRAMENTO - If parents notice that an older MOSS or MOTOS is asking for their child's A/S/L for OLL, they better have a serious F2F with the kid ASAP.

Translation: Members of the same sex and members of opposite sex are using the Internet to seek out childrens' age, sex and location for online love, and parents should speak with their kids face-to-face right now to prevent them from becoming victims.

That was one of several urgent messages a handful of online safety experts gave the Senate Business Professions & Economic Development Committee today at a three-hour hearing designed to inform the public how to keep children safe when using the Internet, even at home.

The experts urged parents to learn the latest lingo in the modern world of teen acronyms. They suggested filtering software to keep pornography off the computer screen. And they implored teenagers to keep personal information off their Web pages on popular sites, namely Myspace.com.

``We're underestimating our youth a lot,'' Sen. Liz Figueroa, D-Fremont, said after the hearing. ``We just have to keep one step ahead to keep them safe.''

The committee is not attempting to legislate Internet use in California, Figueroa said, but the hearing comes after multiple reports that sexual predators nationwide are increasingly selecting their victims from teens' personal pages -- where they regularly post pictures of themselves, the name of their school, even cell phone numbers.

bout one in five Internet users between ages 10 through 17 have received unwanted sexual solicitation online, according to U.S. Department of Justice statistics cited during the hearing. And 97 percent of the solicitors were strangers.

``The statistics are alarming,'' said Teri Schroeder, president and chief executive of isafe.org, a non-profit foundation that offers Internet safety curriculum to schools.

The hearing opened with video clips broadcast from an investigative report that aired on Dateline NBC that showed how predators locate and lure children online.

MySpace should be MyStress

2006-03-28T03:54:00.000-08:00

Have you noticed that things that we think are so great usually cause us the most stress?

Many people have said that cell phones were a great invention, but now people are glued to their cell phone. The same goes for laptops, pda’s like a Palm Pilot, and other inventions that supposedly make our life easier.

During midterms I found myself wasting insane amounts of time on MySpace. I wasted so much time that I had to pull an all-nighter just to start and finish a ten page paper.

I made a vow that I would drastically limit how much time that I was on websites like MySpace. Five minutes later, I was watching videos on MySpace.
I had a problem, so I did the only thing I could think of. I deleted my MySpace profile. I find that I am blissfully unaware of drama that’s going on with my friends, and I would prefer to keep it that way.

I know that it’s nice to receive messages from people and the occasional witty bulleting. However, I thought that if my friends needed to get a hold of me quick, I have a cell phone and an email account.

Ninety-nine percent of the stupid chain bulletins are just annoying and stupid. So there’s no real loss.

I never knew how much stress MySpace caused until I was completely off of it. I no longer spend a several hours everyday checking for any changes in my friends’ profiles or blogs.

Another thing that I’ve cut out is blogs. I’ll admit that I had a blog on MySpace just to keep everyone up-to-date on my life. If there was a big event or fun weekend, I would post it online.

I had a private journal that only a few friends of mine read. I aired out my problems, they would offer solutions or words of encouragement, and I would do the same to them.

However, I found that even blogging got to be stressful. So, I deleted my blog. I thought that if one of my friends needed advice or words of encouragement, they know my email.

Why do people even more stress on their selves by signing up for these needless sites? I’ll admit that MySpace was fun when I first signed up for it, but then it went down hill.

I don’t need MySpace, Facebook, or any blog site. It’s just needless crap to waste time on. I could use that time studying for classes, working more hours, or even thinking about the meaning of life.

Suggested name change for MySpace website

2006-03-27T20:18:00.000-08:00

The headline of this AP story, "Colorado Police Use MySpace to ID Suspects," may give you the idea that the website's becoming a valuable law-enforcement tool for catching rapists and child molesters.
But the unfortunate victim of a violent gang rape wouldn't have met the creeps if it hadn't been for MySpace.
Along with the usual teen verbal intercourse, the website inadvertantly facilitates meetings between gullible kids and ghouls from Stephen King novels.
Hence, our suggested name change for MySpace: "Strangers with Candy."
Think that will be enough to get careless parents to monitor kids' Internet use?
Neither do we.

College officials ponder effects of FaceBook, MySpace

2006-03-27T20:16:00.000-08:00

By Matt Krupnick
CONTRA COSTA TIMES
College administrators are figuring out just how essential Facebook and MySpace are for the proper care and feeding of students.
Hundreds of student-affairs officials from campuses around California arrived at UC Berkeley on Monday for pointers on the increasingly difficult task of keeping up with students' Internet savvy. Monday's sessions focused on the ever-increasing use of social-networking sites, such as the popular MySpace and Facebook sites.
"We are clearly entering a new realm where the development of technology is outpacing our ability to keep up with it," Genaro Padilla, UC Berkeley's vice chancellor for student affairs, told the gathered administrators. "It marks a real turning point for the way social networks operate."
MySpace -- recently bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. -- has attracted millions of users of all ages, bringing together people who share interests and friends online. Anyone is allowed to create a MySpace account, which has created concerns for parents and privacy groups.
Facebook, meanwhile, has cornered the college market and is rapidly expanding its use among high-school students. Users must have a valid academic e-mail account to join, and most online interactions are limited to a single school campus.
Use of the site, founded in 2004 by then-Harvard sophomore Mark Zuckerberg, has boomed on many campuses. At UC Berkeley, former student-body President Misha Leybovich joked about Chancellor Robert Birgeneau's Facebook profile during Birgeneau's inauguration last April.
Two-thirds of Facebook's 7 million members use the site at least once a day, Zuckerberg told attendees Monday. Despite the heavy use, he said, nothing has really changed from the days before Facebook.
"The social norms on the site are matched precisely with those of the real world," said Zuckerberg, 21, who dropped out of school in 2004 to concentrate on his growing company. "People are doing online exactly what they do off-line. The only reason they're doing it online is because it's more efficient."
Much of Monday's discussions focused on the administrators' roles in the increasingly digital world of social networking. Several questions centered on how student-affairs officials should react when students post online photos of underage drinking and other illegal activities.
Opinions varied from "Smart students wouldn't post photos of illegal acts" to "Administrators have no business punishing students for such postings."
"If the administration feels like a police force, students are going to treat it like a police force," said Tony Wang, a Stanford University undergraduate. "If administrators go on there and collect information for enforcement, it's going to take away a lot of the positive effects Facebook has had."
But some students said they know colleagues can get carried away with online communities.
"I know a student who actually swore off MySpace for Lent," said Bonnie Sugiyama, a Cal State Sacramento graduate student who is researching MySpace use. "If you didn't know it was serious before, you know it's serious now."
UC Berkeley officials said they organized Monday's conference to prompt a long-overdue discussion on online social networks.
"For us, it's yet another medium," said Karen Warren, a student-affairs program coordinator at the Berkeley campus. "But because students are so far ahead of us, we have a lot of catching up to do."
"If we don't," added student-development director Jerlena Griffin-Desta, "we're missing a whole shift in the culture."

MySpace.com clean up?

2006-03-27T20:15:00.000-08:00

UNDATED -- A popular website among teens and young adults, MySpace.com, has politicians pushing for ways to keep users safe.

Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro has sent a letter to the MySpace CEO, asking him to help protect members from potential abuse and exploitation.

Petro wants to increase the user age limit, block minors from accessing groups or profiles with adult content and include a "report misconduct" button on every page.

Other politicians have asked MySpace executives to provide parents with software to help them block access to the site.

© 2006
WKYC-TV

MySpace 101: Staying Safe on One of the Internet’s Hottest Sites

2006-03-27T16:05:00.000-08:00

By: Leah Wuergler

For years parents have been concerned about the safety of their children when it comes to the Internet. We all know that the Internet can be dangerous for children and adults alike. There are people who will do anything to steal someone’s identity, innocence and peace of mind.
But lately parents have been worried about the possible dangers of a Web site that cloaks itself in a mask of “friendship”… which for most users is true, but in the news lately the site has been getting flack for the dangerous people who have started using the free site as a way to continue Internet crimes.
MySpace.com has become a smash hit over the past couple of years. It started in 2003 and as of March 2006 was the fifth most popular English language site, according to Alexa Internet and www.wikipedia.org.
The site was started by Tom Anderson, president, and Chris DeWolfe, chief executive, as a way to help bands and musicians have a place to be heard by the public. It all exploded from there. MySpace is used by more than 61 million people, Wikipedia said, and most of those people use the site to stay in touch with old friends, discover new music and find new friends.
Parents are becoming concerned because MySpace users keep getting younger, and pedophiles have destroyed the safety and novelty of the site for everyone. It used to be that a user had to be 16 to get an account, but the minimum age has been changed to 14. Unfortunately, there is no way for Anderson and News Corp (the company run by Rupert Murdoch that recently purchased MySpace for $580 million) to keep people from lying about their age.
Another concern that parents have is that there also doesn’t really seem to be any way for MySpace to uphold its own rules. For example, the site’s rules specifically say that pictures containing nudity, violence, offensive images or copyrighted images will lead to the account being deleted.
The powers that be at MySpace have not kept that promise on many occasions. When browsing through to find new people or maybe catch an old friend from high school, users run into random pictures of naked people and drunken stupidity. The fact that adults cannot browse for people under 18 may be a way of protecting children and teens, but when someone of any age can find nudity and other harmful images it’s no wonder parents are wary.
“Myspace was way cool at first,” said Brooke, a 12-year-old girl posing as a 16-year-old on MySpace. “I had heard stories about them and like kids being killed by being on Myspace, or something. Every time I heard one of those stories I just thought, ‘How stupid were those kids? I mean, you don’t add anybody you don’t know, and you don’t look on anybody’s page that you don’t know.’ So I thought I was safe and I thought this was the best thing that ever happened to me before cell phones came into my life.”
Because Brooke’s age shows as 16, she can browse for people as young as 16 herself. She claims that she has chosen not to and because of a recent Oprah special she hasn’t used the site in a couple of weeks.
“My cousin brought it up in front of my parents,” she said. “And of course they were concerned, but I defended myself and told them that it was perfectly safe and you can choose your friends and everything. But I told them that I wasn’t going to get on Myspace anymore. They were relieved, and I felt a little safer.”
One concerned parent has created an account of her own to check up on her son.
“He joined MySpace when he was 13, and I got concerned about some of the stuff I saw on his page,” she said. “So my husband and I created an account pretending to be a girl of the same age so we could get the stuff he sends to friends and read his bulletins.”
Bulletins on the site enable people to send information out to everyone on their friend list. Most people use this to send out surveys to their friends and get to know each other better. Bands send out bulletins about shows, new music and videos.
Some parents might not go so far as to create their own page, but in some cases it might be the only way to find your child on the Web site.
You may be unfamiliar with the Web site or unsure if your children have accounts to begin with. There is a way to search for them on the site, but some people don’t put their real names in when they sign up. Go to www.myspace.com and click on “search” at the top of the page. You can search MySpace for a certain person’s name and that will take you to another page where you will notice in the top right corner that you can search for someone specific by name, email or display name. Again, some people don’t sign up with their real names, but if you know your child’s e-mail address you can find them that way. Occasionally the page will tell you that you have to log in to use a certain feature.
Another idea is to just ask your kids. If they aren’t doing anything to be ashamed of, they will probably tell you that they have a MySpace account. After all, it is possible to stay safe on the Internet.
“It’s about parental control,” Jack Hodges said. “If your kid is hiding up in their room on MySpace they are probably going to do stuff that you don’t like. But if they are where you can see the monitor anytime you want to look over… everybody wants to point fingers and not take any blame.”
In the end, there doesn’t need to be blame thrown at anyone. It isn’t MySpace’s fault that people want to post inappropriate pictures or that people have been using the Internet for years to try to harm others.
There are ways to stay safe. Most youth and 20-somethings set their preferences so that only people on their friends list can read blogs they have posted, and sometimes only friends can view their entire page.
“I have my blogs set to private,” one user said. “The blogs are like diary entries and I don’t want people I don’t know to have access to them. But my likes and interests can be read by browsers. I really like MySpace. I have found friends from high school and have kept in touch with people I haven’t seen in years.”
Detective Sgt. Jerry Womack of the Cedar City Police Department said that there are viable ways to keep kids and teens safe while on the Internet and sites like MySpace.
“Keep the computer in a place where everyone can see it,” he said. “That removes temptation to do anything that they shouldn’t. Parents can install software to monitor the history, and if they have the software they just need to use it.”
Womack spoke of the Internet in general, but because of the recent media attention MySpace has been getting he had some advice about that site as well.
“I haven’t really had much experience with it myself, but my kids have used it and if used appropriately it is probably no different than any other program you can use to chat,” he said. “But kids get on there and post pictures and give out personal info, and predators go looking for that. It makes it pretty tough.
“Just be aware of what your children are doing on the computer,” he continued. “We used to teach stranger danger, and (now) people buy laptops. Kids can go into their rooms and invite a perfect stranger into their own home and parents don’t even know. Parents should know and monitor.”

Friends: Good for MySpace, bad for sourcing

2006-03-27T16:04:00.000-08:00

Fresh off his stint as the editor of Mediabistro's Fishbowl, Greg Lindsay is back at the site, explaining why reporters using their friends as sources is a big no-no.
Inspired by Village Voice reporter Nick Sylvester's recent reporting scandal, Lindsay concludes that only does quoting friends set journalists up for holes in their stories, but it is also some kind of psychological backwards way for journalists to insert their own opinion into their stories.
"It's endemic of the fact that we tend to interview people who look like us and talk like us," says McBride. "And if the cynic finds himself talking to the same people over and over for that reason, then there's something wrong with their sourcing."
Lindsay uses plenty of quotes and anecdotes from various to back up his story, making sure to point out that one of them, Poynter's Kelly McBride, is not his friend.
Apparently, all this friend on friend reporting "betrays an ultimately cynical view of the world." And to betray the cynic is to betray oneself. Hmm, how New York journo-psyche 101.
So, while we agree that using your friends as sources for the most part is a huge cop-out, we also think that maybe (just maybe) Lindsay's been hangin' out in the fishbowl a little too long.
Your Friends and Sources [Greg Lindsay, Mediabisto]

Connecticut attorney general asks MySpace to regulate site

2006-03-27T16:03:00.000-08:00

(National-NBC) March 27, 2006 - Connecticut's attorney general is trying to keep things clean at MySpace.

As you may know, MySpace.com is a popular site where teenagers post profiles and photos of themselves. But some say the site is too revealing.

The attorney general of Connecticut has asked MySpace executives to raise the minimum age from 14 to 16 to post a profile, institute new measures against pornography, and provide parents with software that will help them block access to the site at home.

Posted 5:03pm by Chantelle Janelle

Some perspective on MySpace

2006-03-27T16:01:00.000-08:00

By JAMES DERK
Scripps Howard News Service
27-MAR-06

With all of the furor and hype going on about MySpace I think it is time to take a step back and give parents (and teens) a little perspective of what's going on here.

First, the basics _ MySpace is an interactive networking Web site with more than 65 million users. It's the fastest growing site among young people in the world and in the top 3 in the total Internet.

The goal is to put up a Web site all about you and your life then connect to a "network" of friends. Then you're interconnected with everyone they know and eventually you have a large spiderweb of buddies.

On the surface the idea is fine, but like most things it has become reflective of the worst of society. MySpace has been taken over by teens and young people ("tweens") who are putting up all manner of content about themselves on the sites. We're at a perfect storm here when it comes to issues like these.

First, kids now have access to digital cameras and can take photographs of themselves and their friends that never pass through the editors of my day, namely my parents and the photolab. That means MySpace is full of photographs of risque photos, to put it politely.

What the kids of today don't seem to understand is the Web is forever. On the practical side, that photo of you with your underwear on your head using a beer bong may be kinda funny to you today, but won't be all that amusing 10 years later at your Senate confirmation hearing or your job interview for law partner.

Child advocate Nancy Willard said this best about MySpace:

"Teens are clearly using places like MySpace to establish social status. How do young males establish social status? By posting manly, daring images and information that demonstrate independence and bravery and by being listed as a friend on as many profiles of "hot girls" as possible. And how do girls establish social status? By posting sexually provocative pictures and titillating information that attracts the attention and friendship links of manly guys. How does any teen attract attention? By posting hot, intimate information. The teens who are into playing these games are the ones who are most likely playing these games on places like MySpace."

Then there's the creep factor. I typed in my hometown in MySpace and found dozens of kids that I know in less than 10 minutes of browsing, including several that need to have a note dropped to their parents. And there have been numerous cases in the media of stalkers, pedophiles and rapists using MySpace.

What should you as a parent do, right now? Take an hour, sign up for a fake MySpace account and browse your kids. Find out what is on their profile. What could you, as a stranger, find out about your kid?

Then browse their friends and who is in their network.

If you want your child's page removed, you can use the contact link at the bottom of the MySpace page and include the address of the page.

(James Derk is co-owner of CyberDads, a computer repair company, and a computer columnist for Scripps Howard News Service. His e-mail address is jim(at)cyberdads.com.)

Steve Austin Update, Chris Jericho, Storm/Mania & More

2006-03-27T13:24:00.000-08:00

Any fans who want to send in news, articles, web finds, results, appearance notes, photos, or anything else of news worthy significance, please e-mail it to Andy@RingsideMAYHEM.com.
Credit: TNAWrestling.com
Former WWE champion, Chris Jericho announced on his XM Radio show last night that he has opened up a MySpace site at http://www.myspace.com/therockofjericho.
Former WWE superstar, Lance Storm has posted his predictions for WrestleMania 22 on his website.
Thanks to Mikey for sending this in: I purchased tickets yesterday during the pre-sale for a SmackDown taping Tuesday, May 9th in Anaheim, CA. As of last night, the taping has been changed to a RAW on Monday, May 8th per Ticketmaster. WWE.com has confirmed the change, tickets purchased for May 9th will be honored on the 8th, or you can get a refund.
Former British footballer and Wales soccer captain Vinnie Jones will be co-starring with Steve Austin in the upcoming movie ‘The Condemned’. The filming will begin on May 15th.

Police find rape suspects on MySpace

2006-03-27T13:22:00.000-08:00

Beggars + belief...
By John Oates
Published Monday 27th March 2006 11:37 GMT
Detectives in Colorado have used profiles posted on networking site MySpace to identify six suspects accused of a brutal rape and robbery.
The victim, who has not been named, first met the men through MySpace. They subsequently met for a party.
Detective Ali Bartley told Associated Press: "At some point, the victim was no longer aware of what was happening, and she was sexually assaulted." Bartley said: "Primarily, we pulled up her friends list. It helped us identify some of the players."
Six men, aged between 18 and 20, were arrested late last month and one is still being sought. They are being charged with various offences ranging from rape to sexual assualt and robbery.
Police told AP the attack left blood in almost every room in the house. Hearings will be held 6 April.