Kids share on MySpace, but with who?
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.
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.
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