Caution: MySpace

Coming under a storm of complaints and protests from parents, MySpace, the popular social networking website, announced today new restrictions on how adults may contact its younger users. The site already prohibits kids 13 and under from setting up accounts and displays only partial profiles for those registered as 14 or 15 years old unless the person viewing the profile is already on the teen's list of friends. Under the changes, expected to take effect next week, MySpace users who are 18 or over could no longer request to be on a 14- or 15-year-old's friends' list unless they already know either the youth's e-mail address or full name.

Kids in schools are spending more and more time in internet. With growing number of kids on the internet, it's more important than ever to make sure that our kids are safe online. Even though sites like MySpace could bring forth some positive attributes, including development of communications skills and enhancing self-esteem, these may expose your child's private information to the widely open internet and your kid may not even know the danger of that.

You may find out if your child has a membership to MySpace with a profile and a blog. If so, take a few minutes to do the following:
(i) Make sure that they have not posted their real name, school name, contact information, photo of themselves (especially sexually suggestive photos) or any other information which someone could use to find them. Check if they are lying about their age pretending to be adult.
(ii) Remind your child why it's important not to post sensitive or private information about themselves and have them edit their profile.
(iii) Establish rules against emailing and contacting strangers.
(iv) MySpace allows members to link to each other's sites. Check up these linked sites too, if your child has any. Check if those sites have any private information of your child.
(v) Continue to monitor your child's site regularly. This is not a violation of privacy. This is a safeguarding measure to protect your child from someone trying to exploit his/her innocence.