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Listen to the podcast: What's so special
about myspace?. Transcript Hi everyone, this is Leo Notenboom with news, commentary and answers to some of the many questions I get at askleo.info. There's been a lot of noise in mainstream media lately about myspace.com - particularly with respect to it being use by adults attempting illicit activities with underage children. Why myspace? Why now? Myspace is certainly popular among the kids, and that may be the biggest reason. I get several questions every day relating to myspace passwords, hacking, and the apparently popular "how do I put a picture in a comment on myspace." (I don't know, but I'll work on it.) There's no way to tell whether the poster is 8 or 80, but quite often from the tone and wording it's obvious that the majority aren't necessarily from adults. And therein lies the other problem: there's no real way to have a service that's free and open, without making it possible for children, both preteen and teenagers, to participate. Put up barriers, such as requiring but not charging a valid credit card, and you'll exclude much of your adult market as well. In a competitive climate, that's essentially business suicide. And it is a competitive market. In reality, other than its current popularity, there's nothing revolutionary about myspace. There have been community sites for years, and the type of problems we hear about today are also nothing new. What is new is simply the number of people, and by extension the number of children on the internet. Pure statistics will tell us that more people will mean more instances of various types of problems. What's so special about myspace? Nothing. People tend to blame myspace, but fail to realize that should something happen to it, or should it simply fall out of favor, the kids will move on to the next cool thing, and the adults who are so inclined will simply follow. So if this type of problem is not new, and if there'll always be a myspace or myspace equivalent, what do we do? In my opinion, this isn't a problem technology can prevent. Technology can only help after the fact - once there's been a problem. Prevention requires education - and that means both parents and children. Children need to be educated in the very basics of privacy and trust, and how that applies directly to everything they might choose to do on line. Parents need to be keenly aware of what their children are doing on line. A horribly difficult job, I know, but parents need to be involved. Sadly many, perhaps most, are not. Related:
• Recent Comments
Myspace has been solidly growing for a long time now, the reason for its success? Well, I have been with them for a long time now, but not as a "person" but rather as a musician... My music is able to be heard on Myspace along with many much more well known artists. Thats right, famous bands are putting their music on myspace for free. Most noticably recently an american band called "Nine Inch Nails" which has a very large following posted a complete copy of their new album 1 month before it was released in stores. On top of that Myspace has this "friends" feature, where people apply to be your friend and you can choose to approve them, or not. This appeals to a lot of younger people who usually turn this into some sort of competition. I guess it is a lot like a computer game, the winner has the most "friends". Myspace also acts as a free website, including blog which allows people to easily create homepages for themselves.. (this has been done a million times before ofcourse, but hey.... its all part of the fun).. "almost instant messaging" is also built in.... providing both recipients have myspace accounts... All in all there is not a single thing that makes Myspace more popular than some of its predecessors (geocities and such) but it is a combination of clever toys and clever marketing... As far as paedophiles and things go.... I hadnt heard about that happening on myspace, but there is no reason to believe it wouldnt happen there when it has been happening since the inception of the internet using one platform or another... Perhaps parents should follow up "The birds and the bees" with "The birds and the modem". Posted by: Eelko Van der Does at March 29, 2006 09:33 PMEelko - trying to track you down urgently (it's Brendon from STNZ) - please get hoild of me on my same old email! cheers Posted by: Brendon Mune at May 16, 2006 03:40 PMhey. i did everything you said just when i go to porperties it says that the URL is not avaliabe. Hi Leo - I just read this article and I compeletely agree with you. Yes, there are Adults out there who do solicit minors for sex, however, there are also minors out there, who dress to make themselves look like adults and put that they are 18 on their profiles to get older people to talk to them. So, the problems are on them too. This is NOT myspace\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\'s fault. The parents are lookin\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\' for someone to blame, when in reality, there is no one to blame. Parents need to monitor what their children do online. Myspace happens to be popular right now, but the same issues were going on with yahoo, just a few years ago. Although, I don't remember it being on the news nearly as much as myspace. Great Article, and have a great day! Posted by: Jenn at July 11, 2006 01:22 PMI changed my email address on myspace to a new one and now i cant log back in...Myspace wont help me!!? thanks fot the help...i appreciate it!! myspace myspace myspace... i found so many of my old friends from the parts of town i moved from. because of myspace's popularity, i can find almost anyone! i learned how to use basic html codes to manipulate various "objects" on my page. i got to experience great underground music in a convenient manner. i deep in touch with people far away and my mom can easily see what im up to (as long as im honest). myspace has been productive for most people who use it... advertising, networking, ect... this myspace idea was ingenious as sliced bread! hurray! Posted by: audrey at March 9, 2007 03:18 PMhi im just going to say that us teenagers dont go on myspace to pose, you accept or decline strangers, most people decline, and the main thing you do on myspace is talk to friends and have fun not all this crap about "oh yeh lets meet"
I <3 Myspace. It's a great way to keep in touch with old friends, family thats far away, and meet new people when you move. I live out of a hotel 4 days a week for my job, so whenever I am in a new city, it's easier to message someone who lives there to ask about the cool places to go. But I strongly feel that minors should not meet and greet random people, parents are to blame here, when I was still in grade school, I was required to give my parents my passwords for everything. But, I went out with friends all the time...I never spent much time on the computer, now that I am grown...my laptop is my life. I am never home, so its how I keep my cell phone minutes as a record low. I think myspace has updated the online community and made it more "user friendly". Posted by: Jessica at July 20, 2007 09:48 AMthe way to put pictures on a picture comment is go to photobucket.com or tinypic or somthing, upload it or find a picture oyu want in the search engine, and copy the "html" code on the side of the screen. then go to a picture on myspce, select comment, and copy and paste the code into it. voila. Posted by: peri at December 2, 2007 10:52 PMWe came to Myspace because of the free music posting - musicians can post 4 or more free songs, a detailed calendar, photos, and you can see comments from other fans. This is an invaluable service to musicians, who obviously need their own site as well, but the networking is unbelievable. As a fan you can quickly check what all of your favorite local bands are up to this weekend without having to navigate 10 separate web pages, and see that there are similar bands across the country, in Belgium, Africa, wherever... Post a comment on "What's so special about myspace?":
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