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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.
Article C2594 - March 16, 2006
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
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 3:18 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"
that never happens, people just say that to scare kids away
Posted by: myspace-a-holic at June 11, 2007 1:48 AMun-believable
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 9:48 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...
Posted by: mister petey at December 20, 2007 8:17 AMYes there's plenty of bimbo spam, increasing commercials, but even still its working.
PS Leo - thanks for the tip on posting pics.