The evil continues...

ABC News (USA) - Parent Learns About MySpace - Feb. 21, 2006

I searched "Myspace" under Google News, this was result #1, and i just LAUGHED. The article points out that people put their address's on their Myspaces - however, read THIS from the MySpace T.O.S.:

"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, violence, or offensive subject matter. Information provided by other MySpace.com Members (for instance, in their Profile) may contain inaccurate, inappropriate or offensive material, products or services and MySpace.com assumes no responsibility or liability for this material."

Phah, who cares about last names. Hundreds and thousands of peeps put up their last names (while setting their profile to private, most of the time). And ADDRESSES? Geez, I'm gonna complain to ABC NEws - it seems that they didn't even bother to read the "Terms of Srevice". And this is outrageus: Pope John XXIII High School in Sparta, N.J. (about 40 miles west of New York City) BANS Myspace/Xanga type of profiles for all of its students. I searched all over Myspace for PJ23 students - yeah, Myspace admins understood and doesn't include PJ23 in their school directory for New Jersey. (If you see any other students with "Pope John XXIII High School" on Myspace it's most likely among the OTHER PJ23 schools in the USA - remmeber there's lots and lots of schools in America named after Popes, presidents, etc.) Yes it's legal, says Electronic Frontier Foundation lawyer Kurt Opsahl:

"'Students are protected by the First Amendment,' he [Opsahl] said. 'Though it is important to recognize that the First Amendment protects you against public school censorship, it protects you against the government. So activities by a private school come under a different scenario.'"

So if yo're in private school and can't use myspace/xanga according to it's rules, bummer. Either stay awy from the site and be safe or sign up and get in trouble - even if you didn't post anything "bad" in your space. I'm sorry; your principal said so. Heck, I've heard that even privates schools - notably in my hometown of San Jose, the girls-only Catholic school Presentation High - has had to deal with these sortsa problems. According to the San Jose Mercury News (remmber that blog entry?), PHS banned Myspace from their servers after its students posted pictures of themselves...yeah you know. They ARE listed under the California school's directory on Myspace, however, so doesn't look like they ban it's students from establishing profiles altogether.

And then the article goes on blab-blabbing about how people's privacy is broken in Myspace - but ends on a happy note, since News Corporation owns Myspace and Fox Television, they pointed out that fictional TV charcter's myspaces are being established by NC. So if you see a Family Guy profile, it was most liekly created by the folks over at Fox TV. And this spring: there's gonna be myspace mobile, where you can use your CELL PHONE's to blogin. Now for schools who block myspace on their computers it's gonna be ALOT harder for them to stop students from getting in trouble on Myspace.

The silly thing here is howerver that it points out people are posting stuff that even myspace clearly says you cannot - addresses, phone numbers, porno, etc. So far, all of my friends (with an execption to the Wild 94.9 page and any other pages run by radio stations) don't post their addresses or phone numbers. I even went as far as to use Google and search area codes in Myspace. 408 (San Jose/South Bay)? all of them were just gangsters who wanna represent. 504 (New Orleans)? There WAS a New Orleans phone number on Myspace but it was for a rapper living there - his page was even posted undre the "musician's" section. 415 (San Francisco)? A phone number from a 31-year-old used car seller. I guess people who want to post their number on Myspace sets their profiles to private - who knows?

And just to let you know, Kayla Reed case is STILL unsolved after about three week's silence.