Myspace news blog & a reader's response

(I wrote this back in 4/8/2006, and I'm updating it today)

Evergreen Times - Crimes connected to MySpace have parents, police on guard - Reported by Julie Davis Barry

A-HOLE! This article is pretty ignorant of the fact that everyone's profiles under 16 are privatized. But I guess their point is that there was the option where anyone under 18 can view ur profile if ur profile is private, so a pedophile posing as a minor could get away with looking at youngster's profiles. Besides, if you go down to the last part of the story, a lot of that stuff many of my (safe) friends are doing on Myspace as I speak.

So Ms. Barry, are you trying to say that everyone on Myspace is gonna get kidnapped for posting their stuff (name, photo, school, etc) on there profile! I mean, 99.9% Myspace users have their personal photo on - including minors. And only about 1% got kidnapped. Besides, you didn't notice that Myspace has a directory of high schools from all 50 states? When you're saying that we shouldn't state what kinda school or extraciricular (sorry for the crappy spelling) activities we go to? Wow, my fellow Myspacers, welcome to Soccer Mom planet.

In my view, those things happen becuase of lack of maturity and common sense. Those girls we see on the evening news got kidnapped all because they actually decided to do talk to strangers online without the knowledge of their evil nature. A message to all my fellow Internet users: Just don't talk to strangers online, just communicate with people you truly know in real life on Myspace.

Oh yeah, one more thing about discourageing posting personal photos on Myspace: Since personal photos are the main source of identification on Myspace due to the way the site was designed, your friends won't really know it's your profile without your nagging if you don't have your photo on Myspace. So I do not discourage not putting ur photo online, yet make sure you are hard to find for pedophiles and child aductors. (added today) And now that anyone can set their profiles private, this ain't a big deal no more. News articles like this are OBSOLETE!

NBC Nightly News Video on Myspace Mobile - originally aired Friday 4/7/2006

Once again, Myspace makes controversy on the news, now that its Mobile service has been released. Heck, it's been out since I estimate February or so. NBC reported it as controversial because now that Myspace is available on mobile phones, kids are in danger because it's easier and quicker to upload pictures, comments, etc. on Myspace through a mobile phone because parents are less likely to be supervising. Currently, the service is available only to Cingular customers, according to the Mobile options page on your Account Settings. Even as a liberal, I see this as a danger because people going to schools that ban Myspace on their computers can now find a way to use Myspace on campus and get away with any wrongdoing - IF they use Cingular. So I think that schools should ban people from bringing Cingular phones on campus if they want total safety from Myspace on campus - or ban people from even brining phones with those so called "cell phone jammers" - install those throughout campus.

I suggest to any Myspace Mobile user out there to be careful when using it - use the same safety procedures as you would online. Don't post too much personal info, such as your phone # or home address, don't say anything if you can't say anything nice at all, you know the drill. :-)

Regarding the "ban": and old friend named Paul commented: "These blanket bans won't work. Just like teaching abstinence doesn't work.".

i don't necesarily object to this../

San Jose Mercury News - District takes control of Net access at schools - April 30, 2006

On Wednesday, March 15, 2006, the Palo Alto Unified School District began filtering its Internet access in all its school campuses after concerns from parents. This is pretty late, given that most school distrcts nationwide have been filtering their Internets since the dawn of the millenium. So far, it has generated few complaints among it's students. There have been several requests to unblock sites. One was to unblock a site that contained a picture of the character Dutch Schaffer - played by Arnold Schwarzenegger! - from the action movie Predator that a student needed for his foreign policy project. Out of the 100 requests that the school distrit received within the past month, 40 passed, but 60 denied because they were for pornographic sites. As I read the article, I laughed myself to death after reading THIS:

"Sunnyvale middle schoolers using school computers were going to MySpace at least 100 times a day, and an elementary principal discovered fourth-graders who had put profiles on the site. Although users need to be 14, anyone can invent an age and post information."

WTF...FOURTH-GRADERS using MySpace?! That is SO insane! Look, there is a good reason why MySpace has a minnimum age...if you've been following the news lately and seen how teens have been doing bad stuff on MySpace and how sexual predators catch kids on the site, then you know why. Legally, they shouldn't use the site either, because the COPPA prohibits websites from obtaining personal info from people under 13 without parents permission. So if you know anyone under 14 using MySpace, tell them there's a good reason why not. In fact, on an episode of Dateline NBC aired back on April 9, when they visited Middleton, Conn. to do an episode on MySpace, the reporter was interviewing a parent who was mad because her 11-year-old son had established a MySpace without her knowlege.

Personally, I feel that Internet filters on school campuses are not a bad thing; they are so that the school cannot be held liable if the student gets exposed to inappropriate content from a school computer's internet with parental objection. In fact, I've had to live with filtered Internet on school campus since third grade, and I've learned to tolerate it. For example, EVHS has banned MySpace since Dec. 2005 due to students getting in mischif on the site, they do not want to be held liable if students get in trouble or are harrassed on MySpace. In addition, they are so that students do not use the computers to do illegal activity or look up porno...think of it as the PATRIOT Act. For example, the website of the KKK, Al-Qaida, you name it might be banned. So just accept that there are rules on campus and people tend to get in trouble online, and accept the filters.

San Jose Mercury News - District takes control of Net access at schools - April 30, 2006

On Wednesday, March 15, 2006, the Palo Alto Unified School District began filtering its Internet access in all its school campuses after concerns from parents. This is pretty late, given that most school distrcts nationwide have been filtering their Internets since the dawn of the millenium. So far, it has generated few complaints among it's students. There have been several requests to unblock sites. One was to unblock a site that contained a picture of the character Dutch Schaffer - played by Arnold Schwarzenegger! - from the action movie Predator that a student needed for his foreign policy project. Out of the 100 requests that the school distrit received within the past month, 40 passed, but 60 denied because they were for pornographic sites. As I read the article, I laughed myself to death after reading THIS:

"Sunnyvale middle schoolers using school computers were going to MySpace at least 100 times a day, and an elementary principal discovered fourth-graders who had put profiles on the site. Although users need to be 14, anyone can invent an age and post information."

WTF...FOURTH-GRADERS using MySpace?! That is SO insane! Look, there is a good reason why MySpace has a minnimum age...if you've been following the news lately and seen how teens have been doing bad stuff on MySpace and how sexual predators catch kids on the site, then you know why. Legally, they shouldn't use the site either, because the COPPA prohibits websites from obtaining personal info from people under 13 without parents permission. So if you know anyone under 14 using MySpace, tell them there's a good reason why not. In fact, on an episode of Dateline NBC aired back on April 9, when they visited Middleton, Conn. to do an episode on MySpace, the reporter was interviewing a parent who was mad because her 11-year-old son had established a MySpace without her knowlege.

Personally, I feel that Internet filters on school campuses are not a bad thing; they are so that the school cannot be held liable if the student gets exposed to inappropriate content from a school computer's internet with parental objection. In fact, I've had to live with filtered Internet on school campus since third grade, and I've learned to tolerate it. For example, EVHS has banned MySpace since Dec. 2005 due to students getting in mischif on the site, they do not want to be held liable if students get in trouble or are harrassed on MySpace. In addition, they are so that students do not use the computers to do illegal activity or look up porno...think of it as the PATRIOT Act. For example, the website of the KKK, Al-Qaida, you name it might be banned. So just accept that there are rules on campus and people tend to get in trouble online, and accept the filters.

I Wonder Why...

I wonder why all the "controversy" on Myspace has dated back only back to November 2005?

According to the Wikipedia the popular open-source encyclopedia, Tom started Myspace in July 2003. A friend told me last week that Myspace established a 16-and-up restriction in the beginning. I looked at all my friends (16 and under) profiles, and i'm like, wow, he WAS right.

Check this out: on Monday, November 7, 2005, at Warren High School in San Antonio, TX, only 400 out of 3,000 students showed up to class due to a terrorstic threat for school shooting. Immediately, the students who posted the threats were identified and arrested. Note four words in the article: "popular teen web site". So i think around summer or fall 2005, the age limit was lowered to 14..nah never mind 13 because the COPPA protects you if you're 13 and using such sites as Myspace. (BUT THE ACTUAL TOS SAY 14) About a month after that, the principal of EVHS posted a message online regarding Myspace and the SJPD's concern over the site.

So Myspace isn't as new as i thought. It started out not very popular in summer 2003, used mostly by adults, older high schoolers, and college students. Since fall 2005, more and more of the 13-19 age group are using the site. The controversy over teens and Myspace started after Myspace allowed younger teens to use the site. Because back then if a  16-and-under person used the site he/she'd get kicked out.

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.

And some more fun...

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/education/13837874.htm

I was hecka shocked when I read this article on Friday morning before school. Read it and you'll find out yourself. In fact, it seems so ultra conservative and all that. It shows how kids can get in trouble on Myspace yet doesn't point out that there's settings where you can protect yourself. Here's a few excerpts from the article:

"Meet the new permanent record. Those cute and chatty Web pages kids create on MySpace, Xanga and similar sites often include revealing photos, chronicles of partying -- some real, some exaggerated -- and blog entries peppered with foul language. The sites, easily accessible by parents, principals and even predators, could do lasting damage to a teen's reputation, and now more parents and school officials are taking action."

Not always the permament record. Besides, you can change your settings so that you read your comments before they get published on your site. How? Easy.

1. Go to the myspace home page when logged in.

2. Click "Account Settings"

3. Click on the words "Change Settings" next to the section "Privacy Settings"

4. The second checkbox on that options page reads "Approve Comments Before Posting". Check that box. Click "Change Settings".

5. Now you must read the comments that your friends enter in your coments box before you publish them. It's your choice wheter or not you wanna take the time to read comments before publishing them. If you get about tens or hundres of comments per day or everytime you check Myspace, man, it's gonna be a hectic thing for you to do. It's your choice. Oh, on the other hand, if you've been getting harrased online, I definitely recommend you check this option. Better yet, SEE A PARENT OR SCHOOL COUNSELOR/ADMINSTRATOR IMMEDIATELY. I'm sure they can do somehting about it too.

5b. Oh yeah, I forgot. Blog entries and bulletin are also the forums of communication on Myspace where people can haras you if you block their comments. So if they harrass you there, cry uncle.

Now from that excerpt it also pointed out the nasty content that's peppered all over the site. I'm a liberal and absolutely hate those idiots like Jack Thompson and the right-wingers who blast the media for corrupting our kids, so I don't necesarly have a problem with that. And regarding the site being esily accessible, heck no. There are ways where you can edit your profile so that it's hidden to those who you don't know or who could be potential predators. Do Steps 1, 2, and 3 above, only you have to scroll down to the bottom of the "Privacy Settings" page. There are two options: "Anyone under 18 can view my profile", and "Only my friends can view my profile". The safest option is "Only my friends..." because you never know if an apparant child molester out there set his/her birthdate to be under 18. This option is available ONLY IF YOU SET YOUR BIRTHDATE SO THAT YOU'RE UNDER 18. Most people who even bother to read this are under 18, i'm sure, becuase the only peeps over 18 on my friends list are the Wild 94.9 staff. So please be honest wit yourself and show your true age. Oh yeah, faking your birthdate is against the Terms of Service at Myspace, and can get your account deleted and your email will be banned from registration. (And yeah, I do know other friends at high school who fake their birthdates and some middle schoolers who fake theirs too)

"Sonia's father, Daniel Chapiro, said he sat down his daughter after seeing her MySpace page and reminded her that what she posts online is public." Not all the time, if you take the steps mentioned above.

"MySpace doesn't track the number of parents using the site, though officials say 75 percent of its members are over 18." Please note that this is not a true representation of adults using the site, as there ARE lotsa kids who fake their birthdates so they're over 18.

And now THIS..."Gilroy Unified School District blocked the site in November after a South Valley Middle School student complained about being harassed through the site, said Rob van Herk, the district's information technology director." Silly, isn't it? I mean, most middle schoolers should NOT even BE using the site in the first place (Xanga has a 13-and-up age limit so that's an exception) so if a middle school gets complaints about Myspace they should just order the disabling of the pertrator's page because the student--most likely--is underage for legal use of the site. The only middle school students who should get punished for harasing another student over myspace should be the students over 14 (that usually is the 8th graders who rached their 14th birthdays...or really dumb 7th/8th graders who were held back. Hee hee) If they were under 14 and harassing the student online, because they were too young to be even using the site in the first place, both side's accounts should be deleted, no questions asked, because it's a violation of Myspace and FEDERAL LAW (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COPPA) TOO! You know what should be doen to prevent these problems? All schools/districts should ban Myspace so that thye won't have to deal with these sortsa problems this much. Maybe there should be a federal law stating that sites like these are illegal for access in educational institutions or something like that.

So in short, this news article (and all the other articles i mentioned on Tuesday's blog) are just right-wing bullsh*t propaganda against Myspace. I mean, it seems very very obvious that they didn't do enough research to backup their evidence that sites like these fail to guarantee security and safety for their users. BTW, I got sick at the family.org article, since it's one of those religious ultra-right-wing sites formed by a group of dumbazz ignorant soccer moms. I think I should write a "Letter to the Editor" about this obviously biased and wrong news article. You should too. Express yourself at letters [at] mercurynews [dot] com - your letter should be less tan 125 words. No attachments accepted.

Oakland rapper E-40 says that he uses myspace to promote his music, as do other independent/underground musicians like his bay area partner Keak Da Sneak, Christian rock band Building 429, punk rock band AFI, and numerous other musicians, independent, underground, mainstream, you name it. That should bring up some happiness in you after you've read this.

Some more fun....

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/06/eveningnews/main1286130.shtml
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-02-05-teen-online-assaults_x.htm?POE=TECISVA
http://www.family.org/cforum/fnif/news/a0039430.cfm (get ready to puke)
http://www.click2houston.com/news/6786518/detail.html
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/consumer/6792030/detail.html

I'll have some analysis of all this bullshit later this week. Also, whoever was my 300th viewer of my profile please leave me a comment or something.

safety rant

CBS 5 San Francisco/Bay Area (KPIX) - POLICE ADVISE PARENTS TO RESTRICT KIDS' INTERNET ACCESS

ABC 10 Sacramento/Central Valley (KXTV) - San Joaquin Firefighter Sentenced For Sex Acts With Lodi Teen

NBC 11 San Jose/SF Bay Area (KNTV) - Missing Livermore Girl Found Dead

In the past three days...these stories and many more have appeared on the news regarding the use of Myspace. Yikes, Myspace is not only used by innocent high schoolers just hanging out and soicilizing, but by CRIMINALS who wanna aducct our children! AHH!! Delete your myspace...just kidding...now back to the subject of the child molesting. The Livermore Police said earlier that there could've been a connection between Kayla Reed's disapperence and Myspace, as she was logged in her myspace the day before she was gone (dec. 2 and 3). She could've met someone online. Yesterday afternon on KCBS-AM 740 Radio they reeported on a Rodeo (accent the e, Roh-DAY-Oh) girl who went missing; her parents supect it's gang-rlated. KCBS (not to be cofused with the CBS channel down in Los Angeles) reported that the girl's parents didn't let her use Myspace.com, but she did anyway. The inverstigation in the girl's computer does show she signed up and got hooked up with soem Latino gangstas. Apparantly all the aductions mentioned in thelinks above were caused simply because the kids actually decided to meet those people online.

I would like to take the time to remind all my fellow myspacers... (ahem)...

NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER MEET STRANGERS ONLINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is that understood?

Because it is just plain unsafe! you know that strangers u meet online will aduct and possibly kill you! Seriously, the news says so! Can't you learn anything from the news? Besides, it's not just usnafe, it's just plain stupid. If you ever get a friend invite, ALWAYS look over the person's profiel to make sure it's someone who u know. I do that. If u get suspicious or antying, DON't add the person. You could be asking for major trouble. In addition, if ur under 16, please be honest with urself and the Myspce administers and set ur birthdate properly. Myspace is programmed so that members under 16 will always have profiels site to "private"...no one except friends can view ur profile. It hides what school u go to and things that may reveal who u r. Yet it still shows what city u live in. And only ur default photo is shown - anyone who's not ur friend can't view any photo other than ur "profile" photo. So if ur legally under 16 and u've set ur birthdate so ur shown as over 16, plz be honest. Unless ur not concerned about ur privacy and want a potential child predator to target u. Oh yeah, this brings up a question many myspacers have asked, why can't I set ur profiel to private other than that? I really think that myspace thinks that after ur 17, u should be mature enough to know what to show and not. Look here for help.

Meanwhile, if ur parents won't let u sign up 4 myspace, just accept their answer and Don't. Don't do what the stupid girl did. You never know, as you might not be smart enough not to know the differnce between ur friends and eenemies online, and you eventually might end up in the same state as Kayla Reed.