Popular Web Site Worries Parents
Popular Web Site Worries Parents
April 4, 2006
by Keach Hagey
When David Wardell, now 16, decided about a year ago that he wanted to create a profile on the popular networking Web site MySpace.com, he first explained to his mother how it worked - and then gave her his password.
"I told him that I really had to have access to it if he was going to do this, and he was fine with it," Marie Wardell said. "I'm always over his shoulder anyway," she added, laughing.
She found the content of the site - which encourages members to post photographs of themselves along with lists of their favorite movies, books and music - pretty "benign," she said, so when her 12-year-old son approached her wanting to join up too, she applied the same rules.
But when she investigated the kind of information that other students were posting about themselves, she didn't like a lot of what she saw.
In addition to revealing personal details about themselves, such as the names of their schools or towns, the preteens used the uncensored space to embellish the truth about their experience with drinking and drugs, post provocative pictures of themselves and often lie about their age, she said.
"I was really concerned for the middle schoolers, because I felt that they were admitting themselves into an arena where they didn't know how to handle themselves," she said. "Some of the kids really let go."
Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced Thursday that his office has received numerous complaints from parents who say their children can easily post and view inappropriate and sexually suggestive material on MySpace. As a result, he has referred the matter to Chief State's Attorney's Office for possible criminal prosecution.
"As a parent, I find it appalling and abhorrent that a Web site would so poorly police its pages," Blumenthal said. "This Web site is a parent's worst nightmare."
Newspapers across the country have reported in recent weeks a significant increase in arrests of sexual predators who have met their victims through social networking sites like MySpace. This week, police in Middletown said they were investigating whether as many as seven teenage girls have been sexually assaulted by men they met through MySpace.com.
In a statement Thursday, MySpace said it was committed to providing a safe environment for its users and to working with Blumenthal to address his concerns.
The Santa Monica, Calif.-based company, whose parent company was bought last year by media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, said it had many initiatives designed to protect its users against inappropriate conduct and content, including dedicating workers to monitor the site 24 hours a day, reviewing every image hosted by the site and working with law enforcement agencies.
Nonetheless, the reports of sexual predators trolling for victims on MySpace has caused concern among many Greenwich parents. The networking Web sites differs from chat rooms and other forms of Internet use in that they encourage users to post photographs and personal details about themselves.
Western Middle School President Don Strange said a worried parent contacted him yesterday about the specific dangers of MySpace. Although Internet safety is an ongoing topic of discussion at PTA meetings and is taught to sixth- and eighth-graders as part of the media technology curriculum,Strange said he had not yet viewed MySpace specifically - in part because the site is blocked, for students' protection, on all school computers.
"I'll be sending out a letter to parents next week, making them aware of the site and warning them to increase their vigilance," he said.
Central Middle School Principal Jim Bulger said that, precisely because administrators cannot possibly keep up with every new youth-oriented Web site or chat room that pops up, it relies on i-SAFE America, a Carlsbad, Calif.-based nonprofit organization, to constantly update them about Internet safety.
Last week, the organization sent the school a new middle school recommendation for dealing with MySpace and other forms of chat rooms that are gaining popularity among adolescents, he said. The fact that teachers and coaches can sign on to MySpace, look up students' profiles and use any claims of inappropriate behavior made on those profiles against the students' in disciplinary action has made the site unpopular at Greenwich High School, according to Student Government President Juliana Pugliese.
"It was much more popular toward the beginning of the year," she said. "I think that kids stopped conversing so much on MySpace because it is so incriminating that anyone can look at your profile. What's actually become more popular now is Facebook.com, because it's more restrictive. It doesn't allow anyone to create an account that doesn't go to a school. They even have a place where you can report photos there."
Originally designed for college students, Facebook.com has recently come out with a version for high school students, which requires that users be invited by another student. MySpace users can sign up for an account with no invitation, and can make up fake names to protect their identities, a fact that often lowers inhibitions online, she said.
"I think a lot of people got really creeped out by the MySpace stuff," said Pugliese, who canceled her own MySpace account earlier this year.
David Wardell said he has never had any problems with his MySpace account, which he uses to keep in touch with friends he met over the summer in other states. However, he also doesn't post anything there that he wouldn't want his teachers to see, either.
"You don't release information about yourself," Wardell said. "When you go to a Web site like this, you have to understand that you don't know who you are talking to."