My space

[misty]

hread Started on Mar 11, 2006, 6:14pm

Kim Komando has an interesting article about My space.com & the dangers of children posting on the web without being properly informed. I just thought I'd pass it on:'


MySpace has exploded, claiming millions of members. It's easy to use, and it has mass. Anyone can join. But it's particularly popular with those in their early teens to late 20s. Because of its size, problems with pedophiles and lack of controls, it has developed a negative reputation.

So, let's look at MySpace. Anyone 14 and over can get a free account. All it takes is a valid e-mail address. However, there is no verification of a person's age. Once you sign up, you can customize your profile page.

Profile pages typically contain personal information. Songs, pictures, comments and friends' comments often are included.

Most importantly, there is a section to list friends who are also on MySpace. You can point MySpace to your AOL, Gmail, Hotmail or Yahoo! address book to see if anyone you know has registered with the site. MySpace will list any members in your address book.

From that list you can send a friend request. The member receiving the friend request must approve it in order to be linked as friends. But you can also find new friends by searching MySpace's database for people with similar interests.

The member search function offers a quick way to locate registered users based on information they list in their profile. You can search by gender, age, marital status, location, ethnicity, body type, height, education, orientation, religion, income and even preference to having children. Obviously, this has great potential for someone seeking 15-year-old children.

A random search is an eye-opener for most parents. Underage members post pictures of themselves with friends drinking beer. Others write about their experiences with drugs. Frank and sexually explicit comments appear on friends' profile pages.

If you have teenagers, they may well have MySpace pages. Ask to see them. Objectionable pictures or comments can be removed. If your child is under 14, have the profile removed. Click the contact link at the bottom of the MySpace page. Complete the form and include your child's URL.

Your children must understand that anyone can see the information they post. Many youngsters have no concept that millions of people can see what they post. They also may not understand that anyone can pretend to be someone else. According to the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, each week an average of 50 children fall prey to online predators. This statistic is not limited to MySpace users, but covers the Web as a whole.

Young adults also make mistakes on these sites. I know of a case in which an employer checked job applicants on a Web site. He hired a person at a lower salary than he expected to pay. Why? She was the picture of confidence in her interview. But, on her page, she said she desperately needed the job.

Although MySpace and other sites like it can be a fun experience, remind your children that what gets posted on the Internet can have far-reaching consequences. The Web is a great communications device. But the dangers are undeniable. Parents must tackle this before something terrible happens.

www.komando.com/kolumns_show.asp?showID=9586#complete

And from CBS news:

talking to some teens who regularly use MySpace, it's easy to see that a lot of kids aren't very careful about the information they put on their pages.

"So many people don't even use common sense," says Katie Pirtle, a high school student. "Some people even put their phone number on there."

And while they information kids put on MySpace may be intended for their friends, do they think, "Hey there's 35-year-old or 45-year-old guys out there looking at my site?"

"Definitely not," says April Ehrlich, another high school student. "When they think MySpace, they think other teenagers. They don't think there are adults pretending to be teenagers on there."

Many MySpace users post "the survey," which asks for responses about issues like drinking, drug use and skinny dipping. Users can also put up pictures.

MySpace declined CBS News' request for an on-camera interview but said in a statement: "We dedicate a third of our workforce to policing and monitoring our site."

The site requires users be 14 or older, and they are warned not to post any "personally identifiable material." But the teens we spoke to say that advice is routinely ignored.

"Just like a car accident, it can happen to you," says high school student Julia Rinaldi. "Predators can come to you — and that's what they don't think when they post those things."

Those predators include men like 26-year-old Jeffrey Neil Peters, who was arrested last month for sexually assaulting Susie Granger's daughter. Granger says parents should keep their kids off the site.

"Please don't allow your children to go onto MySpace," she says. "It's a very unsafe environment for them to be in."

But for the thousands of teens who are hooked on the site, it's a warning that's lost in cyberspace.

Blogging Safety Tips
From BlogSafety.com (a site operated by CBS technology consultant Larry Magid)

# Avoid postings that could enable a stranger to find you. That includes your last name, the name of your school or sports teams, the town you live in and where you hang out.

# Check to see if your blogging service has a "friends" list that allows you to control who can visit your blog. If so, be sure to allow only people you know and trust. Be very careful before adding strangers to your list and be extremely careful about the information you post that can be accessed by people outside your friends list.

# Avoid getting together with someone you "meet" through a blog unless you are certain of their actual identity. If you do meet them, arrange the meeting in a public place and bring some friends along.

# Be very careful about photographs you put on your blog. It's best to avoid photos that can make it easy for people to recognize you. It's a very bad idea to post photos that are suggestive or sexual in nature. Before uploading a photo, ask how you would feel if that picture were seen by your parents, a college admissions counselor, a potential employer, a future boyfriend/girlfriend or spouse or, perhaps, your grandparents. What if you were to run for office someday? What you post on the Internet can be downloaded by others and can hang around forever.

# Avoid postings that could embarrass you, your friends or family members now or later. Remember, what you post on your blog can be copied and stored and could come back to haunt you years later.

# If you allow non-friends or strangers to post comments to your blog, check the comments regularly to make sure they're appropriate and, if not, remove them. Never allow messages that are mean, threatening or embarrassing to you or others. Never respond to such messages either. Just delete them and, if possible, block that person from visiting your blog.

# Do not lie about your age when you sign up for a blog. Age limitations are there for a good reason. Claiming that you are older than you are could get you into trouble and put you at risk.

For more information about blogging and Internet safety, please visit my sites, BlogSafety.com, SafeTeens.com and SafeKids.com.

www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/06/eveningnews/main1286130.shtml

[misty]

Dangerous influences on the Web


The Internet can be a lot of fun for your children. It can be a source of homework help, games and music. It can also be a place to make friends in other states or other countries.

With so many people online, a lot of different communities and social sites have flourished. But not all groups or trends on the Internet are good fun or good influences. In fact, some are dangerous.

Parents should be aware of dangerous influences on the Internet. Here are some of the types of sites I think may be dangerous for your children--the dark side of the Internet.

1. Social networking sites
Social networking sites allow people to post photos, create blogs, and connect with other members. They can be used for making online friends or finding dates. Members list their online buddies until eventually everyone is somehow connected through a chain of common friends. Sites like MySpace have especially drawn in young children and teens.

However, these sites can be a virtual buffet for sexual predators. Children will sometimes reveal their home addresses or school names. Some lie about their ages, a dangerous practice. Kids can invite even more trouble by posting suggestive photos, even if they're done in jest. Make sure your children know that their friends aren't the only people looking at their postings.

2. Acceptance sites for anorexia and other eating disorders
Some sites give a sort of community support for people, especially girls, with eating disorders. These sites can promote disorders like anorexia as acceptable lifestyles instead of supporting recovery.

Acceptance sites make children more likely to continue hiding their problems. They share their "thinspiration" through photos of models like Kate Moss. Even worse, girls can read tips on how to damage themselves even more efficiently. One example: Use manicures/pedicures to hide brittle nails caused by starvation.

You can read more about children and eating disorders, including warning signs, at the KidsHealth for Parents Web site.

3. Instructions for homemade drugs
Other sites provide instructions for getting high from household chemicals or over-the-counter drugs. They claim First Amendment protection, but that does not make them welcome in my book. Children can too easily become brain-damaged by such idiocy as sniffing Glade air freshener straight out of the can. Even worse, kids could die.

Upsetting as it is, you may want to do some reading yourself to be aware of which household items are in vogue.

4. Extreme stunts
Stupidly dangerous stunts were made all too popular with the TV show Jackass, and its related movie. Some sites support the trend by hosting videos of kids doing pointless and deadly stunts.

You'll see boys jumping off roofs or lighting firecrackers in their pants. Children searching for their 15 minutes of fame can end up with broken bones or worse. That's not the type of popularity that your children need.

The Internet is a largely unregulated world that can harbor dangerous information and people. That's one of the main reasons why I drafted the 10 Commandments for Kids Online. You can print it right from my site and sign it with your children.

Most of all, just be aware that parenting is tougher than ever in the age of the Internet. You can never let your guard down when bad influences are only a click away.

www.komando.com/tips_show.asp?showID=9212

[misty]

Online Safety, Updated
Published: April 17, 2006
by: Cecilia Garcia

Kids today are navigating territories that previous generations never imagined. This cyber arena offers new ways to communicate with friends and meet new people, while posing new dangers for kids and young people. Parents are faced with a growing number of news reports about adults posting fake online profiles to meet and exploit young people. Just how safe are places like MySpace, FaceBook, Zanga and others? The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says that there are some 200 social networking sites but criminal incidents so far have been rare. But there is cause for concern.

In testimony on April 6, 2006 before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, FBI acting executive director Chris Swecker said, "We’ve come a long way from the early electronic bulletin boards that pre-dated the Internet. Today an estimated 21 million teenagers use the Internet, with 51 percent online daily. As children use computers more and more, online child predators take advantage of emerging technologies to facilitate their unimaginable criminal activities."

MySpace is the best known of the social networking sites and the largest with 69 million members. Last week its parent company, News Corporation, announced plans to address Internet safety concerns. These actually build upon efforts MySpace has been engaged in for some time. Parry Aftab, executive director of WiredSafety, says MySpace has been working with her organization to provide a safe online environment for kids. "WiredSafety has been the watchdog inside MySpace for a long time," Aftab said. "MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe has been very responsive, immediately implemented our suggestions and posted our safety tips." Aftab said she thinks that the recent bad press moved News Corp to take a higher profile in its online safety efforts.
Building Public Awareness and Confidence

The first of these latest safety efforts was the launch on April 10th of a public service campaign in partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the Advertising Council. "Don’t Believe the Type" alerts teens to know the dangers and what situations to avoid, so they can surf more safely. The campaign is running banner ads on MySpace and News Corporation will run the ads on its cable channels.

In a press statement, NCMEC president and CEO Ernie Allen said, "We know the Internet holds tremendous potential for our nation’s youth. We are pleased to be partnering with News Corp and MySpace to extend the reach of our ad campaign so we can educate additional parents, guardians, and teens about how to prevent online victimization so our children may have safer experiences online."

Then, on April 11th, MySpace announced the appointment of Hermanshu Nigam as chief security officer. Nigam currently serves as the director of consumer security outreach and child safe computing at Microsoft. Starting May 1st, he will oversee all safety, education, privacy and law enforcement programs for MySpace. Nigam has more than 15 years’ experience in online safety; he served as a federal prosecutor against Internet child exploitation for the U.S. Department of Justice. Nigam also advised a congressional commission on online child safety issues.

Aftab says these are good moves for MySpace and demonstrate a willingness to take a proactive approach on Internet safety. When asked if we have the laws needed to protect children from online predators, Aftab replied, "We have all the laws we need. The problem is with law enforcement." She said, "What we need is better training and technology for police officers. Street cops don’t have the experience to deal with the Internet. And we need better cooperation between law enforcement and the Internet industry."
Moving Toward Best Practices

WiredSafety is working to encourage providers of social networking sites to collaborate on online safety issues. "Right now, they’re operating in a vacuum," Aftab said. To facilitate this collaboration, WiredSafety is convening a June 2006 summit of social networking sites, major Internet service providers and others. The first part of the summit will be designed for companies like MySpace, FaceBook,Zanga, Tagged, and others to talk with each others as peers about online safety issues.

Aftab hopes the summit will provide the groundwork for the creation of online safety standards and best practices. "Maybe they’ll end up wanting a WiredSafety ‘seal of approval’ or maybe they’ll set up a trade association," she said. "Whatever happens, it will be a voluntary and self-regulating process for those members of the social networking space who are listening to our concerns."

[misty]

Do You Know Where Your Kids Are Clicking?
06.21.06

Your kids aren't going to stop using MySpace and Facebook, but at least you can give them safety helmets and kneepads.



Do You Know Where Your Kids Are Clicking?
06.21.06

Your kids aren't going to stop using MySpace and Facebook, but at least you can give them safety helmets and kneepads.

Do You Know Where Your Kids Are Clicking?


By Alan Cohen

Every few weeks, David Frey walks into a school cafeteria, pops open his laptop, and frightens a room full of parents. There's nothing particularly scary about Frey himself, a friendly 39-year-old with a wry sense of humor. It's all in his presentation.

An assistant district attorney of Staten Island, New York, and chief of his office's computer and technology investigations unit, Frey has seen practically every bad act that can happen via the Internet, from drug deals set up in AOL chat rooms to sexual predators targeting—and assaulting—minors. Almost without exception, the parents he speaks to have noticed nothing to be wary of. "Most parents are completely surprised when I show them this stuff," says Frey. "They have no idea what goes on online."..........

Lots more here:

CLICKING



Content Advisor

Are you worried about what your children or grandchildren will encounter while surfing the Web? Letting a kid run loose with a Web browser is like letting them walk alone through a bad neighborhood at night. There's just a lot that can go wrong.

Well, if you let them surf with Internet Explorer, you can take control! Here's how:

1. Open Internet Explorer, hit the Tools menu, Internet Options.

2. Click the Content tab. You'll see a Content Advisor area. Click the Enable button.

3. You'll get a tabbed screen chock full of exciting security options. The first tab is "Ratings" and it's the first step in the process. It will filter out sites that have an "RASC" rating that doesn't match your preferences, but it will also filter out any site that simply has no rating at all.

For example, Disney.com works great, but NickJr.com (great spot for preschoolers) won't come up. (Maybe Blue's Clues could do an episode where they find out how to get RASC approval).

4. The next tab is called "Approved Sites" and it's the solution for letting your kids get to sites that do not have an RASC rating yet. You can set this up in one of two ways.

The first, and most difficult method is to manually type in sites you think are safe. Just type in the address of the site in the "Allow this Web site" box and click the "Always" button.

The easy way:

Once Content Advisor is set up with a password (next step), you will get a prompt for that password every time you land on a site without a rating. This screen will give you the option to always allow the site. This is a much faster way to go.

5. Okay, here's the last critical step: setting up a password. Click the General tab and you'll see the password setup under the "Supervisor Password" area. Go ahead and click the button and then just follow the directions to set up your password.

That's it! Your Content Advisor is now set up and ready to filter. Keep in mind that this is not foolproof, but it's a lot better than letting your kids traipse all over the Internet unsupervised.

Also, if the kids aren't going to be using the computer, you can easily disable it. Just head back to the Content tab and click the "Disable" button in the "Content Advisor" area. That way, you're not getting prompted on every unrated page you visit.

[misty]

Heres an intertesting FREE thing you can order:

Internet Safety Kit is Ready to Go

The Polly Klaas® Foundation's Internet Safety Kit provides guidance for parents on ways to:

* Keep your children safer online
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Order your FREE Internet Safety Kit:

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[misty]

This is really scary....Look at this. It was in a newsletter & theres no link I can give so I'm pasting it here. It says to share it anyway. By the way, that the girl's name is Shannon is just a coincidence.

Who Knows What About Your Kids? Grandkids? Nieces? Their Kids?

A Must Read for All who have children or grandchildren or friends who do.

EVERYONE NEEDS TO READ ALL OF THIS and HAVE YOUR CHILDREN READ IT TOO!

After tossing her books on the sofa, she decided to grab a snack and get
on-line. She logged on under her screen name ByAngel213. She checked her
Buddy List and saw GoTo123 was on. She sent him an instant message:


ByAngel213:
Hi. I'm glad you are on! I thought someone was following me home today. It
was really weird!

GoTo123:
LOL You watch too much TV. Why would someone be following you?
Don't you live in a safe neighborhood?

ByAngel213:
Of course I do. LOL I guess it was my imagination cuz' I didn't see anybody
when I looked out.

GoTo123:
Unless you gave your name out on-line. You haven't done that have you?

ByAngel213:
Of course not. I'm not stupid you know.

GoTo123:
Did you have a softball game after school today?

ByAngel213:
Yes and we won!!

GoTo123:
That's great! Who did you play?

ByAngel213:
We played the Hornets. LOL. Their uniforms are so gross! They look like
bees. LOL

GoTo123:
What is your team called?

ByAngel213:
We are the Canton Cats. We have tiger paws on our uniforms. They are really
cool.

GoTo123:
Did you pitch?

ByAngel213:
No I play second base. I got to go. My homework has to be done before my
parents get home. I don't want them mad at me. Bye!

GoTo123:
Catch you later. Bye

Meanwhile......GoTo123 went to the member menu and began to search for her
profile. When it came up, he highlighted it and printed it out. He took out
a pen and began to write down what he knew about Angel so far.

Her name: Shannon Birthday:
Jan. 3,1993 Age: 13 State where she lived:
North Carolina

Hobbies: softball, chorus, skating and going to the mall. Besides this
information, he knew she lived in Canton because she had just told him He
knew she stayed by herself until 6:30 p.m. every afternoon until her parents
came home from work. He knew she played softball on Thursday afternoons on
the school team, and the team was named the Canton Cats. Her favorite number
7 was printed on her jersey. He knew she was in the eighth grade at the
Canton Junior High School. She had told him all this in the conversations
they had on- line. He had enough information to find her now.

Shannon didn't tell her parents about the incident on the way home from the
ballpark that day. She didn't want them to make a scene and stop her from
walking home from the softball games. Parents were always overreacting and
hers were the worst. It made her wish she was not an only child. Maybe if
she had brothers and sisters, her parents wouldn't be so overprotective.

By Thursday, Shannon had forgotten about the footsteps following her.

Her game was in full swing when suddenly she felt someone staring at her. It
was then that the memory came back. She glanced up from her second base
position to see a man watching her closely.

He was leaning against the fence behind first base and he smiled when she
looked at him. He didn't look scary and she quickly dismissed the sudden
fear she had felt.

After the game, he sat on a bleacher while she talked to the coach. She
noticed his smile once again as she walked past him. He nodded and she
smiled back. He noticed her name on the back of her shirt. He knew he had
found her.

Quietly, he walked a safe distance behind her. It was only a few blocks to
Shannon s home, and once he saw where she lived he quickly returned to the
park to get his car.

Now he had to wait. He decided to get a bite to eat until the time came to
go to Shannon's house. He drove to a fast food restaurant and sat there
until time to make his move.

Shannon was in her room later that evening when she heard voices in the
living room.

"Shannon, come here," her father called. He sounded upset and she couldn’t
imagine why. She went into the room to see the man from the ballpark sitting
on the sofa.

"Sit down," her father began, "this man has just told us a most interesting
story about you."

Shannon sat back. How could he tell her parents anything? She had never seen
him before today!

"Do you know who I am, Shannon?" the man asked.

"No," Shannon answered.

"I am a police officer and your online friend, GoTo123."

Shannon was stunned. "That's impossible! G To is a kid my age! He's 14. And
he lives in Michigan!"

The man smiled. "I know I told you all that, but it wasn't true. You see,
Shannon , there are people on-line who pretend to be kids; I was one of
them. But while others do it to injure kids and hurt them, I belong to a group of
parents who do it to protect kids from predators. I came here to find you to
teach you how dangerous it is to talk to people on-line. You told me enough
about yourself to make it easy for me to find you. You name the school you
went to, the name of your ball team and the position you played.
The number and name on your jersey just made finding you a breeze."

Shannon was stunned. "You mean you don't live in Michigan?"

He laughed. "No, I live in Raleigh It made you feel safe to think I was so
far away, didn't it?"

She nodded.

"I had a friend whose daughter was like you. Only she wasn't as lucky. The
guy found her and murdered her while she was home alone. Kids are taught not
to tell anyone when they are alone, yet they do it all the time on-line. The
wrong people trick you into giving out information a little here and there
on-line. Before you know it, you have told them enough for them to find you
without even realizing you have done it. I hope you've learned a lesson from
this and won't do it again. Tell others about this so they will be safe
too?"

"It's a promise!"

That night Shannon and her Dad and Mom all knelt down together and thanked
God for protecting Shannon from what could have been a tragic situation.


*****NOW*****


Please send this to as many people as you can to teach them not to give any
information about them selves. This world we live in today is too dangerous
to even give out your age, let alone anything else.

[misty]

Schwablearning has a wonderful article about social networking (such as myspace). It covers both the pros and the cons.

"In this article, we will address the risks and benefits of social networking online for kids in general and, more specifically, for kids with learning disabilities (LD) and/or Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (AD/HD). We will also explain how you can enhance your child’s online interactions."

Read the article here:

www.schwablearning.org/articles.asp?r=1120




Heres the 2nd part to the Schwab internet safety for kids article.

In this article we will explain in greater detail how to safeguard your child’s online experience by teaching him how to protect his personal information and identity from being exposed or exploited by others who find him via the Internet. You’ll also learn about various technology tools that block, filter, and monitor your child’s online activity — and guidelines for choosing those tools that best address your concerns.

www.schwablearning.org/articles.asp?r=1122

[misty]

Kids love the social-networking Web site MySpace.com. But far too often, their profiles disclose too much personal information.

See if your child can spot 10 safety problems in the sample MySpace page below. You may have to scroll down to view all of the safety issues.

Then, follow the links below the profile to see if your child is correct!


www.komando.com/myspace/

[charliegirl]

That is just like most my space pages. Just about every post there has something that would enable a creep to look them up.