opinion : websites and kids

Myspace.com seems to constantly be in the news lately (no pun intended on the fact that it is owned by news corp.) The problem is that the media is really being unfair to the site. many media companies (driven by competition with News?) portray the site as a place for predators to pray on innocent children. While it is does occasionally lead to children getting abused, so does walking down the street. actually I would argue the website is much safer. First of all, there is no physical contact possible through the website. For contact to be made explicit directions and arrangements need to be given, which implies some level of consent on behalf of the parties. Second, the communication that lead to the meeting is recorded and traceable. God forbid your child gets kidnapped, you should be so lucky to know where they were going and with whom (fake online aliases are easily cracked by trained law enforcement agents). And saying that the child is innocent is pushing it. In many cases (such as this one) the child had to lie to get on the site in the first place. As in fireworks and lawnmowers, those safety rules are there for a reason.

While the child-predator problem may occasionally turn up, the media is also recking social networking sites (mainly myspace) by ommitting a proper description of the actual demographics. I would estimate (because I can't be bothered to prove it) that the vast majority of users on these sites are bored college students (like me). Some sites, such as Facebook.com are actually restricted to only these users. The sites were designed for and are primarily used for young adults to meet peple with common interests and chat with them to fill time or learn something new. The problem is that at some point, the online community filtered down from responsible college students to wannabe-hip teenage girls. While there is nothind wrong with expanding your social circle outside of your clique, these users were immature and often irresponsible. It is almost always these users who fall victim to con artists, shady commercial products, or much worse. This problem has been excerbated by companies that have increasingly pitched these sites to teens. I would imagine that more gullible users is great for buisinesses that sell cheap things (pokemon ringtones, anyone?) but the consequences are now starting to come to light with cases of child abductions and such. These cases will not bring down social networking sites, however because they simply do not effect the vast majority of users.