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“Our Children Are
in DANGER:
Whose Space Is It Anyway?”
As a mom of three children who regularly use the internet, primarily
for school, I felt it was necessary to do some private investigating.
This brief report highlights just a few of my own personal findings
along with my own opinion.
Do you have a MySpace account or something similar? Do any of
your children? Are you SURE? I thought I was!
In order to explore this foreign space it was necessary to create
my own account. The minimum age to create a MySpace account is
14 years old.
Now, I could have been a 12 year old kid (hint-hint) and lied
about my age very easily. MySpace does a good job at stating its
terms and conditions, however, they seem to have quite a job at
censoring these terms and conditions.
After I created an account and got into the space, I noted the
clock. Within only 3 minutes I came across pages with sexually
suggestive poses, what I would call pornography and foul language
galor.
You may wonder why I did this? Well, all of our children have
and are being raised in a Christian environment.
As parents we do our best to lead an guide them in doing right,
but as we all do, they fall short from time to time.
Shortly before entering the public school system for the first
time, one of my children was told by a friend that “everyone
has an account”, my underage child opted to be disobedient
and with the help of the friend (at the friend’s
home), set up a private MySpace account
without our knowledge or permission. Peer pressure and the need
for acceptance won out this time.
Needless to say, the truth always comes out. Nearly four months
later we discovered it.
I never wanted to believe it. Are you certain?
Is
there objectionable Content on your PC? Are you Sure? FREE SCAN
After obtaining all of the “private” login information
from our child, I logged into my child’s private MySpace
account. What I discovered throughout the journey was shocking!
Every parent needs to know about
this!
Not only was I able to see that account, but I was also able
to view all of the other friends that had access to the
private account, some of whom the child didn’t even know!
I purposefully sent the friends a message of concern
as a parent, also informing them that my child would no longer
be participating. I do believe they were all mortified. Did I
tell you that the account was private? Apparently other
friends gave out the necessary access information to
other kids that my child didn’t even know. Kids simply do
not have mature reasoning skills and really do need our
help more than ever today.
Generally, across the board with a few rare exceptions, this
is what I witnessed after viewing the other sites and reading
their messages, some of which were freely visible for others to
read:
LIES: Several children
lying mostly about their age for various reasons. (Obviously,
so the under 14 population can create and account) Others, because
they feel the need to impress, or so they think. (MySpace does
have terms and conditions, one of which is the age restriction.
Anyone is free to report abuse at the site such an underage user
or offensive material etc…) Take a look for yourself. Hmm…good
luck with your results.
SEXUAL: Most every
site I visited revealed images of a tween in a suggestive pose,
some fully dressed, others in bathing suits or in revealing attire
with a lot of makeup. Many of the photos were probably self taken
often with a cell phone. One telltale clue
of a self portrait is an outstretched hand and distorted image.
I also had the misfortune of coming across access several
pornographic images and/or videos within the general site,
all of which can be very easily accessed by a child with an account.
Did I mention that it took me only 3 minutes to come across access
to sexual images/video clips from myspace? It seems as though
they might be having a hard time keeping up with the censoring
issues.
FOUL LANGUAGE: The
F-word and other choice colorful language is being used as if
it were a primary and accepted language of that world . Children
who may normally not utter a word of this language within audible
earshot are using it liberally in cyberspace. Why? I would venture
to guess that it is the general lack of inhibition and conscious
that cyberspace seems to infuse in our youth.
SEXUAL SOLICITATIONS and
then some: Some of the comments in the message boards of some
of the sites I viewed are so disturbing I simply can not even
share them with you. I did read a message for many to view (including
this mom) from a middle school aged girl who implied to what I
believe was her loss of virginity at a recent party. Casual sex
or hooking up is being an epidemic among youth. How disturbing
is that?
Another young boy was sending out a chain letter of sorts which
essentially was projecting the virginity status of all who chose
to add their names to it and forward it on.
Would you like to find out if your
child is being exposed to this evil filth?
Cyberbullying is yet another distubing component, not to mention
the very revelant presence of online predators.
Statistics on internet-related risks, as reported at
the website of PC Tattletale, are frightening:
“A report published by the National Center for Missing
& Exploited Children(NCMEC) and the University of New Hampshire
revealed that of a sample of children & teens who use the
Internet:
1 in 5 children - Solicited for sex in the past
year.
1 in 33 children - Aggressively solicited sexual,
meaning that the child was threatened, asked to meet, called on
the phone, or received mail or gifts.
1 in 4 children - Exposed to photos of people having
sex, even though about 1/3 of households reported using
"Internet blocking software."
1 in 17 children - Threatened or harassed on the Internet,
including threats of harm to the child, friends or other family
members.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if these numbers may actually be
higher.
So, in my humble opinion, these type of accounts serve absolutely
NO productive purpose for children and teens other than to pollute
and harm. Until these types of sites can implement and effective
censorship practice, its use could be potentially quite harmful.
These type of sites have been permanently banned from our home
and we now boldly share our views with the homes that our children
visit.
Our child has been utterly transformed since leaving that dark
space. Grades are back up to high honors, and those destructive
friendships have virtually been eliminated by the child’s
own choosing.
You may have every reason to trust your own children, but who
you don’t really know could be luring them into
the dangers in cyberspace right under your very nose. Being a
“nice family” doesn’t always cut it. What they
may not know could be hurting their own children as well.
I urge you to judge for yourself, but give yourself some time
to do some investigating on your own. What I know you’ll
find will most likely be disturbing. I’d love to hear about
your findings.
Parents Beware: (see below)
Do You really know what your child is doing in cyberspace?
Is
there objectionable Content on your PC? Are you Sure? FREE SCAN
Once again, the above content is based on my personal opinion
and experience. By setting up specific controls and reliable monitoring
software our home is now better equipped to confront the evils
in this world.
Warmly,
Tammy Matthews
Copyright 2008, Bizzimom Planners Inc.All Rights
Reserved.
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