What is up with people blaming myspace for their problems, particularly parents who blame myspace when something bad happens to their kid? As a parent, I look at it as my job to keep my children safe, and that is what, along with my wife, I will do.
Lets make a comparison with one of the latest news stories, where a 14 year old girl was sexually assaulted by a 20 year old she met on myspace. The girl and her parents are suing myspace for not protecting the girl. What if these kids had met at the local mall, would the mall be liable anything? I’ve never heard of a mall being sued because some older guy hooked up with an under aged girl, took her to his place and sexually assaulted her. In this case, the biggest problem is that this girl went out with someone she didn’t know, and her parents didn’t even know about it. Myspace had nothing to do with the sexual assault, it is a simple website. Did the guy talk to the guy on a cell phone, via AIM, or e-mail? Why no suits against those companies?
I have three sons and a daughter on the way. The kids won’t be going out with people that I don’t know and certainly not with people that they don’t know. Their online activities will be transparent to their mother and I. Kids, they don’t need much privacy, if they tell you they do, than they are probably doing something they shouldn’t be. I’m not saying I’ll be reading every e-mail they send or receive, but that is certainly an open option. The kids will learn early on that mom and dad will know about everything that happens on the computer.
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2 comments:
The reason why parents blame myspace is the same line over and over again. "My kids are good kids. They don't do things like this." What many parents forget is that although there are plenty of kids that are good and trustworthy, there are many people who arn't. They don't take into consideration that kids don't have the life experience, maturity, or knowledge to know who is worthy of trust and who isn't and how to deal with people who arn't trustworthy. So even though they may or may not do their best to protect their children, they don't do their children the service of teaching them those life skills. That is the real argument, and the real job of a parent. It has nothing to do with myspace.
Those who do blame myspace for their tragedies are either 1, money hungry or 2, looking to find a reason that would comfort them. I think the first group is just sad and pathetic. They are trying to jump on some type of bandwagon and don't give a sh*t about their children. I feel empathy towards the second group as I don't know a person who hasn't done this during a tragic time. I wish for them to find that reason so they feel comfort, but I also hope they realize myspace isn't it.
What I don't like about MySpace is it seems like people are going out of their way to make friends. Having a blog is one thing but MySpace+"can I be your friend?" can equal badness. Those parents are pretty silly for doing that though, I'm sure that the girl has learnt her lesson (terrible way to do so) and the parents need to not try to blame other people (except for the evil guy). MySpace Music seems cool for band exposure but why teens need to go out of their way to make internet buddies is beyond me, they do it cos all their friends are but why can't they just use Google Talk or something?
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