If what you say is true, Yahoo and AOL is for Sex as well. Possibly the internet itself. Of the dateline peice you mentioned, only 1 of the 50 people caught was from MySpace (according to Perverted Justice), the rest on Yahoo IM and AIM.

Posted by Shawn Gold | 8:45 am on February 15, 2006.

AOL does not have as part of the registration process the ability to register as someone seeking sex, nor when you join AOL can you specify your sexual preference. MYSPACE specifically asks these questions, and then allows children to join adult-topic groups, which AOL does not and actively monitors and assists with law enforcement.

YAHOO and AIM are not “meeting places” but methods of communication after meeting through social networks, such as myspace.

The fact that there are “ADULT” forums in MYSPACE that have children members, and there is no filter for this is disturbing, at the least.

Posted by Pesach Lattin | 9:06 am on February 15, 2006.

Parents first and foremost should be monitoring their children online. But MySpace is a catalogue for child molestors. Where else can you easily search for children, their interests, where they live, their sexuality and from this article, if they are swingers? What reason does MySpace have to offer that option to register on a kid’s site as a swinger?

Posted by Anne | 9:24 am on February 15, 2006.

I have to agree with Anne. The parents should be the primary individuals to be monitoring what their children are doing. Although in this day it is pretty dificult because there are so many things that young people get into, it’s hard to keep up.

In my opinion, with the whole MySpace theory although it may be great to network, depending upon what you put on your site. Seeing what these kids put on there site’s you might as well hold up a sign in the middle of Time’s Square screaming I am a whore, please do me. They might get better results.

Posted by Ron | 9:59 am on February 15, 2006.

I have a MySpace account. After receiving a barrage of random friend requests and suggestive emails, I wrote specifically in the “Who I’d like to meet” section that I was here to keep up with friends, and I occassionally make new friends, and nothing more. In addition, one can stipulate what they are looking for, i.e. activity partners, relationships, dating, friends. Here too, I stipulated friends. Unfortunately, most people look at the pictures and send messages anyway. That’s okay. I don’t have anything suggestive. It’s just that I’m not ugly or gianormous and I do get emails. I don’t list any affiliations or specific information.

I do see young people on MySpace, and much to my chagrin, as friends of the people I am friends with. In fact, I have a 34 year old friend who has a 16 year old listed on his friends page. That is weird to me. Even though he’s not 50 and she’s not 14, what do they have to talk about? MySpace is another medium, among many, whereby predators can lure unknowing, naive teens into sexual conversations and worse - encounters.

(comment cut for space)

Posted by Lana | 10:23 am on February 15, 2006.

It’s not just adults/children hooking up. Here in Baltimore, a woman got killed on a date that was set up through MySpace. You can find more details from links on this blogpost.
MySpace is a largely social site and has all the problems of any social site/chatroom/IM chat. I don’t think it is primarily marketed at children, but the age policy allows them in.

Posted by yellojkt | 12:09 pm on February 15, 2006.

I’m dead set against regulating free speech, especially on the last great frontier, the Internet. This site has been getting so much free press since Dateline it’s ridiculous, but hopefully educational as well. There’s lot’s of places that this happens on the net, don’t loose focus by pointing at only one place. Children and parents need eductaed, leave the net alone. That’s what TV is for.

Posted by Dave Holmes | 1:26 pm on February 15, 2006.

This has zero to do with a free speech issue: Grown men using MySpace to troll for children is a totally seperate issue. Advertisers not having control over placements is the issue.

Posted by Andy | 1:30 pm on February 15, 2006.

From the AP, just came out today:
A 26-year-old Santa Cruz man has been arrested on suspicion of child molestation after he allegedly had sex with a 14-year-old girl he met online, authorities said.
Nathan Contos is accused of pretending he was as young as 15 before meeting the high school girl for sex at his home, Lt. Phil Wowak of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office said Monday. The pair knew each other through the MySpace social networking Web site and the America Online instant messaging service, authorities said.

Posted by James | 2:38 pm on February 15, 2006.

Guys, lets get back to the advertising part again. Andy, I’m with you.

If Myspace wanted to clean it up they will. When advertisers start pulling their ads (like what happened with Kontraband.com last wee) then they’ll clean it up.

Until then, they’ll ride this free press all the way.

Posted by Mike | 4:15 pm on February 15, 2006.

I have been using the internet and participating in chat rooms since I was 11 years old, right when AOL was introduced to the internet. I spent most of my afternoons after school participating in chat rooms on AOL. I was sent countless e-mails and IMs of pornographic photos of male genitalia from the men I was chatting with (they were well aware of my age). There were requests of meeting offline but I never agreed because I was well educated by my parents the dangers of meeting someone from online. I’ve been a part of the internet social networking community for 12 years as well as all my friend. We caht with strangers all the time, but we’re not dumb enough to ever be in a unwanted situation.

I believe first and foremost it is the parents responsibility to educate their children on the dangers of the internet. Ask yourself, what is a 14 year old doing chatting with strangers on the internet and then agreeing to meet for consensual sex? Why are they having sex?? Unfortunately, this happens all over the internet, MySpace just happens to be the most popular with 54 million registered users therefore making it the easiest target for blame.

Posted by Tiffany | 5:58 pm on February 15, 2006.

My situation is similar to Tiffany’s. I have also been using the internet since I was 10, and now with the progress of computers, have used forms of Instant Messenger. I am now 14. I have looked at MySpace, and it is quite dangerous for the unwary person on it. There are many other web spaces out there, and some are much better about that than others. While MySpace is dangerous, it can also be safe, by parents monitoring and teaching their childeren about what dangers it will pose.

Posted by Katherine | 7:32 pm on February 15, 2006.

MySpace needs to decide what business they want to be in. If they want to attract underage visitors, they need to remove all provocative adult advertising, features, groups, etc. Period.

If they want to be in the adult business, they need to remove all features for underage visitors (EG “tell us about your school”). They also need to deactivate anyone who they have reason to believe is underage if so. Period.

They can’t have it both ways. This isn’t about free speech; this is about a worldwide corporation marketing to children on a website that contains pornography. It’s ludicrous and foolish.

Perhaps the easy solution is for them to split into 2 sites; a clean one for underage visitors and a separate one for adults.

Posted by Scott Wolf | 9:44 am on February 16, 2006.

Welcome to last year.

“The downside to mySpace is it’s full of sexual predators; the upside is that it’s also full of sexual prey.” -The Daily Show

Maybe you ought to be looking into WHY 13-14 year olds are so sexualized these days (seen MTV much over the past 5 years?). The sluts on myspace are a symptom, not a cause.

Posted by Wolf | 6:50 am on February 21, 2006.

Online dating is here to stay and is becoming more acceptable with each passing day.

The problem is that Myspace and others have little incentive, at this point, to take actions that might chase away a large percentage of their membership. The growing membership is its “bread and butter”.

Matchinform.com is unaffiliated with any dating or social site; therefore has no conflict of interest when “outing” members who have less than noble intentions.

Matchinform is now covering Myspace and many other sites, and from the number of users, we are providing a much needed service in the industry.

We base our information on reports filed from members of the online dating community about other members. Matchinform is user-name based, easy to use, and free.

Posted by Warren H. Kelly | 3:34 pm on February 22, 2006.

I think people are being to hard on MySpace the samething will happen elsewhere for example Instant Messenger, online dating etc you know what i mean for the most part MySpace is a safe place if you don’t know the person then just block them or don’t add the person or ignore the messages very easy as i see it. As for social neworking sites it means exactly that and if the person doesn’t like the site the person doesn’t have to sign up that simple.

Posted by myspace | 8:14 pm on February 24, 2006.

MySpace is the bane of existance for any parent of teens today. Of course we have to observe the First Ammendment Rights of the Constitution, but a the risk of losing our children to what I think is the down fall of society as we know it. MySpace pollutes the minds of our children at an early age and lures them into a false sense of security where their sexuality is concerned.

How can parents protect their children? Where are the rights of parents to say “we have had enough with this garbage that is out there?”

Posted by Lisa | 9:16 am on February 27, 2006.

In response to the comment of the parental responsibility to monitor what your children do…easier said than done. I have two teens ages 14 and 16. There are ways to get around what they do…they are well versed in the ways of the computer. We have installed a program that records their keystrokes so we have some type of idea what they are saying…hopefully we will not have to bring “dangerous” behavior to their attention.
A teen can say that they are 14 to keep their profiles private, however, they can add someone as a “friend” and that could be just about anyone.

Posted by Lisa | 9:30 am on February 27, 2006.

I think myspace is safe, because you can set your profile on private, and its your choice to put addresses or numbers on it. People are stupid when on myspace, that’s why it can be dangerous. Lots of kids are so dumb so they put their numbers or an address on their profile, and they don’t set it to private, they do it just for people to notice them, but i think it’s stupid.

Posted by Sage | 11:14 am on March 1, 2006.

I want to personally thank you for writing this article. We should all discourage advertising on this site until they make this an adult site only by charging a membership fee with credit card to keep the children out.

I had written to them about a situation that happened in our household with a teenager and their response was vague and non responsive.

I have forwarded this article to our local Junior high school, since the Vice Principal has concerns with issues happening within the school

Thank You!

Posted by Theresa | 2:11 pm on March 1, 2006.

Oh, NICE profile photo of the chick in the thong underware; HELLO!!! And this site isn’t about sex??!

Posted by KC | 1:18 pm on March 3, 2006.

Myspace is how my friends and I keep in touch about events, concerts, dinners, baby showers and many mundane events that do not involve sex. It is a revolution in how we socialize. Sex and dating is part of socializing, and sure some members of the community focus on that, but that is not what it is all about.

What is the problem? If parents can’t teach their children common sense and good values, it is the fault of the parents, not an online communications medium. 14 year old girls who are having sex with older men are most likely physically or mentally abused in the home - not by myspace.

You wracked you brains for sleaze and found exactly what you were looking for, but this is a reflection of the community and world in which we live, not an online technology.

Why don’t you look at the root causes for the behavior of overly sexualized teens. Technology and the Internet is not going away.

Posted by dan | 12:48 pm on March 7, 2006.

I think that myspace is safe. Cause I have it blocked so other people can not request me, unless i know them. I think that it’s rediculas that kids that are 14 and under 14 have one. The person who runs myspace should cancel the accounts that have sexual and violence stuff in it. myspace is sopposed to be a safe website so people can keep in touch with people who have friends or familys that live far away and they cant keep in touch. people under the age of 14 SHOULD HAVE THERE ACCOUNTS CANCELED!! you should be 18 to have it. Thats my opinon

Posted by Melissa | 7:25 am on March 8, 2006.

I am at Job Corps and they blocked myspace, it blows

Posted by Twinks | 5:14 pm on March 14, 2006.

People, this is about advertising on MySpace. Not whether or not it is safe for our kids.

Brand names like AT&T have their ads shown on groups and profiles that pull in smut and pornography.

MySpace can easily separate eliminate the groups that have the crap.

…. But they don’t. They are afraid it will chase users away. That’s why they haven’t even updated the logo or site’s cheesy navigation. If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.

Posted by Pete | 12:37 pm on March 20, 2006.

We all must put this in perspective, MySpace is yet another outlet for people of all ages to express themselves, their interests and their passions. I am one who believes in freddom of expression and speech and believe ultimately its the parents resposnsibility to protect their children from predators in their home to predators on the internet. While the internet allows for easier access to the younger generation, close monitoring of site and content and talking with children about the dangers of abusing online expression all are key factors to safe surfing.

Posted by Daniel Schonfeld | 4:59 pm on March 22, 2006.

Its for sure from the present article ..myspace is creating a hoax where in its allowing the young teens to get involved in sex and other activities with those who are some 20 30 years old.I really not advocate this kinda relationship.Yeah evybdy had sex and will have sex .This is not a big issue,but yes relationship like this which involves a going mature and a well matured person is something not getting down my stomach.This kinda groups may also lead to some misconduct.Those who are in there early teens freakout for these kinds of sites for fun and surerly they dont have an idea what might can come out after a fun of 2 hours which can be horrible nightmare.Cases of cheating,Betrayal,etc. may be there.
Thanks.

Posted by Rahul | 12:15 am on March 24, 2006.

Myspace can be dangerous i believe, but only if young teenagers put themselves in that situation, believe me 14 year olds know about sex, and know how to do it. Myspace isn’t introducing anything new to them. If they wouldn’t lie about their ages, or accept ” friend request ” from people they didn’t know, then there would be no problem in myspace what so ever. Housewife Mother’s of middle America need to get lives. They spend way too much time in seeking out negativities in what their children are doing. The problem isn’t with Myspace, it’s with the youth of America wanting to be grown up way too early in their lives.

Posted by Katie | 12:15 pm on March 28, 2006.

I must be having deja vu all over again. I swear we had these same debates in 1995 over chat rooms, which were all the rage and pretty new at the time.

Any AOL user (no matter the age) could start a chat room with one click, and do anything they wanted. They were almost all un-monitored, and private chat was de rigeur.

While I wish the world of hyper-sexualized teens and children hadn’t evolved so rapidly, it’s a societal thing that will have to correct itself.

It’s so easy to say it’s someone else’s responsibility (parents, schools, TV, government), but bottom line is it’s a personal morality/stupidity thing.

Posted by Dana Todd | 3:06 pm on April 7, 2006.

I have noticed a peculair trait of the digerati.
They keep mum on dodgy issues concerning Google.

“”We had to weigh our hatred of child molesters against our hatred of the Bush Administration,” said a Google spokesman. “Unfortunately, the child molesters won, and we will not give any information to the Bush Administration. I realize Yahoo! and Microsoft have already disclosed this information, but they probably like Bush more than child pornographers. It’s important to stand up to government and support freedom.”

http://www.jerhad.com/jerhad/2006/01/google_stands_u.html

Porn is everywhere on the Internet and not limited to myspace.

It’s time bloggers took an unbiased stand on this issue.

Posted by newnimproved | 3:44 pm on April 14, 2006.

Although I find your article very insightful, I have to disagree with some of the point that you stated. I don’t believe MySpace is a forum for sex. I do believe that there are pervert, pedophiles, and online predators on MySpace, but I also believe that young boys and girls don’t HAVE to post pictures of themselves naked on MySpace. It is not MySpace’s fault that kids are doing that, although they are allowing it, the kids, if they don’t want to be sexually harrassed, don’t have to post raunchy pictures, personal information, and sexual orientation. What you didn’t mention is that, although you can post sexual orientation and register as a swinger, you don’t have to answer to that to register. As a military child, I move around a lot, and I find MySpace very helpful in keeping in touch with good friends from places where I’ve lived previously. I post pictures so that my friends can see how I’ve changed, and I post comments on my friends sights, but I won’t open a comment from someone I don’t know, and I won’t accept a friend request from a stranger. A lot of articles about MySpace say that it is a bad place for kids and that you shouldn’t let your kids go on, but in reality, if your kids are careful, there shouldn’t be a problem, and we can always delete accounts. If we don’t give out personal information and post raunch pictures, we should be okay.

Posted by Emanuela | 4:47 am on April 26, 2006.

Theirs no need to have sexual pictures up on the site, that basicaly giving a sex preator a free ticket to your life. The site also offers blockers to have only people you accept view this imformation. The people who are getting mixed in this sex scandle are asking for it themselves.

Posted by Angela | 2:05 pm on May 15, 2006.

I think myspace is over-rated - a poster child for the need of virtual connectivity of users on the web for the sole purpose of creating less of a swarm of bees and more of a bee hive. Sort of like the Britney Spears of the entertainment industry, MySpace was a “right place, right time” player. I bet plenty of people registered don’t actually go to the site or visit it infrequently. It’s a great case study on how the business world fixates and ultimately falls on staring in one spot more than seeing what’s really going on around it.

Posted by Mischief | 5:27 pm on June 19, 2006.

As a gay rights advocate in my community, I think Myspace is a fruitful way to meet more people my age with my sexual orientation.

Posted by Dan Tyrie | 12:36 pm on June 23, 2006.

Aside from all of the comments above denegrating Myspace (and rightly so), in terms of advertising, Myspace is really a niche marketplace. I suspect all this talk of “Myspace advertising” is 2-fold.

#1 - Myspace actively seeking advertisers for the purported millions of new signups, etc.

#2 - Idiot marketers who only see the numbers but have not actually used Myspace to see everything in context.

Advertising in Myspace IS appropriate for the right industry and the right demographic. What kinds of industries are good? Music, entertainment, movies, even automobiles (the after market and “youthful” cars - not…oldsmobile…).

Ads from these industries are appropriate for the general age bracket and social bracket of Myspace - which is basically, youth-oriented.

Pharmacies, banking, mortgages, real estate, and others are completely inappropriate for Myspace. Even if they advertised, who would care? Myspace users go online to socialize, to network with others, and basically have fun. No way would they care about a mortgage, about life insurance, or anything like that.

So why is Myspace advertising such an issue? It really shouldnt be. Unless your industry is youth-oriented, you shouldnt consider advertising at all on Myspace.

But what about the numbers? Well in interactive advertising, you can never look at “just the numbers”. Everything has to be in context. Again, the context of Myspace advertising is youth-oriented. As long as it is youth oriented, it is appropriate. Major brands like Target or Walmart are not exclusively youth-oriented therefore, inappropriate for Myspace. But specialized apparel like Bebe or Chico’s are. Some may not be exclusively youth-oriented. But they are already “exclusive” or “glamourized” - something that is exciting and desireable - then it is appropriate for Myspace.

If your brand can fit into youth magazines like Vibe, Source, etc. - then it’s appropriate for Myspace advertising. That’s because as long as you look good and desirable for YOUR market, it doesnt matter what others will say. Your sales will speak and your branding to YOUR market will ensure longevity. Remember, the youth market today are brand-specific and loyal. This is why Timberlins are always better than knock-offs.

But - keep things in perspective. Myspace signups are not “x” million unique signups. Many have multiple signups. Many are also MLM, company, and specialized signups. These guys are exclusively signing up for Myspace to promote their products or services - not for socialization.

So the numbers are not fully accurate and do not fully reflect the truth. There is attrition numbers and numbers of resign-ups. What are the numbers of people who leave Myspace? What are the numbers of those who leave then resign? How do all of these affect the actual marketplace?

These are pretty important factors to consider.

I think Myspace advertising, combined with a Myspace profile, is appropriate for certain types of companies.

For others, leave Myspace alone.

Posted by Cryptblade | 2:14 pm on July 5, 2006.

Rumor has it that www.friendsnest.com is coming out with a better version august 20th

Posted by brian cliff | 12:02 am on August 16, 2006.

The Internet, like many places (such as the medians of interstate highways, business establishments serving alcohol, railroad tracks and other dangerous places) is not a safe place for children. There is in fact no need for children to use the internet until they are adults. Ergo, the internet is for adults, not children. Kids should spend their free time doing their homework or enjoying sunshine and fresh air. On rainy days, they have plenty of electronic entertainment to choose from, including dvr’s, dvd’s, music, and video games. How earlier generations of kids ever managed to survive childhood without these toys I will leave as an exercise to your own imagination.

Posted by Outta Names | 8:18 pm on September 16, 2006.

There are many issues to be resolved about the security of social sites such as My Space and Bebo. On one hand it allows users to post all types of content, but on the other hand the sites are open to abuse from child abusers and paedophiles. There needs to be a clear cut way of scanning those signing up for My Space/Bebo/Facebook accounts, but maybe it’s a little late for that too…

Posted by SimonH | 4:34 pm on September 21, 2006.

i think that in some ways that its bad but you choose who you want to be your friends and iff your stupid enought to go meet them you need some thing to happen to you

Posted by april | 2:05 pm on September 27, 2006.

Hello, you have great site!

Posted by Walter | 6:34 am on October 5, 2006.

I think this MySpace thing needs to be truly analyzed a bit more. What exactly is a user? Someone who creates an account and then never comes back? Someone who is active 24/7? I’ve heard that the majority of accounts belong to 30 yr + adults, while less then 40% are under the age of 25. Anyone have good stats on MySpace?

Posted by George Morris | 9:45 pm on November 4, 2006.

We are all part of a community and so is myspace..we dont live in a vaccum and online sites cannot pretend that they are going to be a seperate entitiy which is not responsible for its action

Myspace and such sites should not be allowed to function and their owners should be help responsible for providing a venue that is used by predators

Posted by lisa | 6:56 pm on November 26, 2006.

Comscore shows MySpace has an Adults 18+ comp (unnique users) of 91.1% in January 2007, 11% over the internet average. Nielsen’s @plan (Spring 2007) has the 21+ comp at 87.9%. Not sure where Mr. Lattin is getting his ‘experts’ from. This compounds the issue, people taking a couple incidents and trying to make that the norm…usually complementing it with false information. Obvioulsy the mySpace sales people are armed with facts and have worked with advertisers after dispelling many of the falsehoods that keep people wondering why people would want to advertise. MySpace is so many things…advertisers understand that, the ‘trades’ should too.

Posted by Andy | 4:47 pm on March 7, 2007.

put it back in your pants. the number of people getting laid from myspace is mostly in the minds of trolls and gawkers such as yourself. it’s about a virtual space where people have many sexual fantasies but rarely do they make it past cyberspace.
or have you gotten any from myspace?

Posted by ocker | 1:33 pm on March 15, 2007.

Hi, everybodyr

Posted by Marilyn | 9:21 am on March 25, 2007.

اذا كن اقل مني بعشرين سنه كن صديقي

Posted by YOUSEF | 5:08 am on April 21, 2007.

Congratulations Pace! You took a very politically difficult position. You proved your point and took a great deal of hate and flames were rampant here producing the single most commented on article. Well, today The New York Times reported that myspace will cooperate with authorities just as you said they should over 15 months ago!

Posted by Goose | 2:33 pm on May 22, 2007.

Surprise surprise, people who have brought children into this world were apparently under the impression that people who run websites are responsible for raising their offspring. Children shouldn’t be allowed on ANY site unles their parents have had a look at it, used their judgement as to whether it is suitable, and set down guidelines on how to stay safe. If you replace the word ‘MySpace’ with the word ‘internet’ you have exactly the same problem. While you’re at it, toy shops are clearly appealing to children, but they allow adults to pass through the doors - close them all down until parents can get of their lazy asses and take some responsibility for what they ALLOW their children to do.

Posted by Jo | 9:12 am on August 20, 2007.

Come on people wake up! If you took a deep look at peoples mind/attention you will find that sex as an thought/activity ranks very high in our minds. So all sites, and especially SN Sites, are venues for hook ups. Having said that, its worrisome that sexually subversive behaviors are also enabled within these environments. Accept that fact that we can not change human behavior but we will need to punish folks who are engaged in illegal activity.

Posted by dan | 3:38 pm on September 13, 2007.

Sad world we live in nowadays when all anyone cares about is making money off of people (advertising) and getting raunchy with strangers.

I don’t let my kid near myspace. His computer is locked up for any chats or social sites. I feel sorry for the majority of parents who can’t keep up with the technology to do the same. Took a degree for me to do it, can’t imagine what other parents must be going through.

Too many self-centered, greedy, psychopaths (not just the deviants trolling the social sites, but the deviants running corporations nowadays too) who no longer value children if you can’t sell them something, or use them. I really hope our nation turns around from this. We use to value our kids, now it’s open season on them. Scary future ahead of us if we don’t step up and start considering kids and their safety first again.

Just a thought

Posted by Anonymous | 1:39 am on October 10, 2007.

Myspace does seem to be all about sex. But hey, I met my fiancee on myspace so I love it. (The only reason I met him face to face is because he lives in my town.)

Posted by Amelia | 2:08 pm on October 11, 2007.

It will take some horror story to change things over at myspace. Even though if you search you’ll find plenty of stories on predators using myspace.

Myspace is a place for adults - period.

Posted by Simon | 10:34 am on October 19, 2007.

A first step for Rupert would be to work on eliminating “sex spam”, which keeps lingering on myspace.

Posted by salvation army chicago | 9:52 pm on November 23, 2007.

Oh my god !!!
Children - sex - internet ! how can you mix these ! outrageous !

Internet is bad, children and internet is worse ; children, internet and sex - is a total nightmare !!! End of the world is tomorrow !

Children are sexual beings and need your parental guidance regardless where they go to. If they’re ready for sex at 14 - let it be so. But as a parent make sure they know everything before they step into the wonderful world of sex.

Posted by alex | 9:35 am on December 10, 2007.

Just serfed in. Great site, guys!t

Posted by sveta | 2:20 pm on December 17, 2007.

Wow!!! Good job. Could I take some of yours triks to build my own site?

Posted by sveta | 3:27 am on February 2, 2008.

If all of you parents are so worried about what your kids are doing online maybe you should take action your self rather than blaming a site that is entirely made up of user generated content and groups.

MySpace didn’t start these groups, they didn’t make the profiles and they are not directly helping sexual predators find your children. Why are they being held directly responsible for the actions of its users or even your kids.

The internet as a whole has never and will never be a soft and fluffy place where your children will be to do whatever they want. Its time you explained that to them and told them how the real world works.

Posted by Grant | 1:35 pm on March 13, 2008.

I think my space should be banned from the internet. All it is a place for sexual predators and people who don’t get enough attention at home. Kids posting sexual pictures of themselves. Girls sending friends requests that lead to porno sites. The lastest and greatest would be the six teenagers that beat up a girl and took turns filming it. There sole purpose was to put it on My Space so they could become famous. Parents you better start reeling in your little brats. Ban My Space in your house.

Posted by Robert Cannon | 8:32 pm on April 25, 2008.

All of those sites should have a work section, where we could block clients from seeing certain personal, out of work comments and pictures.

Posted by Michele | 12:43 pm on June 9, 2008.

I concur that computer usage by children is first of all a parental responsibility.

Posted by Bill | 3:50 pm on June 9, 2008.

Late to the game but had to throw in my 2 cents anyway. Lot’s of great points. I’m a mom of three and I have to say, I’d like to ban all media but it’s not going to happen. It’s my responsibility to raise my kids. It’s sad that I have to tell them tat the world is full of creepy people. Advertisers promote sex and always have. Is anyone really surprised?

Posted by Angel McClinton | 7:25 pm on June 13, 2008.