I have been amazed at my church and work to see the cavalier attitude many parents have toward MySpace and Facebook. The same parents would not allow their children to have an independent e-mail account will often allow them to spend hours unmonitored on social networking sites. You may have heard the stories about predators stalking children on MySpace, but what about stories like this one of stupid adults messing with the mind of an impressionable youth.
"(She) stated in the months leading up Meier's daughter's suicide, she instigated and monitored a 'my space' account which was created for the sole purpose of communicating with Meier's daughter.Parents need to be reminded again and again that the internet is NOT a safe place for children. It should not be considered a fenced-in backyard, but a city square or busy mall in which a stranger can easily target your child, whether from malice or stupidity, and do damage that can never be recovered from. This is not a MySpace problem. It is a problem of naive parents.
"(She) said she, with the help of temporary employee named ------ constructed a profile of 'good looking' male on 'my space' in order to 'find out what Megan (Meier's daughter) was saying on-line' about her daughter. (She) explained the communication between the fake male profile and Megan was aimed at gaining Megan's confidence and finding out what Megan felt about her daughter and other people....
"According to (her) 'somehow' other 'my space' users were able to access the fake male profile and Megan found out she had been duped. (She) stated she knew 'arguments' had broken out between Megan and others on 'my space.' (She) felt this incident contributed to Megan's suicide...
5 comments:
If the kids on myspace have any common sense,
they won't do anything stupid.
i'm 16 and i have 3 younger sisters.
my 11 and 13 yr. old sisters have myspaces as well as myself.
use common sense, don't talk to people you don't know, and you'll be alright. if the parents know how to raise children, it won't be a problem.
and remember- fighting on the internet is like running in the special olympics, even if you win...you're still retarded.
Well that was a useless comment. Myspace has a limit on age (14) for a reason.
Also its not mentioned in this excerpt of the article about the poor girl's depression and the whole backstory. Her parents monitored her very well.
Read the whole article kplzthx.
Kids make stupid decisions for reasons that make perfect sense to them. Kids do not have common sense like adults do. They don't have the experience necessary to know when something is a "common" thought on a subject. You may think you are ready, and you may be right, but you may be very wrong and get caught. It happens to adults, how much more to kids? Parents are to protect their children, probably more than the children want at the time, but later on they will see the wisdom of what their parents did.
Secondly, your comment about the Special Olympics, which I think was intended to be some kind of joke is frankly very offensive. The term retarded is very hurtful. Generally people with a learning disability of some kind were born that way and had nothing to do with it. It is NEVER good to make fun of someone for something they cannot change and had no say over.
The comment shows a real lack of maturity in you, and would hope that you will make an apology for such and offensive remark.
Oh, by the by... Good post Nomad:) Totally in agreement...
As I said, this is not a MySpace problem, it is a problem of naive parents. When I was young, we were having the same argument over Dungeons & Dragons. Most kids could play it and have fun, but a few used it as a launching point for madness and lost touch with reality. Parents need to understand their own children and know their limitations. And kids needs to understand that just because something seems safe, it doesn't mean there are not dangers there which can bite them.
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