Social Networking “Standards”
May 2, 2008
Your next task is to enjoy a good laugh.
Check out this humorous video that addresses a few of the “dangers” of Myspace.
Now, on a more serious note…
6. Should social networking sites be more or less strict with the content that people place on them? For example, the photos that are uploaded, the language that is used, as well as the amount of personal information supplied.
-Think about the Spitzer incident and Kristen, and the information the press got off of Myspace and used to exploit her.
-Think about the thirteen year old girls on social networking cites who post pictures that make them look much oldar.
-Think about students who should not be browsing these sites, but are, and encounter information and language that is extremely inappropriate.
Krystina
Truly funny video… I remember from MySpace that pictures with nudity were not allowed, and membership would be revoked if that rule were broken. Idk if it’s still like that, but if it isn’t, then they need to reinforce that rule.
Other than that, I don’t think it’s up to MySpace.com to filter what people post. These are sites designed to share information about yourself with others. KnOw WhAt YoU’rE GeTTinG iNtO! What the press took from Kristin’s myspace page were all things she or one of her myspace-friends posted! Sure, being the media they may have bent it a little, but the point is that the information was there, in the public eye, for everyone to see.
MySpace should be blocked on every computer in every high school. It is non-educational, and as you said, it is teeming with inappropriate material.
Congress might take my advice. CLICK HERE
That movie was hilarious!!! I agree with Garrett, it is not the job of myspace to censor people. I really think that these types of social networking sites are intended for more mature audiences and are extremely inappropriate for children. This quote says it all:
“In New Jersey, Majalie Cajuste is grieving the murder of her daughter Judy. The 14-year-old reportedly told friends she met a man in his 20s through MySpace.com.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/06/eveningnews/main1286130.shtml
I think that the really issue here is parent teacher involvement. It is up to us to educate children and young students because the internet will never be completely censored — and furthermore in my opinion should not be. Instead we should be focused on being vigilant adults and teaching our children and students to make intelligent decisions when filtering through all of the material that is out there.
-Frank-
I agree with everyone else. It is not myspaces job to censor people. If it were up myspace, then wordpress would have to be watching us. Instead, myspace, facebook,aol and AIM allow users to report activity to their companies. And because of our belief in no censorship, we have to make sure we (as teachers) are given the tool to help students make the right choices on line. It is sad to think of 13 year old girls and boys using myspace to make themselves feel older and more adult. Especially because we all know that we were not capable at 13 of making choices that would impact our futures. But again, and for many reasons, adolescents need strong teachers and mentors in their lives to model for them correct behavior, so hopefully, they won’t feel the need to represent themselves in such a way.
Here is myspaces terms of use: http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=misc.terms
The eligibility part is kind of interesting.
What do people think about having to have a credit card and a one time payment of like 2.00$ (so parents are aware that someone billed their card) in order to sign up for the site??
In response to Kristin’s question, yes I think that a small payment could be a good solution. However, the better, but harder solution would be for parents, teachers, and other adults to communicate with children about the dangers of social networking. Since that cannot work in every case, a fee could possibly help.
I don’t have MySpace, but I really like the feature on Facebook where you can mark something as inappopriate and then it gets taken off. While I have never done it, I do see alot of inappropriate bumper stickers with nudity and profanity. I also see alot of pictures that could be seen as inappropriate. While I don’t think that MySpace and Facebook should be censored entirely, I think that a little bit of censorship could help cut down on predators. As Garrett mentioned, nude pictures should just not be allowed, especially of young adolescents!
I was looking at one website where High School students were suspended for putting up pictures of themselves drinking. Here is the site: http://www.theinternetpatrol.com/high-school-students-busted-after-drinking-sessions-are-photo-blogged
The director of security said, “We have to try to educate our parents on what their kids are putting out there. Predators are a concern because people would know so much about them.” This is true, but MySpace should also do something to help with these very serious and dangerous concerns. Many of the parents of the children involved in the controversy were standing up for their kids saying that pictures should not be used as grounds for suspension. What do you think about this ongoing controversy?
Very entertaining.
While it is the responsibility of the parents to protect their children, I DO feel that social network sites should do their part and as Garrett said “reinforce” stricter user rules. I see it the same way that stores are held responsible for selling alcohol to minors. Just because they sell/offer something for adults doesn’t mean they should allow it for minors. if they truly cared about minors using their network in dangerous, unprotected ways, they would do something about it. But, of course they are reaping in financially and their greed succombs any moral conscience.
videohttp://redtape.msnbc.com/2007/05/myspace_and_sex.html
Social networking is easily taken advantage of by users who just do not get the danger and trouble they are getting themselves into. As Garrett mentioned, nude pictures are totally inappropriate and should not be allowed period, in which according to him, they aren’t. Obviously these social networking sites cannot monitor every single picture posted (except for the nude ones), which makes it the responsibility of the user to make good judgments and rationalize what pictures of themselves and their friends should be allowed to be considered posting material. Originally when I signed up for a facebook account, I had my hometown posted but I soon realized that I should probably delete that private information because you never can be truly safe from the sick people who prey upon others. And I have decided to delete my account altogether when I graduate from college and begin to apply for a job, just to be extra safe. I don’t want a simple picture, quote, or bumper sticker to lower my chances of receiving a teaching position.
The dangers highlighted in the youtube film were hilarious but true. I can recall watching dateline and 20/20 not just about catching predators, but girls who are abducted because of their vulnerability and use of these social networking sites. I don’t know how they would accomplish this task, but sites like myspace and facebook should have a better and more consistent way of validating the ages of their users because it is so simple and easy for a 10 year old to make up a birth date in order to meet the required age to access them. It just seems like more can be done to prevent all of these dangers from happening to children and young adults.
While I agree that parents need to claim most of the reponsibility for what their children are posting to the web, the owners of Myspace and face book should as Garrett says “reinforce” their srticter rules of no nude postings. With all their money, they should be able to find a way to manage all the users. Here’s a lionk to a newsstory about Myspace refusing to give a list of names of registered sex offenders who use their site.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18699520/wid/11915829/
Since then, Myspace has hands over I think 7,000 names and has even taken strides to make the site more safe. But it was because of the prodding from different atorney generals to do so.
I sort of see this as a store held responsible for selling alcohol to minors. Just because they have a product meant for adults, doesn’t mean they aren’t responsible when they allow minors to have it. I mean if it is wrong to solicit a minor in a newspaper, over the phone or on the street isn’t it wrong to do online?
I agree with what most have said, that such images as nudity should be censored because that isn’t appropriate. But having a myspace account, there are more than enough pictures of women & men out there that show almost just as much with clothes on. People have become creative and it’s disgusting but because they’re not nude…myspace can’t do anything. Because of all these possible problems or posting inappropriate pictures or giving away too much information, as future teachers aware of this problem, as many have mentioned, we need to educate our students and our parents. Students aren’t aware of the possible dangerous consequences from posting personal information. The statistic Pat left about registered sex offenders on myspace is a very scary thought for possible future victims.
I had read a story in People about a 13 year old girl that committed suicide after another child’s mother sent her messages pretending to be a boy who liked her on myspace. Once the “boy” told her he didn’t like her anymore, the girl Megan, committed suicide. Now they’re trying to go after myspace but “aw enforcement officials told her the case did not fit into any law” and the town instead has “proposed a new ordinance related to child endangerment and Internet harassment” which I think is a law to look into with so many instances of harassment online. Here is the article: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21844203/
In response to Stacia’s question. When I was a senior in highschool, 2 members on my basketball team were suspended because of pictures of them with the “infamous red cup” were posted online. The athletic director say them and suspended them for violating our athletes contract of both drinking and being in the known present of alcohol (any party). It really goes to show the possible consequences of students actions. In the case of the students she mentioned, they went to the party and were caught drinking, now they must accept the consequences. Student’s need to learn sometimes the hard way, as in this case, how easily information can be passed on in today’s technology advanced world.
That video was hysterical. Although it was corny, it tells the truth that you never know who is out there on myspace.
Personally, I do not think that myspace should be stricter, but there should be more control settings on it to protect people from “dangerous” ones. For example, I remember when you needed a college email address in order to have an account. This was safe because everyone who had it was college-aged. However, now everyone has facebook, which makes it less safe. In reference to personal information on social networking sites, I think it is beneficial that people can hide things on facebook. For example, if you are not my friend, you can’t see aqs many things as you could if you were my friend. Overall, I agree with Garrett and believe people should censor themselves. However, if an extreme is met, myspace should take over. The only thing is what are the limits?
The controversy over young adults using these sites is unsettling. Like we have seen on “To Catch a Predator”, there are sick people in our world. The only thing that I believe we can do is teach our students about internet safety.
This article discusses the dangers and everything we have been discussing: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11064451/
This video is hilarious! Thanks for the laugh Autumn and Krysi. This video is absolutely true about peoples misconseptions about what is out there, and how easily influenced people can be when they meet people or discover new information.
I don’t really know the rules or regulations on MySpace but I think there should be control settings in which young people can block out intruders. I also think its important for everyone on Facebook and Myspace to make their pages private. That will reduce the risk of dangerou activity. I know that in the past I have recieved numerous friendship requests for people I had no idea about. I used my better judgement in order to handle the situation.
There are numerous reasons why and why not young people should be using these sites. But as we learned last week in our internet saftey topic that as long as young people are educated on the dangers of social networking and the internet and general they will be equipped to make the right decisions. I really enjoyed the link Alexis posted and I could not find a better one discussing the important dangers of these internet tools.
The movie is really funny because it covers all the comedic cliques of myspace. I agree with Garrett and Frank that social networking sites should have strict rules on what is posted on them because then the user’s freedom of speech is violated. It is entirely the users responsibility for what they post on the site. However, things that are posted must be legal, for example links to free music downloads or nude pictures should not be posted. People do need to be aware of the consequences for posting inappropriate things. I think that all things that are made in god fun can be seen negatively and abused by immature users. Myspace is a fun place for people to keep in touch with friends and express themselves. Just like anything else, there are people who abuse this privileged.
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/05/03/050408_1a_Predators.html – this article shows the dangers of putting information of myspace and how users and their parents should be conscious of internet usage. Posting anything on the internet automatically makes it public information; information for the entire world to view.
This video was really funny and pretty acurate. I definitly enjoyed the part when the boys were talking about “Yita” and her “angles”. This is so true of myspace photos and I never understood why. Anyway, I think that inappropriate pictures should be monitored as they are exposed to the entire internet. I see mmany young girls posting photos such as those displaying their stomachs and I don’t think they understand how dangerous those things are.
However, at the same time this may be a freedom of expression for some people which I think is everyone’s right. And, I guess people could even deem these images as “Art”. It is hard to make a concrete conclusion.
Here I have an article that discusses the consequences that young individuals experience when placing inappropriate images on the web. Going back to our previous blogs, this article disucusses the predators that use myspace as a tool for finding their victims.
http://www.helium.com/items/109833-myspace-calls-friends-jumps
I don’t think that what we put on our own personal myspace pages should be restricted but, I do think that there should be some kind of parental advisement when signing up for an account at an age of younger than 18. From what I remember aol has a specific way of restricting young children from seeing particular websites that are inappropriate for them. I think that maybe something of this nature should be implemented for some social networking sites as well. I think that we must be careful of what our youth sees and they shouldn’t be putting themselves in danger on these sites. But I also think that to limit other people is a form of censorship which I don’t agree with. I found this website which shows parents how they can check up on their kids’ myspace pages. And although it may not seem right to “spy” on your child I think that it’s important to make sure they’re not in danger.
http://www.spyonyourkids.net/