Stay safe on Myspace

Educate and stay safe
To address safety concerns, Myspace has launched a tool called Zephyr, which has been created to keep parents informed about the activities of their children on Myspace while allowing children privacy.

The content of profiles or email correspondence remains private and the software informs the child when data is shared with their parents.

Parents are also given the option to remove their child’s profile and the site supplies them with links to monitoring software that helps them see what their child is doing.

Crucially it enables parents to see the age the child has included on their profile. If they have lied about this and are open to contact from adults, alarm bells should ring.

However, the charity Childnet and CEOP believe that surveillance methods may cause conflict and could be counter-productive if done secretly. According to CEOP this is because many children see social networking as private activity, similar to speaking on the phone. Monitoring online activity may be seen by them in the same way as if a phone call of theirs had been tapped without their knowledge.

Both charities also advise that parents refrain from blocking their children’s access to such sites or forbid them to log on. This, they claim, will not only isolate the child from their friends, but also encourage them to go behind their parents’ backs.

The same also applies to filtering software; although it can help block inappropriate material, it is not 100 per cent effective. Internet use at school is filtered, supervised and safe, but many children also log on from friends’ homes, internet cafes, libraries and youth clubs where there may be no filters and little supervision.

Childnet and CEOP suggest that parents take an educational approach, and Childnet has created a range of tools that include Powerpoint presentations and seminars aimed at adults. The organisation has also published a safety leaflet on its site aimed specifically at parents.

The key, according to the charity, is to ensure that children understand the responsibility that comes with privacy. That means knowing not to share confidential information, such as passwords, telephone numbers and email addresses, with people they don’t know – clues that could enable predatory adults to track them down.

Despite the fact that inclusion of telephone numbers, street addresses and last names in a member’s profile is forbidden under Myspace’s regulations, age and location information is automatically displayed in a member’s profile, based on the birthday and postcode fields that members must fill in to gain membership.

A browse through the profiles on Myspace demonstrates that some youngsters give away information about their location quite accidentally, such as by appearing in pictures next to a road sign, or in their school uniform.

Myspace also provides a feature designed for members to rate each other, based on their photos and other profile content. While on the surface this may appear a harmless exercise, it can lead to harassment, with other members leaving unpleasant comments. This is called cyber-bullying. Therefore parents should help children think about the implications of posting photos and help them decide what is suitable.

Parents should also make children aware that photos can be copied, changed and used elsewhere. The same goes for written postings; parents are advised to urge their children to think about what they write on their own or someone else’s page.

Overcoming technical fears
One reason parents feel concerned about children’s internet use is that they don’t have the technical knowledge to understand what’s going on online. In its top 10 safety tips found online, CEOP recommends that parents ask their child ren to teach them to use any applications they have never used. Also, setting up your own Myspace profile could help you to make a decision about whether your child should be allowed to use the site.