Digital kids

MySpace reaching out to parents

By Stefanie Olsen
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Published: April 11, 2006 4:00 AM PST
Last modified: April 12, 2006, 7:34 AM PDT

The media frenzy around MySpace.com has struck a nerve with parents fretting about what their kids are doing online.

Now the social networking site, along with other Net companies and child advocate groups, is trying to calm those parents about what their kids are doing online and what tools they have to deal with it.

On Tuesday, MySpace and other Fox-owned interactive media properties announced the hiring of a chief security officer, Hemanshu (Hemu) Nigam, a former Justice Department prosecutor who specialized in child exploitation cases. When he starts work on May 1, he will handle all education, safety, privacy and law enforcement programs for MySpace and other Fox properties.

MySpace has also hired more employees to handle security and customer care--roughly 100 people, or one-third of its workforce, scout out inappropriate content or underage members.

"Lots and lots of parents want their kids' profiles down," said Parry Aftab, executive director of WiredSafety.org, a nonprofit organization that provides safety and health information. Aftab has worked for years with MySpace and other social networks to design safety guidelines. "But we all need to take a breath and fashion solutions to address the real problem, which is how much information kids are putting online and who are they communicating with online."

On Monday, MySpace teamed up with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the Advertising Council, the people responsible for the Smokey Bear ads, to introduce a new ad campaign targeted toward teens online.

The print, television and interactive ads encourage kids not to "believe the type," in one example, urging them to be more critical when it comes to talking to strangers online and reading material online.

"Teens often have a sense of immortality," said Ernie Allen, president of NCMEC. "We want them to understand...that what they're doing (when they post information about themselves online) is opening a window to people who may not have the best intentions."

Sites such as kids network Imbee.com and Yfly.com, a "teen-only" social network started by actor-singer Nick Lachey and backed by Aftab, among others, are cropping up to promote a safer online environment for teens and kids. Yfly.com, for example, lets users hit a button called "Report a creep" if someone is acting suspicious on the network. MySpace also has several areas and options for members to report offensive images, members or language.

It's no wonder.

MySpace adds as many as 250,000 new members daily and continues to be in the media crosshairs over safety. On Sunday night, a "Dateline NBC" report on the amount of information kids divulge online had even more parents eager to shut their kids' sites down.

"As a parent, we have taught our son not to talk to strangers. But once they start befriending a stranger on the Internet, lots of information can and will be shared because they think they have found a new friend," one Pennsylvania parent of a 16-year-old said in an e-mail interview.

Teens were similarly complaining of parents meddling in their space on MySpace. "Now, not because I don't trust Myspace, but because I feel my prvacy (sic) has been invaded by my parents, my blogs will cease to be personal," one teen member wrote. "I feel I can no longer rant on here because I fear my parents are going to see it."

Parents do have some control over what their kids do on MySpace.

According to the MySpace FAQ, the site requires members to be at least 14 years old--those who aren't will have their profiles removed. MySpace security monitors sites for discrepancies in the stated age of the member and information posted on their site and will remove any such sites.

If parents discover their underage child posts to a MySpace profile, the parent can e-mail the company at "customercare@myspace.com," and include information on the child's member name and unique Web address. MySpace will remove the profile.

But for children 14-years-old and older, the parent must talk directly to their teen. MySpace encourages parents to talk to kids about what they're posting online and work with them to modify it or remove it. If parents want their child off MySpace, they must obtain his or her username and password and delete the profile from within "account settings."

For its part, MySpace keeps profiles "private" for 14-year-olds to 16-year-olds, meaning that only people accepted by those members may view the teens' profiles and pages. The company also removes member profiles that fail to adhere to its policies, including defamation or solicitations of minors.

Aftab and her organization are also working to educate and empower parents with tools to protect kids online.

• Aftab advises parents to ask their child if he or she has a MySpace profile. If so, ask why. By asking why, parents can fashion their response and a solution based on the child's answer. For example, if a teen is using MySpace to socialize with friends, then a parent could advise a child to limit their profile only to friends.

• Aftab also suggests that parents give a child 24 hours notice before looking at their MySpace page, reassuring their child that they won't "freak out." Given notice, the child can examine their Web page through their parents' eyes and make modifications to be safer. "If you give kids no notice, you're in enforcement, not education mode," she said. Tell them to clean up the site, if needed. Thereafter, parents should check their child's page often.

• Teach children to password-protect everything they wouldn't want to see on a billboard. If kids are using MySpace to connect with friends, as most are, they don't need to post home addresses or school locations.

• Teach kids to review their friends' pages and have those friends remove any personal information posted about themselves.

• Educate kids not to post anything about themselves they wouldn't want parents, principals, teachers, predators or college recruiters to see, because "it's going to be there for a long time," said Aftab.

After that, she added: "Let's not throw the Internet out with the MySpace bath water."

Send insights or tips on this topic to stefanie.olsen@cnet.com.