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So, is MySpace.com getting a bad rap these days?
By now we should know that predators show up everywhere an especially online.

A 16 year old Michigan girl heads off to Israel with plans of getting married to a man she met on MySpace.com.

Right out of the horses mouth I heard the mother say, "I got my daughter a Passport at her request."

Mom believed daughter was going to Canada with a friend and their family.

Wow, I guess the days are gone for parents picking up the tele and placing calls to say, "Hey, so you're taking my child to Canada?"

No, they're not gone, some parents still do corny mushy caring things like that and thank goodness I know a few.

Mom's says, "A Computer will Never come back in my house!"

Deep man...

Vicki L. Forte'
Bellaonline
Crime Editor

I know we had a girl a few miles from our town get picked out on MySpace by a man she had never met. She put info on there that led him to her town. He lives and was a truck driver in GA. He decided since he was in the area that he would go to her house and pick her up. As far as I know, she never ever talked to the guy. He stopped at a store and asked where she lived. They knew her and tipped the family off. It is scary how trusting the kids are today with it so easy to find people.

Yep, they're trusting because they are merely kids.

I'm glad the people at the store became corny mushy and caring, then decided to pick up the telephone.

Glad to hear of a happy ending, because things could have gone much worse.

Vicki L. Forte'
BellaOnline
Crime Editor

It's a load of rubbish. I keep emailing them to find out how to upload music files, but they don't reply. rubbish, rubbish, rubbish....myspace is rubbish*

*absolutely true

I can't speak on uploading their music, I've never even attempted to try it.

Vicki L. Forte'
BellaOnline
Crime Editor

MYSPACE tightened the rules more. If a monor sets up an account, he or she can no longer be messged by anyone who they don't invite on their friends list. This means predators can't even approach. Now if the minor is looking at other users profiles & likes what they see, they can invite them to as friends to chat.
So another words, this new setup assumes that minors are to already have & use their common sense & street smarts. If they invite a person who just so happens to become a predator, it is because the minor lacked common sense which is soley the parent's responsibility to teach & monitor, not myspace.
Myspace has been beneficial to musicians promoting their music as well as others who take upon a business venture.
It's serves as the ultimate online word of mouth advertising for them. It's free & it also wonder how the creators & owners of Myspace don't charge some kind of fee????

Shawn Lester told The Saginaw News that her daughter has �never given me a day�s trouble. ... I just don�t understand with all these new laws protecting America how a 16-year-old kid could get out of the country.� She said her daughter never had a boyfriend and seemed to be content with that.

How about YOU got her a passport. BTY I've been to Canada a couple of times. I never needed a passport. Has that changed since 9/11 or something? It has been a long time.

Hey forcegx7,

I just seen a segment on the Today Show where MySpace has modified and made the changes you spoke of.

They also reported, that MySpace is currently being sued for 30 million dollars by a 14 year old girl and her parents.

She went out on a dinner date with an older guy, that portrayed himself as a younger man and was raped.

I pray these young people start making better decisions when it comes to their safety.

On the Tyra Banks Show, she also had a segment on how MySpace has helped launch many careers. Her major focus was the pros IF MySpace is used wisely. I was impressed.

Vicki L. Forte'
BellaOnline
Crime Editor

Hello hollyism,

Welcome to the forum, great post.

Shawn Lester should be thanking her lucky stars that Authorities made her daughter go home -
Go Home Little Girl!

From my understanding if you are entering Canada by boat or plane a passport is needed beginning 12/06 and if you are entering Canada by vehicle a passport will be needed beginning 12/07.

And, yes the laws are changing due to 9/ll.

Vicki L. Forte'
BellaOnline
Crime Editor

Even if they aren't putting info on other than things like what state you are in or something like that, when they post cheerleading pictures with the team on it. It makes it easy to find them. The story I was talking about earlier, the girl had never even talked to the man. He just figured out where she was from by her info. Scary!

I saw that as well on the Big Idea with Donny Duestch. There's 2 sides to every story here.
The boy she went out with was only 19 & portrayed himself as exactly that age, which is not too much out of her peer group. 19 year old guys dating girls in high school wasn't unheard in my day & still really isn't today. That being said, he shouldn't of forced himself upon her if that's what he did. The boy & his parents are the ones who should be sued. The most stupid thing about it is the 19 year old is sueing MYspace also.

I saw the Tyra Banks special about Myspace. In my opinion, the persons that she interviewed seemed like weirdos to me & made me not want to have anything to do with myspace.

If I was in a band, I would use Myspace to promote it. That seems to be the only sensible thing to use it for

I believe that parental guidance on teenagers is necessary on any forum.

I don't think it is all Myspace's fault for the things that happen[as in teenagers meeting up with someone from the website and getting raped]. I mean, those teenagers should know that since it is internet they can be lied to,etc.
I have a myspace account and so does most of my friends, and we don't add people unless we know them personally. which is what most people do unless they have a "whore" code. which means people will "whore" you and you will get tons of new friends. but i think it is wrong for the teenager and her parents to sue Myspace, because it isn't their fault for the girl getting raped.

Hello cdmohatta,

Welcome to the forum, glad you joined us.
I agree with your comment wholeheartedly.

I just seen the 16 year old, her father and the stepmother on Good Morning America, she uttered the same very thing (the stepmother).

The judge is sending the teenager to counseling and she must surrender her passport.

The father nor stepmother are blaming MySpace, they said MySpace aided in finding where she just might be.

They are not mad or upset with anyone including the youngman she ran off to marry. He was 20 years old and they believe their daughter loves him and they do not feel he is a predator or anything. They believe he loves her also.

Vicki L. Forte'
BellaOnline
Crime Editor

Hey Trisha,

I was thinking about you yesterday, I sent you up a prayer.
I hope you are enjoying your summer break.

Be safe and use your MySpace account wisely. Be careful with the pictures you post.

Everyone would call me paranoid when I would warn them about uploading certain pictures and places of them on the internet. They say, "You have been reading too much crime."

Okay, I'll quit cackling like a Big Sister and Mother Hen. <img src="/images/graemlins/rolling.gif" alt="" />

Be Safe,

Vicki L. Forte'
BellaOnline
Crime Editor

WHat prevents a 16-year-old or even a 12-year-old (with decent writing skills...) from saying that he's over age 18 or 21? If a minor is determined to get on MYSPACE without restrictions, that's all he has to do -- lie about his age!

The parents must prevent that by constantly monitoring what their child is doing on the computer. The computer must never be allowed in the child's or teenager's room.
If the minor goes to the trouble of doing that, then obviously he or she lacks common sense & is asking for trouble. If something were to happen, it would initially be his/her fault & should be held just as accountable as the predator that approached him or her, regartdless of age.

I agree with you that parents should constantley moniter their childrens usage but I dont agree with what you say about if something were to happen that the child should be held just as accountable regardless of age.

Minors by nature do lack common sense and thatis why it is up to their parents to guide and protect them from scum on the net.

If the kid has enough gull to lie about his or her age & also to know how to fanagle & get around the system, I don't know if it's a question of common sense & should be held accountable to some extent.
If not than maybe the parents should be thrown in jail along with the predator.

Teens have always thought they are smarter and/or know better than their parents (come on be truthful, we did it too!) <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Sometimes we get lucky and have ones who are quite smart and can see the consequences that might occur, and so don't do the dumb things, and then other times we get the ones wth the "it can't happen to me" syndrome.

I started a thread over in the teens section about girls wearing inappropriate clothing to attract boys that they like; but they don't seem to get that it also attracts people that they don't want. The same thing happens on these web sites (Myspace isn't the only one out there, just the most well known!)

Kids put their info out trying to attract others and just assume that people that gross them out won't be drawn there as well. Kind of like a toddler playing "I can't see you, you can't see me."

We thought our 14 yr old was mature enough to handle a computer in his room; particularly since my husband does network security for a living, and our son knew we would be doing spotchecks on his activities. It started out innocently enough - he was looking at manga cartoons (Teen Titans) and got a pop-up ad. And he followed up on it. And it is very easy to lie on the web.

Luckily we caught him after only one day of activity on porn sites. We took his computer away for six months. We tried giving it back again, but he went back to it after about 3 or 4 months of using his computer for normal stuff. Now he can only use my computer- which is in the kitchen, while one of us is in there with him. He wasn't happy about it; but he couldn't argue too much considering he was caught twice, and we had proof.

Needless to say, we will be much more cautious with the next two coming along - and watching Michael more closely from here on out as well!

My brother in law is a long time computer programmer. When my husband and I first got married we had just gotten a computer and we had it in our living room. When my brother in law came for a visit, I mentioned that when we buy a house that we will probably have a computer for the kids room, and one in ours. I will never forget his raised eyebrows when he said to me "bad idea".....at the time his kids, my nieces and nephews were 16, 14, and 10 and they chimed in all at once and said "yea our parents think we don't know about bad people" !!!!! Then he explained it to me, have the computer, especially the kids computer in the room you (meaning parents) spend the most time in. Does it match my decor...nope but I don't care, my 10 year olds computer is next to mine PERIOD and it will stay there until he moves out.

As far as "MySpace" goes, I think that is really for adults and not teens. I don't think myspace should be faulted here, parents need to step up and take responsibility for thier kids, learn to say NO. Now as far as I know there have been no teenagers who have died from not being able to go onto myspace...I could be wrong about that but remember I said to my knowledge. Also learn how to use parental control on your computer.

I think this new myspace rule is just going to encourage people to lie more. I mean some predators might state their true age, however, now with the rule that unless you're under 18, you can't speak to a minor, I bet the predators will start lying more than ever. JMO.

Also, lots of schools (like mine) have sites like myspace but they're totally private. Do any of your kids have those? Maybe encourage them to go on there instead. On these sites, you can still decorate pages and talk to all your friends, but it's very safe. The only way you can only get in is if you're a student of the school, or of a school in a surrounding town.

I was sifting through myspace & there are alot of girls young & older using sex appeal & almost downright sluttiness with their pictures & profiles.
At the same time they post a little blurb complaining that they are sick of getting creeps who keep trying to message them & sending them offensive comments.
It's just full of mixed messages. I find it extremely strange.

Yeah, I totally agree with that.An friend of mine on my myspace friends list posted bulletins about few missing teen girls and one of them ended up found murdered.Myspace really needs to make some changes for the safety of young girls on the site and parents need to monitor who the kids speak with on myspace.

You can't be too careful , so many crazy nuts in the world.

it comes down to parental respsonsibility. Until your child is out of your home (at 18 or later, doesnt matter as long as it's your home) you need to be monitoring everything they do online.

You can't feed the fire and then complain about the fuel.

Meg