Blogging isn’t just for us adult techno-geeks anymore! If you haven’t heard of MySpace.com, the number one (but certainly not the only) free blogging website used by teens today, chances are your pre-teen or teenager has! Some statistics suggest that children ages 13 – 17 make up over half of all internet bloggers today! Children as young as 9 and 10 years old are making themselves at home on these free blog websites, creating homepages filled with every personal detail including photos, lists of hobbies and interests, family details, location and income details and, frequently, blogs containing up to date information about what is going on in their lives. These blogs are frequently accessed not only by your child’s friends but also by just about anyone who knows where to look since they are publicly accessible.
Companies such as MySpace originally set up shop in order to encourage networking, friendship and romantic connections across cyberspace. For children, using the internet for friendship or romance is simply inappropriate, not to mention dangerous. MySpace recognizes this and has an age requirement of 14 years of age or older for all bloggers. . If you ask me, even teens of this age are much too young to be socializing in such an exposed manner. One of the biggest problems is that most kids are violating the Terms of Service at these sites by lying about their age in order to gain access
Another major issue is that free websites such as MySpace are now often used as a platform for bullying and harassment. Although blogging on these sites can expose far too many personal details about the blogger, it is also quite easy to blog anonymously if one is inclined, and spread false, defamatory, harassing or abusive information about peers, family members, ex-partners, etc without any consequences to the blogger.
And because it is so easy to make up a persona and lying is required for younger teens and pre-teens to create these blogs, many children are openly stating their ages to be above minority which lures in those seeking adult-style relationships, unknowingly.
MySpace and other sites like it have only so much control. They can set limits and monitor accounts to a certain extent. But, in the end, it is a parent’s job to oversee a child’s internet usage and activities. For more ideas on how to monitor children’s internet usage and teach them to be safe online, read Internet Child-Proofing.