Month: June 2006

Robin for Yahoo! Tech writes about MySpace accountability, particularly when it comes to youth using MySpace to plan and engage in less-than-healthy activities. But how much should MySpace be accountable for what its users are doing, even when they’re young?

When she went to her daughter’s page the headline on her last entry seared through her. It said, “Priceless: Joyriding with Your Friend at 3AM”. Dana says after reading her daughter’s entries she realized she knew nothing about this place where her daughter could freely “promote her indulgences, had no accountability and just be cool”.

I can’t help but feel that if kids were not using MySpace to plan their dangerous indulgences, they’d be doing the same thing somewhere else. Just ten years ago, keeping your kid off the telephone was the way to keep them out of trouble, and if they made plans over the phone to go joyriding later, well, no one would have tried to make the phone company accountable for what happened. Now pretty much every teen has a cell phone and it’s easier than ever to make plans and coordinate mischief without even stopping by at home to check your messages. Still, while parents may try to limit or monitor their kid’s phone usage, they don’t point their fingers at Cingular or Verizon or Virgin if their kid uses their phone to plan some rabble-rousing.

But back to computers. If MySpace weren’t an issue, you’d have instant messenger services like AIM where kids could coordinate, and more and more we’re going to see video-conversations propagating, which may or may not be a hit with image-conscious teens. The point is that teens are social, and they’re going to talk to their friends one way or another, and what they plan to do with their friends is much more dependant on what kind of kid they are than on what medium they are using to make those plans. Sure, their may be a certain amount of peer pressure involved, a certain adrenalin and ego-boosting that go along with being able to post pictures and accounts of your exploits for all your friends to see. But MySpace isn’t offering these kids the wine, it’s just out there growing the grapes.

So, the issue, I think, is simply that parents don’t understand MySpace. And this has always been an issue in parenting: kids are always technologically two steps ahead of their parents. In the end it all comes down to active parenting, which means being involved in your kid’s life and knowing what they’re up to, showing an interest in their hobbies and ideas. Sure, teens don’t want their parents to be interested in their lives, but they don’t get to decide. After all, the difference between being a parent and having a kid is in how much responsibility you take in raising them.

In the meantime, MySpace has made some conciliatory efforts to make their site safer for teens.

Imbee is a social networking site designed specifically for children aged 8-14. Along with allowing youth to chat with their friends, they can also blog, share photos, and earn points which can be redeemed for prizes and rewards.

The Internet is a powerful and essential part of our society. While it contains potential dangers, it is also a valuable and indispensable tool. imbee kids will learn real world skills, such as reading, writing, problem solving, and social interaction through an interactive and challenging environment. But, most importantly, imbee is fun! Kids will meet their classmates and neighborhood kids online, to do what the big kids do, but at their own pace and in a safe and forgiving environment.

Imbee is a product of Industrious Kid, Inc, a company that just opened in March of 2006 with the mission to develop “kid-friendly and parent-approved online products and destinations for kids and tweens, allowing them to gain positive experiences with the Internet in a safe environment.” Imbee is their first product and only one to date, but it sounds like they have plans to offer many more.

Obviously, the solution of offering an alternative “safe internet” is preferable to censoring the internet we have, and I like the fact that parents have to be involved with the process, and can see what their kids are up to. But kids need to learn how to deal with the real world too, and sheltering them from every little thing now means they’ll just be that much more disillusioned and/or vulnerable later. If parents are going to be involved, why don’t they get involved with the social networking sites already out there? If they explain to kids the dangers of the internet, and tell them to be careful of creepy stalkers and dangerous situations, wouldn’t that work as well?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m well aware that the “adult” internet isn’t perfect, pretty, or fully-clothed most of the time, but that’s nothing that a little active parenting couldn’t fix.

Robin over at Yahoo! Tech has an interesting round-up on social networking sites, and the new sites that have popped up to monitor them. Now, if someone changes their MySpace “relationship status” to single, you can be the first to know. Also, any site named Stalkerati makes me cringe.