MySpace'com

1
MySpace.com
2
About MySpace.com

• Lifestyle Portal
• This site is a social networking website that
  integrates

• Web profiles
• Instant Messaging
• Photo galleries
• Email
• Streaming music
• Videos
• Blogs (online journal entries)

• Classifieds
• Events
• Groups
• College communities
• Forums

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Why teachers need to know

• 61 of teens have a web profile.
• 78 of adolescents access the Internet from
  school.
• 71 of parents believe that much responsibility
  for the safety of teenagers on the Internet lies
  with the schools.
• 42 of parents have asked an educator for advice
  about Internet safety.

4
MySpace.com Features

• Main page where people can set up an account
• Browse where users can look for other users
  with specific interests
• Search where a user can find another user from
  his or her name, display name, email, high school
  or college
• Invite users can send other people invitations
  to join myspace.com

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MySpace.com Features

• Mail users can access a MySpace email/message
  center
• Blogs users can post online journal entries
  that may be either public or private
• Events postings of happenings in which a user
  has expressed interest

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The Age Problem

• Only teens of age 14 or older are allowed to open
  a MySpace account
• However, false ages and IDs are possible
• Misrepresenting ones age is a serious MySpace
  offense
• Search algorithm used to find accounts of
  underage users
• Thousands of underage accounts are deleted monthly

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Threats

• Cyberbullying
• cruel, viscious, and sometimes threatening
  messages on the Internet
• All threats should be reported and taken
  seriously
• MySpace cooperates with police investigations in
  any possible way.

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Public Information

• Anything posted on MySpace is public, or can be
  accessed
• This includes
• Journal entries
• Images
• Comments
• Friend lists
• Display name
• Headline
• Interests (Music, movies, books, etc.)

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Tips For Users

• Dont post ANY personal information anywhere
  online.
• People are NOT always who they say they are
  dont trust strangers.
• Report ALL harrassment.
• Do not post anything you might regret posting
  later or that you wouldnt want your parents,
  boss, college administrators, etc. seeing.
• Do NOT lie about your age.

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Common Mistakes

• Kids think theyre being smart theyre not
• They post a fake age, yet give theyre real age
  or graduation year in the profile
• Town not given, but school name, mascot, state or
  other identifying location given
• Comments and profiles include, names, events,
  streets, locations, teacher names, etc.
• Pictures often show locations, streets,
  buildings, road signs, license plates, etc.

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Common Mistakes

• Personal Information given
• Students abbreviate, but not well enough
• Students give last four digits of phone number,
  but the rest can be inferred from other profile
  clues
• Other peoples comments, pictures and profiles
  can give information about another user

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Common Mistakes

• References to drugs, sex, gangs, crimes, etc.
• Pictures of underage people drinking alcohol
• Pictures of students with drugs and drug
  paraphernalia
• Sexually inappropriate images

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Major Issues

• Many places are turning to MySpace profiles as an
  unofficial reference and clue to personality
• College recruiters and adminitrators
• Employers
• Police
• Teachers/Administrators
• Parents

14
Teacher Issues

• Students create profiles for a teacher that the
  teacher often does NOT know about.
• MySpace will delete such profiles, after you send
  them a request.
• Students can find and friend you, post comments
  or pictures, and otherwise get too personal!
• Be Careful Who Takes Your Picture!

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Lets Look at Some Example Pages

• Note some of the dangerous behaviors happening on
  these pages
• Note to evaluator These buttons opened saved
  website files that do not upload to TaskStream
  easily. Please email me should you like to view
  the presentation in its entirety.

Emily
Casey
Tyler
Greg
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Concerned Parents

• Parent Safety Tips
• www.myspace.com/Modules/Common/
• Pages/SafetyTips.aspx
  
• Step-by-Step instructions for removing your son
  or daughters MySpace profile
• Links to free software to monitor and block use
  of the Internet