Myspace.com is one of the most popular Web sites in the world, especially among teens. On this site, teens can set up a personal profile and customize it with pictures, designs, music, links and personal interests. Profiles of 14- and 15-year-olds are automatically set to private, meaning only users they are "friends" with can read their profiles. However, anyone can view the profiles of people 16 years of age and older.

Users can also leave each other comments. Sometimes these are personal comments, but they can be read by anyone who views the page. IM (instant messaging) is private, meaning that only the person you IM can read your comment, but Myspace comments are public domain.

There are also stalkers on Myspace who pretend to be people who they are not. Even if your profile is set to private, there are ways for people to view your profile. Many teens think that Myspace is safe because they are using it on their own computer and not communicating in person, but this is not true. What happens on Myspace doesn’t always stay on Myspace.

Although there are safe ways to use myspace -- talking with your friends or keeping in touch with someone you do not see very often, there are also unsafe ways to use Myspace. One of these ways is gossiping because information is not private on the Web. The person being gossiped about might find out, or it could come to the attention of your school and be recognized as a form of harassment. It is also unsafe to post personal information that exposes you. Inappropriate pictures can attract strangers and unwanted attention to your profile. If you do meet someone on Myspace, it is not safe to meet him or her in real life. He or she might seem harmless, but you cannot be certain.

Did you know that police officers sometimes pose as young girls and boys on Myspace to attract the attention of stalkers? They then make plans to meet the stalkers in public. When the stalkers arrive to meet their prey, they instead meet a team of police officers and are arrested.

Even though you may think of your profile as your own personal space, that only means you control what you post on it -- not what others post on it, not who sees it, and not what happens if you do something unsafe.

Neither blogs nor Myspace can ever be completely deleted. Even after you delete your account, screen captures can trace back to your page forever. Also, the comments you posted on others’ pages will stay there as long as their accounts are active. Never post something you do not want seen when you are applying for a job, or something that could embarrass you later in life.

Back to top