YourSpace

By Shae, May 2006

To your children, Myspace.com has become both a noun and a verb. This unchallenged colossus of adolescent communication works like a telephone, a back fence, a class bulletin board (and, at times, a locker room), all rolled into one virtual mosh pit. Teenagers are logging on to MySpace to complete homework assignments, catch up on the latest trends, and post messages to friends. MySpace.com is the number one most frequently used virtual hangout, and it ranks seventh of the most used sites on the U.S. Internet in terms of page hits. Teenagers all over the nation are becoming obsessed with MySpace, as well as other networking sites including Facebook.com, Buzz-Oven, Classface.com, and Photobucket.com.

Aside from annoying side effects like hyperdistractibility, there are some serious dangers facing teens and their open-book online lives. The Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported more than 2,600 incidents last year of adults using the Internet to entice children. Several of these incidents have been linked directly to MySpace.com.

Not only is your child’s safety in jeaopardy; so is precious family time. With all the new technologies, families are spending more and more time at home. Unfortunately, that extra time at home is rarely spent interacting with family members. Surfing and networking on the Net, coupled with hours of watching TV, and playing video games, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey, leaves teenagers consuming a shocking 6½ hours of screen time every day. By all standard space-time calculations, your family may occupy the same space, but psychologically each person exists in his or her own little universe.

Take control of your space. You pay the bills. This means you have the right to make the rules. Make rules about internet use, regulate access to sites, and be involved in your child’s internet activities.

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