Parents vs MySpace

An article at MSNBC cautions parents against social networking sites like MySpace.

It’s free, easy to join, and easy to message its members. Kids chat about everything from school, to sports, to fundraisers for Katrina victims. It all seems like innocent fun, and it can be. But many parents and teens are unaware there are hidden dangers.

Now isn’t this old news? Check out the MySpace monsters (close relatives of the Friendster atrocities) and maybe you’ll get the shivers thinking of what your kids may be doing with their MySpace accounts.

Seriously, as a techie parent, I haven’t been too concerned about my kids posting their info all around the ‘net (especially since Pia is 2.5 and Cate is a year old–too young to surf!). But most parents are likely to be unaware of what dangers may be lurking at the other side of the broadband connection.

So parents, be sure to provide adequate guidance on what your kids can and cannot do on the Web.

And kids, do listen to your parents. No matter how technologically superior you think you are over them, they’re still your parents, and they do love you. Otherwise, they’d have probably whacked you by now, with the nasty stuff you’ve been doing on Friendster, MySpace, or even Yahoo Messenger.