A Midwestern private school has sent home warnings about students placing personal information on the popular networking site MySpace.com.
Do you fear MySpace.com? Do your children understand the risks involved with placing personal information online? Is the principal in this story overreacting to a place where teen expression far outweighs other concerns? Tell us more at SyndicationPro.
Lexington Catholic High School in Lexington, Kentucky has jumped on the blog alarm bandwagon. The principal of the school, Sally Stevens, signed off on the missive that was mailed home to parents along with the latest report card. A copy of that letter found its way to the murdok office.
Stevens recommended to parents that computers should be monitored, and placed in a public space in the home per the recommendation of parenting groups. She repeated a claim made by others of the potential dangers of some sites to students.
“Because of their comfort with technology, they do not perceive the harm that might come to them via sites like ‘myspace.com’,” she wrote. Then Stevens proceeded to describe some of the content to be found there:
“I ask that you log onto this site and view the photos that young people are posting. This site is a virtual gathering place for all sorts of people. Many of the young men and women give a large amount of personal information about themselves.”
For parents who can’t keep an eye on the offspring’s monitor as frequently as they would like, there are some way they can keep up with what they do on MySpace. An article at Wired News related suggestions from a UC Berkeley researcher, Danah Boyd, on the topic.
Boyd spent two years studying teens and MySpace. Her first recommendation is a sensible one: talk with teens, express concerns about the potential harm that can come not just from sexual predators, but from college admissions people and future employers surfing those profiles for a little “background” on a prospective student or employee:
Try not to get parental. Remember, MySpace isn’t a dirty secret, and your kids aren’t doing anything wrong just by being there. “If you do it in peer-level approach, rather than a condescending control approach, you’ll have much more success,” says Boyd.
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David Utter is a staff writer for murdok covering technology and business.
