MySpace And Your Teen
Show of hands - how many of you have tweens or teens who have their own MySpace page?
If you did not raise your hand, you may want to look again. One of the most widely kept secrets these days is between kids who have MySpace pages and their parents.
And if you did raise your hand, have you been to your child’s page recently? Have you and your teen talked about the features MySpace has in place to help keep your teen safe, allow you to monitor your teen’s online activity and to make the experience a positive one? If not, you need to.
Jason Illian, former ABC TV Bachelorette contestant and author, gave a really informative interview on MySpace and kids at CBN.com with Laurie D’Augostine. In his new book, MySpace®, MyKids: A Parent’s Guide to Protecting Your Kids and Navigating MySpace.com, Jason offers tips for parents, such as setting up their own MySpace accounts and letting kids know up front that they are being monitored.
One of the excerpts from his interview that I think is important is:
Many parents are upset over MySpace. If MySpace shuts down, something stronger will come. Social networking will be around for a while. Be thankful that MySpace allows you to keep track of your kid.
And another:
Jason: Parents should not spy. Tell your kids that you will be going online. Don’t look at their account until you’ve told them you are going to look at it. Parents need to open up the lines of communication and say, “I’m here to monitor you, help you along the way, and I don’t want to have to take this away from you.”
There are 3500 kids dying from car accidents each year. We don’t take their cars away. We just teach kids to drive well. It’s the same thing with online. We’re not here to stop them, but to teach them to do it safely.
My attitude is that every parent should be involved in their teen’s online life just like they would be with their traditional activities. We have to give our children increasing independence, but we also have to give them the life skills to go along with it to help them make the right decisions, regardless of the environment they are in.
What are your thoughts on MySpace? Does your teen have an account? How about you?
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POSTED IN: Communication, Technology
4 opinions for MySpace And Your Teen
Gayle
Mar 14, 2007 at 1:44 pm
Both my daughter and I have MySpace pages, and we check each other’s pages out frequently. I agree with Jason that we need to teach kids to use this resource properly, not do away with it.
Gina
Mar 19, 2007 at 12:24 pm
My daughter does have a MySpace, and I check it out from time to time, she has no problems with me doing so, and I know it’s the responsible thing to do as her Mom. She even asks me from time to time to pop in there and fix this or that.
I believe it can be a good thing, and a safe thing, if parents get involved and see what their kids are doing online.
kellys
Mar 25, 2007 at 2:36 pm
I totally agree that you should let the kids know that you are looking at their myspace site. It will give them an out to let their friends know that they can’t put anything inappropriate on your kids’ sites since you are going to be looking. It is kind of like a safeguard for them. They don’t have to be the bad guy. After all, that’s our job!
Ren
Jul 31, 2007 at 6:27 am
I don’t think children 18 and under should be allow on the internet. Parents need to block their children from their computers. If they are going to let them online they need to use Parent Control and not allow their teens on MySpace, blogs, forums or in chatrooms. Also get computers out of teens’ bedrooms by moving it to the family room.
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