Best Websites
Since
1998 BestWebsites.com.my features thousands of best websites
in many
categories of interest with descriptions/reviews given by leading
publications and webmasters.
Home
Teen
Networking Websites
Angela Sachitano
News
13 on your side
Thursday, April 27, 2006
The
internet has forever changed the world we live in today. Perhaps the
most internet savvy are the teenagers. After all they don't even
remember what life was like before computers were part of everyday
life.
The
latest internet communication tool among young people involves social
networking sites. The most popular ones are myspace.com and xanga.com
where kids create their own webpage, with pictures of themselves and
daily on-line journals.
The
sites are quickly replacing cell phones as the preferred way of
communicating among teens. With one added luxury, you don't even need
to know the person you are talking to, and you don't need any special
permission to get access to one another. All you need is access to
the web, and some spare time.
One
prime example is a xanga.com webpage of a man who calls himself “Horny
and Gay in Panama City.” On his page are explicit, pornographic
pictures of himself.
The man writes daily journals and
invites teens to join his "friends" network. He's even so bold to
write, “I'm looking to meet hot young guys."
There is no special password to get
to this man's web page. He's one of more than seventy million users
worldwide who have set up a blog on teen networking websites.
"We teach kids from the time they
can walk and talk not to talk to strangers, they should yell as loud
as they can or whatever,” said Bay County Sheriff’s Internet
Investigator Jeremy Mathis. “But yet we give them access to the
internet where there are millions of strangers."
Mathis created a fake xanga account
and busted the man behind the pornographic web page. His name is
Jason Cox and he is a 26 year old. Not only does Cox have a website
on xanga, he’s also targeted kids on myspace. It’s a much more toned
down site without pornographic pictures. But Mathis says it’s even
more dangerous, because Cox seems normal and teens may not realize
right away his intentions.
"One of my biggest concerns is sex
offenders going on and telling kids on chat and journals sites and
telling them they're somebody they're not,” Cox said. “They’ll
pretend to be 15 and also playing soccer and baseball and they have
some of the same interests and link up that way."
So with all the dangers lurking on
line, why do so many teen do it? .....
A group of self- proclaimed myspace
addicts from Mosley High School in Panama City agreed to talk to News
13.
“I’ve been contacted by a stranger.”
Said Senior Trey Arcenceaux. “He gave me this big long speech about
how he just moved here. Then I looked on his page and realized he was
37. He clearly knew I was in high school.
”A lot of people here put their
pictures up and their school name and even their address,” said
Sophomore Kelsie Brown. “You know anybody could just say they're
somebody else."
Some teens say they do, however, go
out of their way to protect themselves.
“You can set it to private, so the
only thing they see is your front page and a little picture of
yourself, nothing else,” said Senior Jonathan Warren. “But too be
honest, most kids don’t do it.”
“You can deny people you don't
know,” said Sophomore Samantha Southerland. “Don't put personal
information on it and you should be ok. There's always a risk, but
that's a risk we're willing to take."
And the risk is heightening. In the
past year, xanga and myspace .com tripled their amount of users. More
than half of those users are under the age of 18. As far as what the
websites are doing to protect your child, they say they are doing what
they can, yet Jason Cox’s website, a convicted pedophile, is still
up and running.
SCHOOLS
AND THE INTERNET
Schools are now becoming
increasingly aware of teen social networking sites, and it’s tough to
believe, but middle school students are using the internet to do
everything their older peers are doing. They are posting pictures of
themselves in bathing suits, talking to older men, and giving away
pertinent information.
Don't believe it? Ask Bay Haven Charter Academy Principal
Tim Kitts.
"Many students have become
knowledgeable of these sites and they are communicating through them,”
Kitts said. “They are putting pictures of themselves in bathing
suits, laying on beds, and inviting people to e-mail them. Some
students are extremely naïve and even putting their address on there.
This makes them accessible."
Kitts decided to face the potential
danger head on after a parent came forward and expressed concern. Not
only did Kitts immediately talk with children, but he demanded their
passwords and took it upon himself to check out many of their
myspace.com accounts personally.
I’m not the parent, but when it is
carrying over into the school and disrupting the educational process,
that’s when it becomes our issue,” Kitts said. “The children were
constantly talking about it.”
After spending several days
monitoring the sites on his own, Kitts decided to mail an emergency
letter home to the parent of every child at his school.
Inside the letter, Kitts warns
parents that the sites are "one of the best sources for pedophiles to
seek out children." The letter also goes on to ask parents to
"examine whether your child is involved in a site like this and either
monitor it heavily or eliminate it heavily."
Bay Haven parent Maureen Grinrod
asked her 7th grader to cancel her myspace account after receiving
Kitts’ letter.
"Some of the stuff on the site was
just too revealing,” Grinrod said. “And I thought to myself, so many
other people are looking at this and it's what they are gathering over
a period of time."
Perhaps the best thing that has come
out of Kitts’ proactive approach is that it has prompted kids to feel
open enough to ask questions.
"Can anybody in the world contact
us?" asked one student.
"How do you know if somebody is
pretending to be somebody else?" asked another student.
Kitts says he’s proud of his
students and their parents for taking interest.
"We are not the parents, we can't
force them to close the site,” Kitts said. “But we hope we made
parents aware and we will see a change in their attitudes and
actions."
Bay District Schools Safe Technology
Director, David Smith, says all of the teen networking sites have been
blocked on school campus's and there isn’t any way students can get on
to these sites during school hours.
Smith says anything beyond that
point is up to the principal of the individual school and he does not
know of any principal that has gone to the length
Bay Haven Charter Academy has gone
through to get the word out. But parents are welcome to make
suggestions to their child's principal.
You can log on to
www.isafe.org and
www.spectorpro.com for more information on keeping kids safe on
line and how to protect your child’s myspace.com or xanga.com account.
Click Here to go directly to the section of
myspace.com which
addresses what the company does to protect its users from harm.
Source: WMBB
Home Copyright ©
2006 BestWebsites.com.my a collection of
Best
Websites |