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myspace.
okay well a while ago my parents got extremely mad at me because they found out i had a myspace when im not suppose to..well i got one again and they have no idea andd i rlly dont see whats wrong with myspace because i can talk to alot of my friends that dont go to my school and stuff. what could i say to my parents to make them understand that theres nothing wrong with having a myspace. thanks in advance <33
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Want to answer more questions in the Relationships category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Families?
Well both my sons have a myspace, and no I don't see anything wrong with it. And they enjoy it for the same reasons you do. You don't say if you are a girl or not, but I suspect you are, and your parents are especially anxious about your myspace because of the stories in the news about girls being lured into meeting "young guys" who turn out to be old men, and some of them have been harmed, or even worse.
But in the whole scheme of things, there are million of kids on my space, and a very small percentage of them have been harmed. VERY small.
You must convince them that you have more sense than that. I mean to meet with some kid you only know from the internet. How do you do that? I am assuming that you do have more sense than that. What if any plans, do you and your girlfriends have, to prevent that happening to any of you? Some of you must have read about, and discussed girls who fell for those traps, left home without telling anyone, so they could meet a boy, who over the internet sounded just like the only person in the world who understands them, only to arrive at the meeting place to find an older man, who then kidnaps them. What do you and your friends think about these things? Honey, this is a very serious subject, so bear with me. Some kids have "internet safety plans" where by they take steps with the help of their friends and even parents and teachers and authorities to protect themselves online.
There are so many wonderful things about the internet, including my space, and you should be able to enjoy them, and not let a few perverts ruin for you. There is one theme that is true of each encounter that a young teen had with a pervert. They young teen had to COOPERATE or it never would have happened. Of course the young person had no idea he/she was about to meet a pervert!
So here is my suggestion. Take the possibility of an encounter with a pervert on-line as being REAL,
start a internet safety campaign with your friends. Your goal is to educate kids and parents alike of the downfalls, and the benefits to kids, of the internet. You can have a my space page, but you need to keep it :private: you need to not chat with any kids you don't know, no matter how friendly they are. Make lists of all the ways that myspace takes steps to protect kids, then make a list of all the things kids themselves need to do to avoid perverts, then make a list of all of the other benefits kids get from having a myspace page. Then make a very short list of the downfalls. Educate yourself and your friends and kids at school on how to avoid problems and perverts. BE an advocate for safe internet. Show that you know all of the dangers and you know how to avoid them. Educate your parents of the ways in which you can protect your myspace page so that only you and your "known" friends can access it. And same goes for which friends you talk to. What steps can you take to ensure that each person you talk to on-line is really someone you know?
Also, never put personal information about yourself on your myspace, like where you live or you how to contact you. Don't put sexually provacative photos up there, just cute ones, group photos, pet photos, and pics of your favorite musicians,etc. Stuff like that.
DOes any of this make sense? Education is power.
Educate yourself about all of the pitfalls of having a myspace, let your parents know that you know better than to fall for them, and maybe they will trust you to be able to avoid contact with perverts. Besides, perverts are everywhere, not just on the internet. Avoiding strangers everywhere is good advice for everyone.
After all, the police do not say that kids should stay off the internet, the police just want kids to know about 'internet safety'. It is a real issue. In some large cities, the police offer internet safety courses. Maybe you could get your school to offer an internet safety course for all of the kids, on a saturday. I think with a little resolve on your part, you could work this out, and be an advocate for internet safety for yourself and your friends. By doing this you can show your parents that you are too smart to fall for any of the traps that perverts use.
Hope this helps.
Michele
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