mySpaceSafety

=__A Focus On MySpace and Internet Safety__= (Courtesy of NetSmartz411.org)

How do I access my child’s MySpace profile?
First, you may want to sit down and talk with your children about MySpace. Ask them to show you what their profile looks like and how they created it. If children voluntarily show you their pages, you can then begin communicating with them about their personal safety. Go through their page and see how much personal information they have posted. Explain to them why this could put them at risk for victimization and have them remove the information. Tell them to use the privacy settings of the site to restrict access. Then go through their list of friends and make sure your children know and trust each person in real life.

If children do not voluntarily show you their pages, you can search for it.
 * Go to http://www.myspace.com
 * Click on “search” towards the top of the page
 * Under "Find a Friend," you can search by the child’s name, display name, or e-mail address. Enter any of this information that you might have into the appropriate field
 * Under "Classmate Finder," you can search by school. Often times your child has added his or her profile to the list of users from that school and that year in school
 * You might want to also try this with other social networking sites such as Facebook, Xanga®, or Hi5®

Remember that sites may have age restrictions. If your child is under the age of 14, you can report their profile to MySpace and have it deleted (see below).

Once you find your child's profile, look through their page, check out what pictures they have posted, and review the “comments” section. If the page is set to “private,” then you will need the child to provide the password to access their page. MySpace users also send e-mails to each other. You will need the child’s password to gain access to these e-mails.

One fun way you could monitor your child's social networking profile is to create one for yourself and add your children as friends. This gives you access to their page even if they set it to private. It could become a great way to communicate with your children, share in their online experiences, and gain access to their world.

Contacting MySpace
You may find that you need to contact MySpace for any one of a variety of issues. Use the e-mail information below as a resource for getting in touch with the appropriate MySpace function:


 * If someone has posted your pictures without your permission and for other copyright issues: copyrightagent@myspace.com
 * If you are a parent or guardian and you want help with your child's profile: parentcare@myspace.com
 * For harassment and cyberbully reports: cyberbullyreport@myspace.com
 * To report an imposter profile: imposterreport@myspace.com
 * To report underaged users: underagereport@myspace.com