MySpace is giving more and more tours of its 4th floor these days. That's where the Santa Monica, Calif.-based company deals with the issues so much in the news of late: teens' social-networking, blogging, cyberbullying, and ID theft. We recently got the tour, and we thought you'd like a snapshot of what's going on there behind the headlines. Please click to this week's issue of my newsletter if … [Read more...] about MySpace safety tour
Search Results for: bullying
14-year-old cyberstalker
Usually in the online-safety area we read about cops catching 40-something men posing as teenagers to "groom" them. But this MySpace-related story is about a 14-year-old posing as a 40-year-old to scare a peer. It's a cyberbullying story. According to the Mail Tribune in southern Oregon, investigators were preparing to subpoena MySpace for user records after a girl reported a "string" of … [Read more...] about 14-year-old cyberstalker
Back to the porn threat
We all keep finding more things from which online kids need protection. The first blip on our radar screen was online pornography. Then it was predators (not to mention spyware, phishers, worms, etc.). Lately, with cyberbullying, blogging, and all manner of kid-published content, the lesson's about how they can protect themselves from each other and even themselves. Suddenly we're back to that … [Read more...] about Back to the porn threat
Schools’ blog struggles
The school scene is a huge part of teen blogging – not just because a lot of teen members' posts and profiles revolve around school but also because users are searchable by school. That's certainly true at MySpace (where anyone can type a local high school into the search box and find hundreds of students there, searchable by age and distance – e.g., within a 5-mile radius). The hugely popular … [Read more...] about Schools’ blog struggles
Texting & romance
Is it appropriate to say "I love you" for the first time or break up a relationship via text message? Or even ask someone out? These are the questions that plague the digital generation, not to mention avid phone texters, males and females alike. But the former are more likely to let the text do the heavy lifting, where Net-aided romance is concerned, USATODAY reports, citing fresh research from … [Read more...] about Texting & romance