MySpace Results in an Uproar of Legal Cases
Is Myspace really a place for friends, or has it turned into a predator zone?
By Chris McElhatton

When two east coast men were arrested for using MySpace to convince teenagers to meet them, police opened up their case against the first federal arrests related to the website. What many police officers did not realize at the time was just how many more arrests were still to come.
In a string of recent arrests, law enforcement officials have added to their books a number of Bay Area men caught through MySpace. Among these men is a part-time math teacher at Westmont High School in San Jose, and also a young Santa Cruz man. With these recent occurrences, it has become evident that the downsides of MySpace are not just isolated incidents, but are real issues that must be addressed.
Boasting over sixty million users, students see MySpace as an easy place to find others like them, and exchange photos, stories, and laughs. This is perhaps what makes the web site so attractive, for both innocent students and not-so-innocent adults.
However, the networking site is not to blame for the recent slew of cases. The website intentionally prohibits those who are thirteen years old and younger from signing up, and strongly suggests that younger teenagers don’t join. However, in many of the cases when teenagers have been molested, they often register as eighteen year olds. In addition to the misrepresentation too common of younger users, the mere presence of the Internet provides for unfortunate opportunities like this to exist.
According to Chris DeWolfe, co-founder of MySpace, ``[It] isn’t a MySpace issue. It’s an Internet issue.’’
MySpace proactively works to assist in cases, monitor pages and accounts for inappropriate content, and protect its’ users. Computer programs scan through the pages, and mark all accounts that may belong to users under fourteen. However, with sixty million users, it is near impossible for MySpace to monitor and regulate everything at all times. With that in mind, users should be aware of what they should and should not be posting. While blogs remain relatively harmless, more and more users are posting photos that probably should not be put up for the public to see. These include nude, lewd, and otherwise crude photos of people. Again, one of the reasons that these users are not dealt with is because the MySpace administrative team is unaware of what they are doing.
Other things that should not be posted may seem obvious to most students, but others are not aware of the hazard that posting them could pose. Teenagers logging on to MySpace should not post information such as their name, address, screen name, or even hobbies/ sports teams. Though they seem like pretty harmless bits of info, online predators can use it not only to find you, but also learn more about you. By saying something like, “I go to Valley Christian High School, and tear up the soccer field there,” the predators know exactly how to act to convince you that they are harmless. If someone does contact you, saying either inappropriate things or wanting to meet you, letting someone like your parents, the police, or MySpace administrators know is essential.
In instances like this when malicious things do happen, MySpace cooperates fully with authorities, and have already assisted in over 2,400 investigations.
Parents may see MySpace as an extremely harmful website, but it was not designed to be- the actions of a few have perverted what was meant to be a good thing. So, instead of banning MySpace or treating it as taboo, many recommend that parents simply monitor their children’s activities, and make sure that they understand basic Internet safety. DeWolfe’s greatest bit of advice was ``Don’t post anything you wouldn’t want the world to know. On the Internet, people aren’t always who they say they are.”