ugly myspace trouble

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-08-2005
ugly myspace trouble
14
Wed, 11-23-2005 - 2:01pm

I'm going to tread lightly here, out of respect for the people involve, even though we're all anonymous. I heard yesterday that some of my dd's classmates have, shall we say, extremely compromising pictures on their "myspace" profiles. Rumors are rampant as to how they got there, and I have also heard that the school principle found out, and the parents have been informed. Again, out of respect I have not looked for the pictures to verify.

I feel nothing but pity for these poor children. The entire school is buzzing with this news. I'm absolutely positive that these poor kids made a really stupid mistake without any thought to the consequences, and as it turns out, the consequences were pretty bad. I also feel for the poor parents. I know some of them...their kid was star of the school play, involved in sports, and they're very involved with their kids' lives.

It just seems so scary to me that kids, since they have so little experience, and are gaining independence, are bound to make mistakes from time to time. It's just such a shame that some of these mistakes are so unforgiving, and they have to learn such a hard lesson.

My dd doesn't know that I know. Her reaction to the news was what I considered appropriate, & she doesn't need any help from me learning from the mistakes of her classmates.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-17-2005
Tue, 11-29-2005 - 4:39pm

jt,

What do you mean exactly by it is set to "private". My 16 y.o. ds has one, and all I had to do once arriving at myspace.com was type in his name and his page appeared. I hate to admit I have not been on the ball about this; it kind of snuck up on me. I don't have any set rules for him. I don't particularly like some of the language some of his friends use when they leave him email, or whatever you call it (its right there, for everyone to view). I think he's still learning how to work the site, adding photos, etc. So far nothing objectionable. I have talked to him about setting it to private and I'm not sure he knows what that is, or how to do it. When he caught me looking at his site, I felt it was a real "wake up" call to him that anyone can do the same.

Marie

P.S. We do have internet monitoring software.

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-20-2005
Tue, 11-29-2005 - 5:28pm

I work in a computer lab at a small community college. I've seen what these sites can do to college kids and I can only imagine how much worse it would be to a high school student. I spent an entire week watching students to make sure they were not pulling up a Web site that pictures of another student and his gay lover on them. I've also spent alot of time trying to keep students focused when one of the baseball players put a video on the internet of him and his ex g/f "in the act". She is also a student here. It is a very public world that we live in these days.

I monitor my DD's myspace pretty closely and so far I haven't seen anything too horrible. She just recently got set up in facebook so now I have one more thing to watch for.

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-14-2000
Tue, 11-29-2005 - 7:15pm

Through a person's myspace profile they can set it to private.

Pam
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-09-2005
Fri, 12-09-2005 - 9:03pm
Anyone can have a myspace account. You just need an email address and a password. There will still be things you can't see by not being a "friend", but you'll be able to see alot. I agree that what a student does outside of school is outside of the schools jurisdiction, but students involved in sports must sign a "code of conduct". If there are pictures of them on myspace drinking our smoking tobacco or pot, and it's seen by a coach or parent representative, well then it's all over.

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