[miketwalker]

I agree that passing the blame onto Myspace is wrong. I mean, the site started out to help bands get promoted... not for what it turned into. Myspace became this "networking" site because of the users. As many of the other posts have stated, the issue lies in the users themselves.

I do, however, believe that Myspace makes it easier for things to happen (I like the Limewire reference Mercury Rising used). I think that the biggest issue is in the security (obviously). The thing is, what else can Myspace do that will fix this? Other networking sites like Facebook use authorization for networks through college and work e-mail addresses. It allows the user to control who can see what and how much. Systems such as that work excellent. For example, in my case, if a friend needs to get in touch with me they can access my phone number... if somebody goes to my school and is trying to find me cause we had a class together, they can see my basic profile to know it's me and get back in touch but it's not giving away too much, and someone who isn't at my school (and has a much less chance of a reason to see my profile) can just see my name and a basic picture to see if it's the person they were searching for in which case they can ask to be added as a friend. The problem with this system is the fact that Myspace can't really limit it for the most part. Even if middle/high school students open a Myspace and some form of protection was made (i.e. only friends can see most things) often times students are too immature to understand the importance of protecting their personal information. Now, any middle/high schoolers reading this, don't take offense... for the most part students in FIRST seem to have a decent perspective on right/wrong... but many kids don't. To force a limit on people would just cause a different networking site to take over and offer it to them.

The problem is going to remain with the group of people its' affecting until a culture change occurs in that area and the students have better parental/educational/whatever instruction and oversight. I'm not talking someone who checks everything you do on the internet, but someone who can make sure the child understands what they're dealing with before letting them have free choice.