MySpace --- Does it just have a bad reputation? Or is it deserved?

I wrote a long response but lost it when I hit Post Response, so I'll sum it up for you: Myspace is not the problem it's the parents. Myspace allows adult content, but they are not forcing kids to put adult content out there. My coworker lets her kids use it but she is on their friends list so she can monitor what they do. If you monitor your kids pages, you should let them use it. I do know a few 16-17 year olds with pages my mom would kill me if I had NOW even though I'm 25! So those parents are either not paying attention, or they just don't really care that much. So don't close myspace, instead Parents have to start paying more attention!

I have myspace and i like it but i think its just the bad apples thats ruining it for others.My kids are not older enough for myspace yet but if they were i would want them to set their page to private.

It's not so much of the site itself, but some of the people who use it. There are people who abuse some of the functions of the site and ruin it for a lot of people. It's not a site for predators, any site that has the same features could be used for negative things, but the intent of myspace is to connect friends and family and network and even met new friends. It's a matter of how you use it.

i use Myspace and i think its a great concept...it allows us to use internet as the very next thing to our school or college..where all friends can meet and chat and plan for real meets...it even helped me find a lot of school friends whom i had completely lost touch with...ofcourse it is a great service but every coin has its flipside and everything can be used in a proper way or improper way....

The problem is that Myspace is an open forum--for people of all ages--thus you have adult content and minors crammed into one place. I really don't see a suitable solution to this, accept perhaps, creating a different kind of login system, where adults can see some material that minors can't. However, a problem with this is that minors can, and always have, lied about their age. One might find predators on Myspace, just as you might anywhere on the web. I think parents need to stop playing the blame game and take some responsibility to monitor their children's behaviour and to teach through example, good morals and safe behaviours. I like Myspace. If I had children, I'd probably let them use it. I'm actually more concerned with things like "Family Guy" and "American Dad" and "South Park"--cartoons I find hilarious, but would not want children watching.

Like most other questions about the internet, I think the answer here is "it depends." There are emotionally mature minors who are absolutely fit to be using MySpace and know how to use it properly. And there are immature adults who shouldn't be let out of the house alone, never mind on MySpace. I know that the above doesn't exactly answer the question that groomtobe23 (congrats!) put out there, but it does go to the spirit of the problem. The issues we face with MySpace are not going away. In fact, as the world becomes more virtual, they will mount. If I were a parent, I might be willing to let my kids use MySpace, although my faith in them would determine the necessary level of supervision. Mike

I would never let my kid get on myspace because of grown men looking for little kids. I don't even use it myself because I prefer not to I think it is a waste of my time personally. I think people in general waste to much time on there.

The bad reputation is definitely deserved. It is geared towards putting one's self out there on whats cleverly enough disguised as friendship. yes, I have been fortunate enough to find a friend I hadnt seen in 20 yrs, but I'd have found them some other way. I have seen a lot more perversion on that site that anything else. It's the big old anonymous internet in it's finest form of yuck.

I don't have my own MySpace page, but I have checked out a few pages. I don't really enough enough of people that have MySpace pages to see. Anyways, when I was searching I was seraching with the names of some of my friends from high school. When that happens, a bunch of people with the same names came up. It is amazing what some of the information that you can find on there. There is one person who I know who posted their full name and where they live, not hte physical address, but all it takes is a phone book or an internet search. I have also heard news reports of younger children getting around making their profile private by saying that they are 16 or 17 or whatever it has to be, but then you go down further and it says "I am really this... I just didn't want my profile to be private. My local news channel pretty much has the same opinion has everyone else on here and so do I. It isn't necessaiarly MySpace that is the problem, but it is how a select number of indivdiuals use it.

I love myspace i have had one since June of this year i get to talk to lots of my old friends that i couldn't otherwise so yeah i think there are just bad apples i haven't had a problem with myspace i think some of it is from imature people also others not being careful about there stuff i really don't talk to anyone on there that i don't know stuff like that

Predators going afte children are not the only problems with My Space. People have been stalked using info on the site. Information has been copied and placed on other web sites where the thief claims it as their own. Identity Theft is rampant because people put to much info on their page. This is really not a problem with the site it is aa problem with the users. Any time you have that many people in one "place" you get some people who use it as a forum for their own nefarious purposes. And NO I would not let a child of mine use the site.