The Ins & Outs of:

MySpace and Facebook

What Is This MySpace/Facebook thing?MySpace (www.myspace.com) and Facebook

(www.facebook.com) are both considered as social networks on the World Wide Web. Social networks allow individuals to communicate with one another regardless of location. MySpace is the most common social network on the web and is for anyone and everyone who meets the age requirements. However, Facebook was first formed for college students, but now has open its doors to other populations (i.e. high school students, businesses, politicians, etc.).

Facebook and MySpace web pages

How Easy is it to Enter?

MySpace• MySpace users must be 13 years old

or older in order to register an account.

• A person who is under the age of 18 automatically has their profile set to private. Other users cannot contact

them or view their profile unless they are aware of the user’s last name

and/or email address.

Facebook• In order to be a Facebook user, you

must be 13 years old or older. • Convicted sex offenders are prohibited from joining Facebook.

MySpace/ Facebook Lingo• Blog- an online journal

•Chat- talking to people through text messages online

•Phishing- an online scam where an e-mail is sent to a user from a person pretending to be a legitimate

enterprise.

•Avatar- a picture that represents a user to give them a unique identity.

•BRB- be right back

•F2F- face to face

•FUD- fear, uncertainty, and doubt

•ILY- i love you

•LTNS- long time no see

•P911- my parents are in the room

•POS- parents are looking over my shoulder

•WTGP- want to go “private” as in go to a private chat room

•YL- young lady

•YM- young male

•SMH- shaking my head

avatar

According to Net Lingo, 95% of parents do not know the internet lingo that their child uses to notify people that their parents are watching.

Social Network Amenities

MySpace• Create personal profile

• Post details of upcoming events• Write blogs to share with others

• Networking• Chat

• Friend updates• Photo albums

• Status and mood• Groups• Forums

• Post videos• Calendar

• Address book• Custom background for personal

profile• Applications- music, movies, games, news

and weather

Facebook• Create personal profile

• Post details of upcoming events• Ads

• Write notes (or blogs) to share with others

• Networking• Chat

• News feed (Mini-feed)• Photo albums

• Status• Groups

• Posted items- allows users to post music videos, links, news articles, etc. to personal

profile or send via e-mail

• Applications- Daily Bible Verse, America’s Next Top Model, Run’s House, Bumper

Sticker, Sticky Notes, Games, Videos, etc.

When Did This Come About?

MySpaceo Founded in August of 2003

o There is dispute over the true founder of MySpace. The most recognizable figure is Tom Anderson, the President of MySpace who is recognized as founding the social network along with MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe. Tom is the first “friend” of all

MySpace users.

Facebooko Founded on February 4, 2004

o Founded by Mark Zuckerburg, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes

Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe

Of Myspace.com

Mark Zuckerburg

Of Facebook.com

Internet Statistics•A Congressional study recently reported that there is an estimated 24 million children on the internet with one in five having been solicited for sex in 2007.

•Facebook currently had a little more than 37 million users in March of 2008, now the social network reports that there is over 100 million active users.

•Facebook reports that the fastest growing demographic is those aged 25 and older.

•MySpace is noted as having 100 million active users.

•Facebook reports that more than ½ of their users are out of college

•72% of teens have a social networking profile while 47% have acknowledged that their profile is viewable by almost anyone (Rochester Institute of Technology, 2008)

•86% of girls said that they could chat online without their parents’ knowledge (Girl Scouts Research Institute poll, 2002)

•89% of sexual solicitations are made in chat rooms or via instant messages while 75% of youth who received a solicitation did not tell a parent (Computer Monitoring Software Reports)

•76% of parents, stated that they do not have rules in terms of their child’s internet use (Computer Monitoring Software Reports)

Internet Statistics: Polly Klaas Foundation

The Polly Klaas Foundation is a national nonprofit that helps find missing children, prevents children from going missing, and promotes laws that help keep children

safe. Survey Results From October 2005 Online Survey

Survey featured 1,468 teen respondents

• 54% of teens have communicated online with someone they’ve never met via IM.•50% of teens have communicated online with someone they’ve never met via e-mail.•45% of teens have communicated online with someone they’ve never met via chat room.•30% of teens have admitted to talking about meeting a person they’ve only met on the Internet. •27% of teens have talked about sex with a person they’ve never met on the Internet. •47% of teens have admitted to using code words to alert others online of a parent’s immediate presence if the conversation is one that a guardian might not approve. •28% say they use lingo daily. •44% of teens have lied about their age online.•40% of teens admitted to pretending to be someone else.

MySpace:“Tell Me About Yourself”

Sample Profile- MySpace

A sample MySpace profile may contain the following information:•Basic Information

•Real name•Age•Date of Birth•Location•Ethnicity•Body type•“I am here for...”

•Username (can be a real name or nickname)•Headline (personal statement) Ex: “Life cannot be taken for granted.”•About me section•“I’d Like to Meet...”•Interests

•Music•Movies •Television•Books•Heroes

Sample Profile- Facebook

A sample Facebook profile may contain the following information:•Basic Information

•Network (i.e. Greenville, Winthrop, Hyatt)•Real name•Age•Date of Birth•Location•“Looking for...”•Relationship status•Political Views•Religious Views•Contact Information (i.e. e-mail, AIM, current town, residence, website)

•Status (i.e. “Arnold is on his way to work”)•Mini-Feed•Education and Work•Personal Information

•Activities, interests, favorite music, favorite TV shows, favorite movies, books, quotes, and about me sections.

•Applications (Super Wall, Moods, Photos, Notes, Events, Posted Items, Free Gifts, Sticky Notes, Daily Bible Verse, Greek Pride, Quizzes,

Privacy Settings-MySpace

Offers only General Privacy Settings:

• Online– Can choose whether or not users can see whether or not you’re online.

• Birthday– Can choose whether or not your birthday can be seen by your friends

• Profile Viewable by– Can decide who can see your profile by choosing one of the three options

• Everyone• Everyone 18 and over• My friends only

• Photos– Can choose whether or not your photos can be shared or e-mailed

• Block users by age-Allows users under the age of 18 to contact you

• Block users– Allows you to block individual users

Privacy Settings-Facebook

• Profile– You control what you want people to be able to see on your

profile.• Search

– You control who can search for you and how people are able to contact you.

• News Feed and Wall– You control what stories (updates or additions to your profile)

about you are posted and who can view them.• Applications

– You control what information about you is available when using applications on Facebook.

• Block– You have the ability to block certain Facebook users from your

profile.

The Good Stuff (The Ins)

• Networking (i.e. careers, organizations, classifieds)• Support (i.e. groups, forums, chat)

– “Friends Against Drunk Driving”- MySpace– Nursing Club- MySpace– “Abolish Racism & Sexism”- Facebook

• Communication Outlet• Entertainment

– Movies– Music– TV Shows– Celebrities– Events

• Advertising

The Bad Stuff (The Outs)

• Photography– Nudity– Inappropriate cartoons

• Inappropriate Personal Information– Substance and alcohol use– Telephone numbers, addresses– “Tell Me About Yourself” Surveys

• Sexual Predators• Hate Speech

– “A.A.G (“Americans Against Gays”)- Facebook.com – Be Brilliant, Burn Gays”- Facebook.com

• Racism– “Anti-Jew (Religion & Beliefs)” – Myspace.com

• Privacy• Bad Impressions• Public events

How are Youth Victimized on the Internet?

• Being enticed by online predators to be coerced into sexual acts.

•Predators using the Internet for the sole purpose of distributing child pornography.

•Using the Internet to display child pornography to youth in an attempt to get them to comply with sexual acts.

•Cyber bullying

•Cyber stalking

Internet Crimes in the News: It’s Not Just Social Networks!!!

•A country- music radio personality, Allen Pruett who used the name Jim Fox on air, was sentenced to spend 30 days in jail, pay $250 in fines, and five years probation for attempting to coerce a fourteen year old girl into sex on the Internet. He was caught by an undercover detective posing as a fourteen year old girl whose user name was “Curious N’ Cute.” He had agreed to meet “her” in Greene County and showed up with a box of condoms, beer, and quilts inside of his Ford Explorer. UPDATE: Allen Pruett is now employed as a talk show host with WLW-AM 700. Source: The Cincinnati Enquirer http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2000/04/11/loc_radio_host_tried_to.html

• In May of 2008, students at a Beverly Hills middle school met one day at a restaurant and gossiped about a fellow peer calling her a “slut” and “spoiled brat.” One of the students recorded the conversation and uploaded it as a video on YouTube. Due to the posting of the video, school officials suspended the student who uploaded the video while there were no disciplinary actions taken upon the students who are featured in the video. UPDATE: The student that was suspended, sued the school district in June of 2008 stating that her rights of free speech were violated. There is not a report of the outcome. Source: The Boston Globe http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2008/08/04/bullying_freedom_of_speech_collide/

Social Networks In the News

• Taryn and CBS4 (Denver, Colorado)- MySpace– Reported by Susan Carroll for CBS News Channel 4 on

February 13, 2004– Able to locate student through her high school– Parents believed that MySpace was a local website only

accessible by high school students• At the age of 16, Katherine R. Lester, tricked her parents into

getting her a passport to visit a man, Abdullah, 20, who lived in the Middle East whom she had met on MySpace in 2005. She traveled to marry him in 2006, but was stopped en route to Amman, Jordan. Upon returning home, her parents gave her permission to continue seeing him which is proven with their appearance on GMA. However, in 2007, Katherine appeared on Dr. Phil revealing that she had broken up with him and was dating an American boy.

• Judy Cajusto, 14, New Jersey, murdered January of 2006, had told friends she had met a man in his twenties on MySpace. It is believed that her meetings with the unidentified man is what led to her death.

• Robert Wise, 38, Texas, approached a 14 year old girl for sex on MySpace, arrested after police assumed the girl’s identity- reported by CBS in 2006.

Katherine Lester with father, Terry Lester

• Megan Meier and “Josh Evans” (MySpace)Source: The Megan Meier Foundation http://www.meganmeierfoundation.org/

•Ricky Alatorre (MySpace)- Picture was taken by a peer with a cell phone camera who later created a MySpace profile under the name, “The Rictionary,” which poked fun at his stellar grades and insisted that he was a homosexual, which he is not. Ricky contacted MySpace to have the profile removed and his school, Lowell High School in Indiana, began an anti-bullying program due to the incident. Source: USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2008-07-14-cyberbullying_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

•Five girls from Florida are facing charges from an incident in March in which they participated in the beating of a girl after they heard that she had been saying mean things about them on MySpace. The girls had videotaped the beating planning to post it on MySpace and YouTube. Source: USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2008-07-14-cyberbullying_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

•Corey Delaney, whose name is also listed as Corey Worthington, posted event details about a party he was having on MySpace, which resulted in 500 people arriving at his house while his parents were out of town. Many of the guests were under the influence of alcohol which resulted in damage to police cars who were attempting to control the crowd.Source: ABC http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/14/2138293.htm

Social Networks In the News Megan

Meier

Proposed Changes in MySpace

• Massachusetts General Attorney, Tim O’Reilly proposes that the minimum age requirement for MySpace users be changed from fourteen to eighteen. Problem: MySpace has no way of knowing a person’s real age.

• Pennsylvania Congressman, Michael Fitzpatrick has proposed a bill that will ban MySpace from libraries and public places. Problem: Although, this will help limit the number of teens on MySpace; it will not stop predators.

• In 2007, Mississippi Attorney General, Jim Hood, proposed to MySpace that they require parental e-mail consent before their child is allowed membership to the social networking site.

Changes in MySpace• In July of 2007, MySpace deleted 29,000 profiles that belonged to

registered sex offenders. Source: Corporate Sex Offenders: http://www.corporatesexoffenders.com/?pg=myspacecleanup

• MySpace added more than 60 new safety features that will restrict certain content for users under the age of 18 and is working on adding new ways to verify the identity of its users. Source: WCAX News http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=7795644

Proposed Changes in Facebook

• The attorney generals of forty-nine states and the District of Columbia proposed to Facebook that they agree to make changes that will protect children from predators and inappropriate content as well as add more age and identity verification software. Source: Office of the Attorney General (Mississippi): http://www.ago.state.ms.us/index.php/press/releases/announces_agreement_with_facebook_to_make_site_safer/

Changes in Facebook• Facebook agreed to make the proposed changes that were made by forty-nine attorney

generals and the District of Columbia to make the social networking site safer for children and to add more age and identity verification software. These changes included:

• Providing free parental monitoring software• Providing safety tips to parents• Acknowledging complaints of abuse within 24 hours• Establishing a 24 hour hotline for law enforcement• Reviewing any requested changes to a user’s profile who is under the age of eighteen• Users under the age of 18 have to affirm that they’ve read information regarding safety tips of the

site before registering• Working alongside attorney generals in investigations and prosecution of internet crimes

Source: Office of the Attorney General (Mississippi): http://www.ago.state.ms.us/index.php/press/releases/announces_agreement_with_facebook_to_make_site_safer/

Is My Teen At Risk?/ What Are the Warning Signs?

•Teen is making long distance phone calls from numbers you do not recognize

•Teen stays online all the time especially at night

•You find pornography on the computer

•Your teen receives small gifts, mail, or packages from someone you don’t know

•Your teen shuts off the computer or changes the screen when you come into the room

How Can I Protect My Teen?

•Become computer literate!

•Use filtering software!

•Discuss with your child the expectations that you have for them as they surf the Internet.

•Keep the computer in a place where you can easily monitor it!

•Make sure your teen has a locked profile where only friends or people they know can see their profile

•Make sure your teen is aware of the pros and cons of social networks

•Make sure that your teen is keeping private information private by not posting their:

•Full name•Social security number•Phone number•Schedule•address

QUESTIONS

The Ins & Outs of:

MySpace and Facebook