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Is An Email From Mom The Best Way To Clean Up MySpace?

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Jack_Burton
01/06/09

In reply to Is An Email From Mom The Best Way To Clean Up MySpace?
I recently accepted a 2 friend requests from young women whom I did not previously know - I'm having coffee w/ the the one who sent me a personal note, tomorrow.

I think the other one just friend-ed me to see what's going on / make a casual Web-friend. Which is fine - I'm not into dating women half my age.
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Nuckin Futz for you
01/06/09

In reply to Is An Email From Mom The Best Way To Clean Up MySpace?
I dont think the idea with this is too in anyway convince kids not to do illegal things or stop having sex but to stop throwing it out there on the internet. I know I was horrified when I got a friend request from my little cousin who had 69 in her name! I dont want to know all that! By all means I'm sure very few of us were innocent teens but I for one would never have been stupid enough to throw any illegal activites up on my page and make it public. And I do think its a concern to see all these 16yr old girls in nothing but underwear on talking about what a man needs to do to get in their pants. I worry for their safety.
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Nuckin Futz for you
01/06/09

@Raynaura: Also I think there is less concern about the teens having sex with other teens but about teens making themself prey for dirty perverted adults who have easier access to a teen population then they ever did before.
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Glitterbug (likes life shaken, not stirred)
01/06/09

In reply to Is An Email From Mom The Best Way To Clean Up MySpace?
They don't even need a warning - their mum adding them as a friend would probably do the trick.
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pyrrhic
01/06/09

In reply to Is An Email From Mom The Best Way To Clean Up MySpace?
@ishtar79: It seems to me that we have to find a better way to deal with the years between puberty and marriage than "Cover them up or the child-splorchers will get them!" I mean, yes, modesty and discretion are valuable life skills, and pedophilia ranks a twelve on the one-to-ten skeevy scale. On the other hand, it is absolutely ridiculous to expect someone to go through ten years of 'sexual unemployment' before they're defined as legitimate sexual beings, and I don't think we can continue to deal with teens (of which I am one, full disclosure) as though shushing them is going to make a damned bit of difference. Now, if we stop treating sexuality like it's something dirty and start fostering actual conversations about it BEFORE teenagers are blindsided by a deluge of poor influences, we might actually change some fundamental behaviors.

As for the illegality, also speaking as a teenager, trust me: we're fully aware that the cops don't want us doing this stuff. We're not fully aware that our frontal cortex isn't great at decision making yet, but small steps.
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FourInchHeels
01/06/09

@pyrrhic: I don't think the concern (in this article) is so much that teens are DOING these things, as that they're posting them on the internet. It's both stupid, since anyone can see - I found out my 17yr old cousin knocked up his girlfriend because the idiot posted it on his myspace. They were keeping it secret from the fam - and dangerous because it invites creepo predators.
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BearDownCBears
01/06/09

In reply to Is An Email From Mom The Best Way To Clean Up MySpace?
When we first got Facebook at my school (like the tenth network or something) it was quite primitive. My girlfriend at the time got me on it my junior year, I think. It was called "thefacebook.com" at that point and still froze up whenever Mark Zuckerberg spilled beer on his server in his dorm room or whatnot.

You didn't have to be quite as careful and could be a little more snarky without consequences because a) it was a closed network, and b) the population was so small that creeps were singled out pretty quick. Then it hit the state schools and the community colleges and then high schools and then...Hey look, an HR representative for that job you applied for wants to be your friend! See? Right next to the ad for Christian speed dating.

Oh well, it's probably worth the tradeoff. I'm hardly even on it anymore.
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morninggloria
01/06/09

@BearDownCBears: I just go on to stalk my ex boyfriend's new girlfriends to assure that I am prettier than they are.

I am.
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BearDownCBears
01/06/09

@morninggloria: Neither of which surprises me. :)
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morninggloria
01/06/09

@BearDownCBears: In actuality, I usually just check to make sure that I'm awesomer than they are. I read their profiles and then scoff at how non-awesome they sound and then proceed to drink an entire box of wine, watch Meg Ryan movies, and cry.
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jemandtheholograms
01/06/09

In reply to Is An Email From Mom The Best Way To Clean Up MySpace?
I'd love to see the emails moms would write to their kids about this:

Hi Susie, Just wanted to remind you to call Grandma for her birthday and find out if you want anything from the grocery store. Also, I'm glad to see you're so popular at parties, the picture of you making out with the redheaded boy from down the block while some blond guy is grabbing your boob is really cute! -xoxo, Mom
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morninggloria
01/06/09

In reply to Is An Email From Mom The Best Way To Clean Up MySpace?
Drugs, sex, and alcohol are "high risk?"

High risk of being AWESOME, more like.
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hatepaperdoll
01/06/09

In reply to Is An Email From Mom The Best Way To Clean Up MySpace?
But 'I like a guy who brings me flowers and takes me to dinner and (if you do that) I might consider having sex with you' is my custom email signature!
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BeAgrestic
01/06/09

In reply to Is An Email From Mom The Best Way To Clean Up MySpace?
I remember when facebook first started and my Mom wanted to see my profile (it was just for college students at that point). I logged in to show it to her and realized there were pictures of my friends and I drinking underage and comments on my wall no child would want a parent to see.

I got smart after that, because you never know who could see it.
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sarah.of.a.lesser.god (aka Mrs. BrutallyHonestHobbit)
01/06/09

In reply to Is An Email From Mom The Best Way To Clean Up MySpace?
So I should take down that picture of me in nothing but filmy undergarments with the caption "Hello, sailor. U B 6, I B 9" before my grandpa finds it?
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Eeva
01/06/09

In reply to Is An Email From Mom The Best Way To Clean Up MySpace?
Also, wait, why did they only focus on "poor urban zip codes"? Rich kids don't indulge in stupid risky online behaviour?
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Plum-Pie
01/06/09

@Eeva: That really struck me too - making an arse of yourself on the internet knoweth no socio-economic group.
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TheFormerJuneBronson
01/06/09

@Eeva: Rich kids have parents who would sue.
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AuntieBee
01/06/09

In reply to Is An Email From Mom The Best Way To Clean Up MySpace?
My baby brother had a little issue with a chick on facebook who claimed she knew him, but had no pictures of herself and was in general kind of creepy and information-seeking. He eventually shut his profile down and made a new one, in which he has lied about his age and location. I was really proud of him for thinking it up... sure, if you go through his pictures, you can tell that he is fourteen, and not twenty-two. But you, a random internet predator, may not be able to deduce his actual age and location. He doesn't live in South Carolina, that's for sure.
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NefariousNewt
01/06/09

In reply to Is An Email From Mom The Best Way To Clean Up MySpace?
Duh! Teens gravitate toward social networking sites in order to talk about these things, because they feel their parents won't be there to monitor them. If their parents suddenly show up, or if someone in some kind of authority contacts them, suddenly the bubble is burst and they realize that anyone could be watching what they say.

I also blame this partially on the fact that social networking sites don't tend to advertise the ability to make data more "private" on their sites, usually defaulting to a wide-open scheme.
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Aesop's Foibles. YES.
01/06/09

In reply to Is An Email From Mom The Best Way To Clean Up MySpace?
So basically, the kids in question carried on as usual, but became better at hiding it. Great! Just the thing to help out the parents, you know, pry into their lives until they completely stop communicating. How about just talk to your kids in such a way that they are comfortable talking to you? My mam did that, and while it never stopped me doing what I wanted, at least she knew about everything I was up to. That way there was honesty between us and I didn't feel I had to lie to her.
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Spaceman Bill Leah
01/06/09

In reply to Is An Email From Mom The Best Way To Clean Up MySpace?
I find that a drunken finger wag and a slurred, "Neverrr put pitchers, nekkid pitchers, of yerself on the innernet" works just fine for the girls on the SpaceHusband's hockey teams.
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