MySpace tries to keep parents informed and kids safe

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 19 January 2007 14:29

Your IT - Entertainment

This booklet explains what social networking is all about, what the dangers are, what all the jargon and funny words that kids type into instant messaging windows means and plenty more. If you’re a parent struggling with the whole thing, or if you know parents that are struggling, please do them and/or yourselves a favor and download the Common Sense book from the website linked above.

So, what does the MySpace Zephyr software do? It is effectively monitoring software that alerts parents of the name, age and location details entered by your child on the profile of their homepage. If they think they can go to a friend’s place and change the details there, parents will still be alerted as the software tracks children by their username and password details.

The software won’t let parents read their children’s emails – but that is possible with other monitoring software available on the Internet. Children of parents who use the Zephyr software will also be alerted to that fact.

But that’s no bad thing. Children need to realize that their parents are responsible for their safety, and have every right to see what their children are up to online.

Actually this reminds me of a great point about the Common Sense book mentioned earlier. It has a fantastic section on dealing with teenagers. If you’re an adult, you can no doubt remember when you were a teenager, and how you hated when your parents tried meddling in your affairs.

So, how do you proactively work with your children, especially teenage children, so you get their co-operation and understanding when they are at those ultra sensitive teenage years? The Common Sense book has some excellent tips on what to do.

Parents should get as familiar as they can with the Internet, with websites such as MySpace, and they should ask to see their child’s profile(s) on the different sites they are a member of.

After all, there’s only so much that MySpace, the police and the government can do to help protect your children. The rest is up to you.