[Air-l] MySpace sued again ...

[Sarah Robbins]

On 1/19/07, Sarah Robbins <intellagirl at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> A couple of thoughts here...
> Someone further up the thread mentioned Second Life, which I think is a
> good model for what MySpace needs to do to protect themselves. SL has a
> "teen grid" in which 14-17 year olds ONLY are allowed. They must sign up
> with a credit card, thereby theoretically proving that they have their
> parent's permission to log in and that their parent is aware of their
> activities. Adults discovered on the teen grid (who aren't background
> checked educators) are not only banned from that grid but from all of SL and
> prosecuted. It's not a flawless system but it's a good system. Why doesn't
> MySpace have TeenMySpace?
> Also, it seems to me that these lawsuits, as unfortunate as they are, are
> examples of poor techno-literacy. Parents and kids alike need to be more
> educated about how websites work, about how predators work, and how to
> protect themselves. When I work in high schools I do my best to scare the
> bujeezus out of the students by showing them how much information I can find
> about a random student in less than 20 minutes. When I arrive at the google
> map showing the satelite pic of their house the whole class has a collective
> dropped jaw. I know that most schools aren't doing this kind of education.
> They pass out a flyer that students dismiss as being overly protective and
> then they hop onto MySpace and make a date with someone they've never met.
> Education is certainly busy enough with our own subject matter but this
> kind of online safety should be included in every level of education.
> My 2 cents
> Sarah/Intellagirl
> Sarah "Intellagirl" Robbins
> http://www.intellagirl.com
> http://secondlife.intellagirl.com
> Yahoo: Intellagirl
> Skype: Intellagirl
> SecondLife: Intellagirl Tully
>