I think it’s time for Myspace to hang up its coat. Every week or so I hear another horror story about some helpless kid who befriended a pedophile, or ran away with their “Myspace boyfriend/girlfriend.” I’ll admit that in high school I was guilty of being a Myspacer. Every day after school I would rush to the computer in the hopes that someone might have posted on my page that day. Of course I entered the Myspace nation at the being of it all. I was a Myspace member when you could only have 10 pictures on your page. It was just a fun way for me and my friends to communicate with one another. Because spending all day at school together and then talking on AIM all night wasn’t enough. I never added people I didn’t know and I wasn’t interested in finding the latest cute boy to message with.
I just read an article (http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/wireStory?id=3879037) about a girl who killed herself because of the end of her Myspace relationship with a young boy. Apparently, 13 year-old Megan, who suffered from depression and ADD had formed a connection with a boy named Josh. Her parents recounted how Megan’s spirits soared whenever she would receive a message from Josh. About 6 weeks after their communication started Josh decided to break off the messaging, and sited that he had heard that she was a cruel person to her friends. Megan was crushed and hung herself in her room.
At first this seemed like an ordinary tale of an alienated fragile girl who had experienced “the last straw.” You can’t really blame Myspace for this tragedy; if it hadn’t been Josh on Myspace it would have been someone or something else. Obviously Megan had some much larger issues that she wasn’t dealing with. The shocking part of the story came when it was discovered that Josh never actually existed. The character Josh was formed from the collective imaginations of members of a neighborhood family. Apparently one of Megan’s old friends wanted to have a little fun at her expense. We can all agree that the price was too high.
Megan’s parents are now trying to find justice for the cruelty that was shown towards their daughter. Myspace does hold some responsibility here. Megan was only 13. To be on Myspace you are supposed to be 14 and older, but the safeguards for this rule are laughable. It’s as easy as making up your new birthday and you can be whatever and whoever you want to be. Plenty of my friends thought it was hilarious to 100 years-old in their profiles. It’s important that such an influential and expanding communication network try harder to monitor and protect their clients. The problem with this is that there are millions, probably billions, or Myspace members, with new profiles emerging every day, so it is even more important for parents to monitor their own children. Megan’s parents did observe their daughters communications through Myspace, but unfortunately there is only some much you can do.
I think their needs to be a retro movement. Lets start meeting people out in the real world. Lets start calling our friends and going out to fun stuff together. Lets actually communicate instead of just typing. Myspace, and the predators that use Myspace only have power if you are there listening and paying attention. Get up from your computer, grab a friend, or a football or a book and go outside. STOP READING. GO.
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4 comments:
I cant believe a young teen would kill herself over a myspace relationship. I remember when myspace was the coolest thing and I would get the craziest comments. It seems to me that this teen was more depressed than some might have thought. I remember reading a story about a young girl who ran away with a man she met from myspace and ended up flying all the way across the world to Israel. Teens are vulnerable, especially in love and people want to believe the people that they talk to people on this websites are too good to be true. As the rise in love compatible websites so will be the increase in stories of teens getting in trouble and acting on impulse.
I agree, safeguards on myspace are quite laughable over. However, no matter how stringent the safeguard process may be, children under the age of 14 will continue to find ways to join these increasingly popular social networking sites. I think that the only way to deal with this issue is to get parents involved. They must become more aware of their children's needs and behavior. This young girl's parents should, to some degree, be held negligent for not intervening at an earlier time. If her parent's were able to notice her mood swings revolving around messages from a mythical Josh whom she formed a questionable relationship with over a website like myspace, they could have easily cut off her access to this website that she should not have even been able to access in the first place.
I agree with codoca that this is a matter of parental involvement and supervision. It sounds like the child was turning to a cyber community to make up for a lack of community she felt at home, school or in her town. Didn't the parents realize something was off when the thing that made their daughter happiest was an Internet message from a virtual stranger? As social networking grows in popularity, it is important that parents play a strong role in supervising their children's Internet access to pinpoint potential dangers before it's too late.
I remember hearing about this on a internet messageboard I visit often and needless to say, a lot of views were made known. First of all, for the parents who were responsible for sending those messages and playing with a teenage girl is morally reprehensible and just downright immature. Second of all, Megan is an example of how much psychological and social roles these things like myspace, etc, play in the lives of kids today. Third of all, as everyone else has mentioned, it is important for the parents to get involved. Looking at this tragic event reminds me how fickle people can be and at the same time, what the internet takes away that real life outside offers.
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