MySpace Plans New Age Restrictions

[MorganGrayson]

NEW YORK (AP) - MySpace.com is planning new restrictions on how adults may contact its younger users in response to growing concerns about the safety of teenagers who frequent the popular online social networking site.

The site already prohibits kids 13 and under from setting up accounts(Really? How? By asking them to "check here"? Assholes.) and displays only partial profiles for those registered as 14 or 15 years old unless the person viewing the profile is already on the teen's list of friends. ](Make friends with your stalker and all will be well." Again, assholes.

Under the changes, announced Wednesday and taking effect next week, MySpace users who are 18 or over could no longer request to be on a 14- or 15-year-old's friends' list unless they already know either the youth's e-mail address or full name. So. Only the really GOOD stalkers can score.

Any user will still be able to get a partial profile of younger users by searching for other attributes, such as display name. The difference is that currently, adults can then request to be added to a youth's list to view the full profile; that option will disappear for adults registered as 18 and over.

However, users under 18 can still make such contact, and MySpace has no mechanism for verifying that users submit their true age when registering. That means adults can sign up as teens and request to join a 14-year-old's list of friends, which would enable the full profiles.

"There is far less than meets the eye in these newly announced MySpace measures," Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement. "These steps are inadequate because they lack any age verification and leave the minimum age too low."

The partial profiles display gender, age and city. Full profiles describe hobbies, schools and any other personal details a user may provide.

Driven largely by word of mouth, MySpace has grown astronomically since its launch in January 2004 and is now second in the United States among all Web sites by total page views, behind only Yahoo Inc. (YHOO), according to comScore Media Metrix. The site currently has some 87 million users, about a quarter registered as minors, according to the company.

At MySpace, which was bought last year by News Corp. (NWSA) for $580 million, users can expand their circles of friends by exploiting existing connections, rather than meeting randomly or by keyword matches alone.

It offers a mix of features - message boards, games, Web journals - designed to keep its youth-oriented visitors clicking on its advertising-supported pages.

MySpace has recently become a target of parents, schools and law enforcement officials concerned that teens who hang out at MySpace can fall victim to sexual predators.

Just this week, a 14-year-old girl who says she was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old user sued MySpace and News Corp., seeking $30 million in damages. And earlier this month, a 16-year-old girl who tricked her parents into getting her a passport Oh, for fuck's sake.... flew to the Mideast to be with a 20-year-old man she met through MySpace. U.S. officials in Jordan persuaded the teen to turn around and go home.

MySpace officials say the new restrictions have been long planned and are unrelated to recent events.

Besides the contact restrictions, all users - not just those 14 and 15 - will have the option to make only partial profiles available to those not already on their friends list.

All users also will get an option to prevent contact from people outside their age group. Currently, they may only choose to require that a person know their e-mail or last name first; that will remain an option to those 16 and over, even as it becomes mandatory for those younger.

MySpace also will beef up its ad-targeting technology, so that it can avoid displaying gambling and other adult-themed sites on minors' profile pages and target special public-service announcements to them.

The changes follow a number of safety-related measures that includes the hiring of a former federal prosecutor and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) executive as its online safety chief. MySpace already has developed safety tips for parents and children and devotes scores of employees to monitoring the site around the clock.


I posted the entire article and made a few shitty comments because once again the internet is being blamed for complete idiots who refuse to raise their own children. If people continually refuse to give their kids the skills to deal with life bad shit will continue to happen to them.

"Tricked them into giving her a passport." Shitfuck, how stupid ARE these people?!?!?!?

[canadian4life]

That will not stop anyone from having a myspace account they can just lie about their infomation and all.

We do not live in a world of honesty and I don't expect it to change anytime soon, people will always want to be somthing they are not, and they will find a way to get around this too....

[SykkBoy]

I know it's been mentioned a million times but it always bears repeating, no technology will ever replace good parenting....

[SilvercashJeanette]

Absolutely agree Gnat!

[Bhelliom]

Shitfuck? Morgan your Volcabulary is expanding.

I agree with your 100%. I read the article yesterday about myspace being sued for 30 mil and laughed my ass off.

They're going to win the case as well and just prove to themselves that they're being good parents, when in reality they should have been paying attention to what their daughter was doing. I've always said that myspace is crawling with predators and that sites like that shouldn't exist. But who am I to say anything?

As much as I would have hated it when I was that age, computers should NOT be allowed in kids room, or anywhere private for that matter. Children need tobe taught that while a lot of people meet online and have real relationships... they should not be giving out personal information and meeting complete strangers even if they think they "know" the person...

How in the name of god do you Con your parents in to getting a passport?

What really happened:
Child "Mom I know you're a stupid cunt so can I have a passport?"
mom "why dear?"
Child "So uhhh... I can go to a club"
Mom "You're underage"
Chile "its all ages"
mom "ok that makes sense no problem"

What should have happened

Child "Mom I think you're a stupid cunt so can I have a passport?"
mom "why dear?"
Child "So uhhh... I can go to a club"
Mom "You're underage"
Child "its all ages"
mom "then you don't need ID"
Child "they require it"
Mom "take your birth certificate"
Child "Fuck"
Mom "oh and you're grounded from ever going on the internet again. "
Mom then proceeds to beat child for thinking about going to the middle east

[Bhelliom]

Oh and as for the nothing beats good parenting....

THere's no such thing as good parenting. Each and ever generation has problems with the ways their parents raised them.

Which is why we're at a point where instead of parents being parents they're being controlled by their children.

They're so afraid of being seen as unfit parents and not doing something that every other parents does that they completely capitulate and let the damned kid do whatever they want.

Used to be when a kid said "but everyone else can do it/has one/ is getting it done/is flying to the middle east to meet pedophiles" the parents would simply respond with "and if they all jumped off a bridge, would you? " and that was it.

Not when same kid says the same thing... parents run out like their asses are on fire and get it for them.

No wonder we're spoiled, and college/university/high school graduates these days expect to automatically get a 100K/year + job the instant they're done school.

Children and teenagers are evil sneaky conniving human beings that need to be watched closely, especially on something as anonymous as the internet. There is so much out there that can lead them astray.

Then once caught the child needs to be properly punished/spanked/have amenities removed so that they learn its not all about them.

I was spanked as a child as i'm sure most of you were... and look.. none of you don't have any more severe childhood traumas than anyone else.

Phew wow... how much did that set me off? I'm better now.... stupid children adn stupid parents... don't let your damned kids use something that has become so mainstream for children to get access to in the last 5 years parents don't realise the same has been true or people who WANT to be anonymous and do illegal things.

The problem isn't entirely parents... I'll give them that... the problem is that the technology and the interweb have exploded and become so mainstream in the last 5 years that older people (no offense to any of you) don't have an understanding of how it works or what can happen, they can barely turn on the computer without their kids help so they assume that the kid knows what's best online... not true.

It's not about bad parenting... as parents would be more careful if they KNEW how to protect their kids or even what the dangers were. The problem is that parents don't know. it's not bad parenting... its lack of education.

I'm done.

Sorry about that