Myspace?

[UGAalum94]

Originally Posted by AGDee

That's what dogster.com is for.

My daughter and all her friends have deleted their My Space accounts now because "it's boring". It's soooo last year, you know? Ah well, less for me to check up on now.

You may want to make sure that they don't just do Facebook instead.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by OTW

I can see how MySpace would be tres passe for your daughter and her friends, especially since their social network is limited.

I'm still addicted because I find old friends and former classmates every day.

Originally Posted by Alphagamuga

You may want to make sure that they don't just do Facebook instead.

They are only in middle school and yes, their social network is limited. They won't be doing facebook for another 5 or 6 years. It's a relief to me because I was worried about some of the information some her friends were posting and even ended up doing an Internet Safety session for her Girl Scout troop because they were giving out way too much info about themselves, including age, school and pictures. I explained how a child predator could just sit in their school parking lot at the end of the day, watch which bus they get on, check the bus stop schedule online on the school district website and eventually, follow them home from school. All of them have working mothers and go into empty houses. It was pretty scary. I had trained my daughter well, but other girls didn't realize...

Once she's old enough to Facebook, she will be away at school and I'll have to trust that my "training" of her has succeeded and she will make good choices. I can only hope that I can give her the tools to succeed in life at that point!

As an aside, she turns 13 today. I am officially the mother of a teenager. Wish me luck!

[UGAalum94]

Yes! Good luck! It does sound like you are doing an excellent job.


There's high school facebook now, but as far as I know, no middle school facebook.

If I had kids, I don't know how I'd handle it. I think having one family computer for the kids, so they knew you could check the history might be a start (but they can still use other computers).

I think showing them the risks is probably the best way to encourage them to be careful.

[Stef the Pef]

Facebook is open to everyone now, so theoretically, I guess I middle schoolers could join on a regional network or no network. CREEPY.

That was my main reservation against joining myspace (and why my myspace profile that I reluctantly, finally got is private with very little information on it) and I'm angry that facebook's been moving in that direction for a while now. I didn't want highschoolers on there (and creepy old men pretending to be highschoolers)...why on earth would I want to open it up to people out of school, too?! Yeeeuch.

Hooray privacy options!

[UGAalum94]

I'm guessing that Facebook wanted to allow users who had it in college to continue to be part of it even after they graduated.

I also guess that if they make it too inclusive though, college kids won't be interested in using it.

I was using the computer lab at the college where I'm taking some graduate classes, and I'd say 90% of the lab screens were showing facebook. It made me laugh.

[AGDee]

Our rule right now is that I have to have the passwords to any accounts she has.. My Space, email, AIM, etc. She also knows that I know how to use a keystroke logger program and that if I suspect anything, I will install one and use it. However, she is a really good kid overall. She gets straight A's, is still a Girl Scout in 7th grade, and often calls me to say things like "Steph asked me to go to the movies with her Friday night but she's going to a 9:30 show and I'm not comfortable with us being there alone that late, so will you say no?" It's kind of cute. So far, the lines of communication are very open. It leads to some interesting situations when she asks me very blunt questions about sex like "What do you think about premarital sex?" or, when my 10 year old son asks "How do lesbians have sex when they don't have the right parts?" Never a dull moment around here!

If your daughter and her friends think that MySpace is boring, then I doubt that they'd get excited with FaceBook. It's pretty boring, considering you can't really customize anything, but it seems to be a hit with the undergrad crowd. I never really got into it.

[VeniceIsSinking]

Originally Posted by AGDee

"How do lesbians have sex when they don't have the right parts?" Never a dull moment around here!

hahahahahahahaahahahahahahahahhaha

that was so fantabulously funny.

Funny myspace moment:

One time I was 6 states away from home and a group of guys came running up to me and asked "Are you ____ from myspace?!" when I said yes, they spazzed and ran off.

It was fairly creepy.

That's what I get for being on there forever and having 6,000 something friends. I deleted most of them because it was just weird...

You know myspace is big when movie trailers show their myspace address at the end.

Oh myspace.. who would have guessed your impact on pop-culture for our generation?