Online predators can learn quite a bit about someone just by keeping an eye on what their friends say.

Two danger areas in a member’s profile provide far more information than they probably realize.  The first is where the member goes to school and the other is the list of comments from friends.

Children should be taught the dangers of exposing too much personal information in any online community.  As of now there is no way to conclusively verify the age of a new member. It’s definitely not an uncommon thing for an underage minor to obtain membership despite the the fact that the site’s minimum age restriction is 14 years of age. The younger a child is, the more prone they are to being taken advantage of especially online.

Discussion groups are one of the major activities members can participate in, and there are many that are alot of fun and very interesting, but, there are also some that are very questionable Groups as well. MySpace membership is needed to join these groups, view uploaded photos and participate in the discussion.  Membership is not required to view what others are discussing and what’s more, even if your child is a member of one of these Groups, it can be virtually impossible to find out. The search functions that are currently available do not allow you to see who is active in each particular group.

Parents who track MySpace and other online activities that their children are involved in, are often surprised to see exactly where they have been.  Most children are pretty good, but children are curious and that curiosity will occassionally get the better of them.  Many children and adults follow links that they normally wouldn’t simply because we don’t pay enough attention to where they may be going.

Keep your children Internet savvy, and explain the consequences to them on a regular basis.  For some children having an internet usage agreement is the best way to help them understand how important their safety is to you.  Visit Online Security Authority to download the OSA Agreement.

Written by: OSAblogger / Bill Wardell - Please Read Our Latest OSA eZine Edition

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OSA Technorati Tags: childrens personal information, deleting myspace account, friendships, predators

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