Aug 13 2008
Teens, Go Easy on the MySpace Profiles
I love the Internet. It’s a great tool. It’s part media outlet, part communication device, part sanctuary, and part education source. The ability to express oneself directly–without a lot of filters blocking the message–is tremendous.
However, I don’t love every part of it. For example, a coworker at my old job named Monica told me once that the oldest two of her three daughters have MySpace profiles. Toni and Tina seem like interesting young women. Monica also informed me that her cousin’s daughter was in one season’s cast of The Real Laguna Beach, a popular MTV show. I watched about two minutes of one episode and never watched it again. I used to live in the San Fernando Valley, east of downtown Los Angeles. Depending on the traffic, I lived maybe an hour from Laguna Beach, which is in south Orange County. Maybe you remember “The O.C.” television show. No, that wasn’t realistic either.
Anyway, Monica and I looked for the profile of “Tessa Keller.” We tried a few different spellings and searched hundreds of profiles but never found our target. We did find some things that were funny at first but quickly became distressing. Monica knew Tessa was 16 or 17 so I narrowed the search to 16- and 17-year-olds from Laguna Beach High School. Keep in mind the ages.
The listings included plenty of profanity and scantily-clad girls. There were lots of references to drinking and sex. I was shocked and repulsed. I’m sure you’ve heard the news reports about predators finding targets in Connecticut via MySpace. Those guys are sick. Jailbait is most definitely not for me. Chris Hansen is cool for hosting To Catch a Predator. Perverted Justice is cool for trapping freaks and losers. The guys who get caught on that show suck. That said, I don’t understand why those girls are looking for such attention. Even if some of the profiles were made by others as a joke, there are too many to explain away. Expression’s great but I would have hoped those girls would express themselves in a more respectful way.
Monica was appalled. I’ll point out that her daughters had nothing objectionable posted. She said more than once, “This is the future of our country.” We both shook our heads and sighed. Politically, I’m not sure how to stop these listings without a lot of censorship that wouldn’t be fair to the general public. It’s cliched to say parents need to be responsible for what their minor children are doing online. Some guidance and boundaries, however, would be helpful.
