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Sixteen-year-old Piper is a parent's dream—an excellent student, a leader, and positive role model among her peers at church. Only one thing has ever caused discord in her family: MySpace.com.
Piper insists her parents are being overprotective because they have banned her from this popular social networking site most of her friends have surfed for years. She thinks they've been influenced by media scare tactics that hype horrible stories of teens victimized by people they've met on this website. She also thinks her parents don't know enough about what's really going on at MySpace to make an informed decision.
Piper's mom, Julie, is admittedly cautious about anything that could seriously affect her children's future. She thinks Piper is too young to recognize the dangers associated with MySpace. She worries Piper could post something that might not be appropriate for the eyes of that future employer or college admissions counselor. And, yes, the terrifying media reports have had their effect. Julie just doesn't know enough about MySpace to let Piper venture into what could be a very dangerous situation.
Piper and Julie are at a stalemate. Whenever the topic comes up—which is regularly, because Piper receives invitations from friends to join them on MySpace almost daily—they argue. This divergence of perspectives—a kid's naiveté and enthusiasm versus parental protectiveness and confusion about how the technology works—is at the heart of the MySpace dilemma.
Danger AheadAccording to some, MySpace marks a societal revolution as monumental as the industrial revolution. After doing his research, media mogul Rupert Murdoch spent $580 million to purchase MySpace's parent company in 2005. He told a Reuters reporter, "MySpace demonstrated … that the world has really changed—that the average person who is computer proficient is self-empowered in a way they never have [been] before."
It's this self-empowerment, however, coupled with youthful indiscretion, that has so many parents, such as Julie, concerned. And rightfully so.
In 2002, 15-year-old Katie Canton met 22-year-old John (last name withheld) in a live online chat room. Since he lived on the other side of the country, Katie felt free to flirt and send photos by e-mail. Soon John was sending Katie gifts, phone cards for long conversations, and numerous e-mails. "John told me, 'Age is just a number; love can be anywhere with anyone,'" Katie recalls. "He even told me he wanted to marry me, and I believed him. If my parents had tried to separate us at that point, it only would have added to the drama that made it exciting. I thought I was in love."
When John planned to fly cross-country to visit Katie in California, her parents consulted a friend in the San Francisco Police Department. By this point, there was no way to "talk sense" into Katie. So the friend gave the family a video game created by Web Wise Kids (www.wiredwithwisdom.org) called Missing. Katie's parents insisted she play the game that lets teens virtually experience tracking an online sex predator. Katie reluctantly saw for herself that her relationship with John fit a pattern well known by law enforcement personnel.
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