The Impact News

Issue date: 2/17/06 Section: News

Media Credit: Armando Reyes College students must be wary as to the information they post on networking websites such as Myspace.

Who is Brian Smith? Sandy said Brian had been stationed in Iraq for a year. Kim said Brian told her he was an investment banker. Jane said Brian told her that he was in graduate school and studying to be a psychologist.
"Brian", while conversing with three different girls at the same time, claimed to be three different people. This is an example of what can happen on networking services such as Myspace.com.
Myspace.com is a social networking service that gives its members the opportunity to create profiles, communicate with friends and meet new people. Similar sites, such as Friendster.com and Facebook.com, have also become extremely popular over the past few years.
"Myspace is cool to meet girls on and stuff. I haven't met anyone in person, but I probably would if they seemed normal. I have a lot of friends on there too, so I like to add people that I'm attracted to," said Morgyn Renehmi, 20, a junior at Mercy College.
Despite its popularity, there have been several cases in the past few weeks concerning stalking between sexual predators and women who visit the site, among the most recent cases, a 14 year-old high school girl in New Jersey who was found inside a dumpster murdered and a University of Maryland student who was arrested for allegedly beating a woman to death on a first date; both meetings were arranged on Myspace.com.
Repeated calls and emails sent by The Impact to Myspace.com were not returned.
"I have Myspace and its so addicting. I'm on it everyday. I think that if people don't want to follow the rules on Myspace, then they shouldn't be on it. Those are the kids giving Myspace a bad name. It's their own fault if they are putting themselves at risk for trouble on Myspace," said Marcie Kaplan, a senior at Mercy College.
Although Myspace.com enforces a privacy policy as well as a user term agreement, it is still possible for people to lie about how old they are and who they are.
In the Myspace.com members term agreement it states: "Please choose carefully the information you post on Myspace.com and that you provide to other members. Your Myspace.com profile may not include the following items: telephone numbers, street addresses, last names, and any photographs posted by you may not contain nudity, violence, or offensive subject matter."

Continued...

Page 1 of 4 next >

Article Tools