+ School's out! Where are your kids going to surf?
by Tim Morris
That is, where are they going to surf on the internet? Do you know where the popular destinations are? Will they just be surfing, chatting, or blogging? Do you know the difference? And are they safe?
Statistics show that 1 out of 4 internet users visit social networking sites, the largest of which is myspace.com. Teens and young adults, when meeting someone will ask, “What’s your ‘MySpace’” instead of the old standby – “what’s your number”. It works since it seems that more teens have MySpace profiles than cell phones. MySpace is the “king of the mountain” of the internet’s social networking sites; and as of this writing boasts nearly 83 million members and grows hundreds per minute.
Don’t believe it? Check out one of the founders, Tom, profile - “Tom has 82985505 friends”. The number will be higher when you go there. While your there wait a few seconds, press F5, and see how many friends Tom has.
MySpace is the second most visited site on the Internet ranking above MSN, AOL and Ebay. Only Yahoo has more page visits per month. Even still, it is not the only networking site. Similar sites include Friendster, Facebook, Xanga, Tagged, LiveJournal and aSmallWorld.
So, what is the appeal? Social networking gives anyone, regardless of socio-economic status (or any demographic category you can think of) a place on the web. A place to be known and be “in the know”. These sites serve as excellent vehicles for keeping in touch with classmates, family, friends, and alumni. Non-profit groups, churches, athletic clubs have all found ways to use these sites. Businesses and Brand names wanting to cash in are vying for votes and hoping for cult-like following. The enormously trendy sites allow musicians and bands an inexpensive way to gain audiences and grass roots fan clubs. All in hopes of being discovered and signing that elusive record deal.
However, among the good and innocent intentions of these popular cyber destinations lurks danger that you and your children need to be aware of.