The Source and Solution of a Digital Battle.

The Source and Solution of a Digital Battle.

Have you ever watched the news, and saw a mother who let her 4 year old daughter play in the street, and wound up abducted?
I know I have seen this many times. Abduction by pedophiles is becoming a serious threat to many households. Parents have to watch their kids more often to protect them. But this is not only a physical battle over pedophilia, but a Digital one.

In years past, Yahoo.com's infamous chat rooms were  the subject of serious scrutiny, over the children using their services being kidnapped and raped. The question is, who's fault is it? Now a days we have Myspace.com. A slightly larger, and more impacting website meant only for social interaction, and making new friends. Myspace.com and yahoo chat rooms are both equally dangerous and in the same sense, equally misjudged. But now Myspace is under the same fire that yahoo chat used to be under.  

Yahoo chat in years past took a lot of heat, for the amount of reported abductions and raping that came directly from the chat logs. Pedophiles would get on the yahoo site, and search profiles, or get into the teen chat rooms. Find out information about the teens, convince them to meet in person, and then rape them. Yahoo went through many security measures, so much so that yahoo chat is now about pointless, as its all filled with BOTS (automated programs meant to lure you to porn websites).

Yahoo allowed you to create an account, and join right up into the chat. Easy as that, and only taking about 5 minutes. Yahoo offers ways to upload pictures, write blogs (online journals), have a personals account, and just about have any piece of information you would like on the Internet. Yahoo chat's one and only purpose is for the users to communicate and make friends with each other. Chat about similar interests. After much heated debate, and the eventual decline in usage of yahoo chat, teens were left looking for a new play place on the Internet.

Several years later Myspace.com was born. Myspace is also available to anyone with an email. You can upload as many pictures as you want. You can put as much information on your page as you would like, also listing your school, after school schedule, address, cell phone number, just about any piece of personal information can and most commonly are posted. Dateline NBC has done several reports on this website showing children posing in underwear, in sexual positions, and even in some instances, actually having sex. Parents are outraged, that their children have access to this. Many many children have been abducted because of Myspace. I even know a personal friend who met their boyfriend off of Myspace.


So now we see that Myspace is a more advanced version of yahoo chat. Should Myspace shut down to prevent abductions? Of course not. If Myspace shut down, children will find another way to chat and share pictures. Children will still put themselves in vulnerable situations. Yahoo and Myspace are both judged as pedophilia breeding ground. But they serve a good purpose. Myspace has lead way for many unsigned bands to get a record deal. Many people have gotten jobs off of the postings on Myspace. Many kids have actually made friends. I have even made friends from Myspace.com. Both sites have their dangers, but are judged all to quick. So where do we look to fix this problem?

The solution to this problem, is much more simple than most would admit. Once again, would you allow your little children to wander in the street alone? No of course not. Anyone could stop, grab them, and run with them. But will that stop your children from playing? What parents must do is work with their kids, talk to them. Explain to them about the dangers, and still allow them to have the profile. But make sure they know about the people that are being abducted. Make sure the information they share isn't too personal that they could get in to any kind of trouble. The fact is that kids are kids, and the more you tell them not to, their going to anyway. The best you can do is talk to your kids. It is not Myspace's fault that your kids are over sharing information, Myspace did not tell your daughter to take a picture of herself in her bra. Myspace did not tell your kid to post their home address. The solution is not in myspace shutting down, but in the parent taking back the role of the parent in the American home. Parents, you must teach your kids to protect themselves, and you must be involved but not controlling of their young lives. Help them and guide them to be safe. The power is in the parents hands.