The Myspace debate revisited......

Um, I'm wondering, in light of recent events, if there aren't a few people around here who want to apologize and then eat crow about the whole topic of myspace being potentially dangerous and that it is a place where you need to monitor what your children are doing.

I say this because I was ripped to shreds for suggesting on the thread about the California track star whose family was upset because she was a magnet for pervs that perhaps her having a myspace page was at least in part to blame for her troubles because it is an open forum and another potential place that invites sex wackos to make contact with kids.

No, I was told, I'm living in a "Dateline fantasy" it is a perfectly normal for teens to have myspace pages and there is not one shred of evidence that sex offenders are using it to try and contact kids.....

Oh really?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/02/06/eveningnews/main1286130.shtml

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/10/71948

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6914870.stm

 

Sorry Zag, but if I remember correctly you argued that by having a myspace page made her a public figure. Obviously, predators will use Myspace and other services. Did someone really argue they wouldn't? I don't recall that.

First thread (locked):
http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/41845/
Second thread
http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/42581/

 

Myspace would be a fine social networking opportunity if it wasn't for the creeps that made it a dangerous place. Same goes for any other microcosm of society where pedophiles prey ... say minor sports and schools.

That said ... this will not end well.

 

No I argued that by being as successful as she has been in track she is a public figure, at least at some level, particularly in her neck of the woods.

I also argued that by having a Myspace page she put herself into the cross hairs of pervs who are always lurking online and looking for kids to prey on.

That thread you linked is the second thread way after the fact. Find the first thread and then get back to me.

 

It was there a whole minute before you posted this.

 

Zagoshe argued, incorrectly, that the track and field girl setup a MySpace page, posted pictures and then others on the internet obtained them. This was false based on the fact that the pictures making rounds on the web were not obtained from MySpace (in fact there is no record of the girl actually having a MySpace page). The pictures were obtained from a school website.

Now, if you would like to argue the merits of MySpace go ahead. Just recognize that the track and field girl has nothing to do with the topic.

 

Here are just a few quotes.....

Double Down
Re: Allison Stokke
« Reply #62 on: May 29, 2007, 10:01:26 AM »
So we're going to blame kids for having their own myspace page now? Do you even know what a myspace page is, you wanker?


The Big Ragu
Re: Allison Stokke
« Reply #169 on: May 29, 2007, 05:55:24 PM »

I'm not going to respond to most of this jackassery. But a Pew Research study in January concluded that 55I percent of online teens use social networking sites, with MySpace being the largest by far. Having a MySpace page is a PERFECTLY NORMAL activity for a teenager. It's also NOT a dangerous thing for a teenager. Your Dateline NBC fantasies aside, bad things aren't happening to teens by the droves because they have MySpace pages. For one thing, the bast majority of kids don't even put their real names or any identifying info like a phone number or e-mail address on their page. No one in their right mind would make the argument that MySpace has brought harm to teens--and not allow their kid to be a normal, social teenager because their misguided notion--than they would not let their kids get a driver's license, because they believe teens with drivers licenses are destined to have deadly auto accidents.

I challenge ANYONE on here to provide anything that demonstrates crime being perpetrated against teens in any significant numbers because of MySpace. It isn't provable, because it isn't happening. A kid with a MySpace page is doing nothing less safe than a kid who goes to the mall.

As to the rest of that nonsense, jeez, what a jackass.

 

Once again Pastor is wrong, but what else is new. The Washington Post article clearly stated that Allison Stokke had set up her own myspace page. You were wrong then and you are still wrong now on this issue of her creating a myspace page and no amount of revising history will help you out.

And to make sure we end this ridiculous rant from the clueless -- here is a direct quote from the Washington Post Article.

"She had more than 1,000 new messages on her MySpace page."

 

FACT none of the photos that made her "famous" came from MySpace.

Now, again, you can go forward and argue all you want. But that is the fact.

 

What's your point? That myspace shouldn't exist? That no one under 18 should be allowed to have their image posted on the Net? Or in a yearbook, even? Or are you just batting the catnip toy with your paw?

 

Oh now that I've shot your first "fact" to hell you are going to come back and try and change your premise -- and it is NOT a fact the origin of some of the original photos did not come from her myspace profile, regardless of how many times you pound your hands on the table and declare it to be so.

In fact, if you read some of the articles, the father was threatening to sue on the basis of copyright infringements, which would mean at some point he or she was the original owner of the photos.

Either way, quit showing your ass and go back to discussing soccer and how you pay no taxes in New Jersey......

 

No, that myspace pages make kids targets for pervs and that they aren't just a safe, fun place for teens to meet other teens and whatnot.