As most of us are sure to know, MySpace is a free online community where members can create a personal website and meet new friends or hook up with old friends or groups of people with like interests. The website can be a lot of fun and provide excellent networking opportunities but there are some precautions which should be taken by all members of MySpace and really any online social networking site. These include being aware of the ability for individuals to misrepresent themselves online, knowing how to avoid being harmed or scammed and understanding the terms of service on MySpace. This article will cover these three key areas which should be considered minimum precautions MySpace members should take to ensure their online experience is enjoyable.
Foxes in the Chicken Coop.
Avenue Q
The Internet provides an excellent avenue for individuals with little or no ethical morals to deliberately misrepresent themselves. This deception may be innocent such as lying about interest or activities for the purpose of being more attractive to someone you have a crush on or it can be more serious. Individuals with criminal intent may lie about a number of factors such as their age, sex and location or even hide their identity so as to lure another member into a harmful or even dangerous situation. There have been multiple stories which have made national headlines about young members of MySpace being abducted by individuals they met online. These cases are considered to be rather rare, but they in fact do exist and members should be aware of the possibility for this type of criminal activity.
Predators who want to do physical harm to someone may deliberately misrepresent themselves but be aware of other potentially harmful reasons why an individual on MySpace might pretend to be someone else. There are those who will disguise their true selves in order to gain the trust of other members for the purpose of conducting a financial scam which will result in a significant loss of money for the MySpace members who are duped into such a scam.
MySpace members can deter both physical and financial danger by utilizing caution in their interactions with other (friends) members of the community. Areas to be concerned about includes emails and instant messages but vigilance should also be taken to avoid posting sensitive information for any reason on MySpace pages. Sensitive information can be viewed by the general public unless the profile is made private and even then do you really know the friends you have?
Protecting You
One very important precaution MySpace members should take is safeguarding their personal information. Personal information includes, but is not limited to, the following types of information:
* Full name
* Social security number
* Credit card numbers
* Bank account numbers
* Physical address
* Phone number
* Place of birth
* High school attended and year of graduation
* Names of children and location and date of their births
Many of the items on the list above such as social security number and bank account numbers is information most people know they should not divulge out in the open to the general public. Albeit, other types of information such as the high school attended and year of graduation or names of your children, location and date of their births may seem harmless to most members. Unfortunately this is not true, these seemingly harmless tid-bits of information can be used to research an individual and it may be possible to deduce where a person lives from this information. This can potentially lead to a number of scenarios that may include stalking, abduction, extortion, kidnapping, sexual assault, or murder.
Understanding the Terms of Service
Lastly, MySpace members should become acquainted with the terms of service expected by MySpace. This information is important for a few reasons. It will help members understand their rights and the security features which exist on the website. MySpace members who are aware of these services know the course of action to take if they are harassed by other members of MySpace. In addition, understanding the terms of service on MySpace is valuable because it helps members of the community understand what actions are deemed permissible and what actions are prohibited and the associated course of action that MySpace can or will take. This is vitally important because it can deter a member from breaking the community rules and running the risk of being banned from the community be those intentions willful or inadvertent. After reviewing the terms of service you find you have questions, contact MySpace directly for clarification of the matter.
User Precautions On MySpace
