MySpace Tragedy Reminds Us to Stay Alert
Many of you have heard the tragic story of Megan Meier, the 13 year old girl who committed suicide after falling prey to a hoax on MySpace. Apparently, Megan befriended someone online who she thought was a 16-year-old boy. It turns out that the profile was fake, and that she was actually corresponding with an ex-friend and the girl's mother. When her new "friend" told her he no longer wanted to be friends with her and shared some of her correspondence publicly, things escalated and Megan took her own life. With all of the press about Internet "predators," this story hits a bit closer to home. This was not a predator. These people were neighbors and trusted family friends.
Stories like this capture our worst nightmares as parents, but you can do things to protect your children and to keep other children from harm as well. These stories also serve as a reminder that young children and early/pre-teens should not be online by themselves.
Take some time now to talk with your kids about using the computer and how to be safe. Discuss what they should do if something they read or see online upsets them. Set guidelines about when they can and cannot use the computer and follow through. And remind them that things said online are very public and can be dangerous and hurtful.
Here are some tools to help you keep your kids safe:
- Teen Guide to MySpace and Online Safey - Read and discuss this one with your kids.
- Parent's Guide to Internet Safety
- Parent's Guide to MySpace Safety
- How to Set Up Parental Controls (Windows Vista)
Comments
In addition to being an important reminder to be involved in your children’s online experience for their protection, I think this horrible instance is also a good opportunity to talk with children about how to treat others, online or off.
Teens are often cruel to each other, and the internet has made it easier in some ways to perpetrate the kind of cruelty shown here. But teens are also not fully in control of their own emotions and are still working out the proper ways to behave toward others in a large number of situations. This teen, the instigator, was obviously at a serious disadvantage in trying to learn how to interact maturely with online technology, since she had a mother who participated in the harassment. (truly appalling and unforgivable). I don’t have much hope that the teen will learn her lesson, so to speak, with a parent like that.
But other children have a chance, this can be used to discuss how one’s actions, although they may seem funny or harmless at the time, can have a profound affect on others, and that it’s important to consider the impact of one’s actions on other people.
I have always monitored my childrens internet use..especially with MYSPACE. My 15 year old is lately trying to use any internet anti-filtering program he can find to get to sites he wants to get to. Does anyone know of any way or program out there to install and help me keep my kids safer on the net?
that was sooooo scary i might barf
barfing is icky.