Colo. detectives use MySpace to ID suspects
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12021784/ You know this is like the 4-5th story i've heard of someone either being killed or raped cause they met someone on that site, tis why i will NEVER met people from that site.

Eugh! Myspace used to be kind of fun but now it's really annoying, constantly getting friend request from people I don't already know. I never add them anymore, I used to but I stopped and I deleted the ones I had added that I didn't know at all. I never bother telling people I have one anymore even, it's gotten HUGE!!

I know that site use to be cool now EVERYONE has one and its really annoying, i keep getting friends list from bands so i don't accept them anymore either. Plus people are immature on that site i don't care for it. I have one but i don't blog on it or really do anything with it.

i HATE the way you always get requests from bands. Once when I rejected one they sent me a message saying that I was stupid and there were plenty more fish in the sea :roll: Losers!

LOL that's sad, i dunno if i get messages back i never read them, i cleaned out my friends list a while ago and deleted all the people i don't talk to, what's the point? i mean i'm not going to put you on my list to make you look good or if i was to add every band or person that requested i'd have a VERY pointless friends list. I mean come on those people who have like 2-3,000 friends? who the hell has that many friends. :roll:

Yeah some people just add you to make their lists bigger as if it makes them look cool :roll: it almost puts me off writing any of my interests on it 'cause I know some loser's gonna come along and find one thing I like that they like too, which obviously makes us friends :roll:

I use to get ALOOOTTT of JM fans asking me, its like i'm not going to asked you if your not going to get to know me, so screw off. That's why it makes me sad to these 12-14 years olds not understanding that, by just having your name and school information someone can track you down, its REALLY dangerous, that's why i took down my info i just felt werid having it up there.

I don't have anything very specific up there and I thought that was ok then this random guy asked me "oh what's it like over there in Donegal?" and I saw he was in England so I thought ah that's ok then he said to me he was coming over here at easter :o so I deleted him straight away obviously!! I'm kind of glad I don't have any pics up :lol:

I think their parents should know. That site is really dangerous. I know a 12 year old on there who has her age as 14, you musn't be allowed to sign up if you're under 13 but it's too easy to just say you are anyway

Most of the kids my daughter knows have their ages as 18, or mid-twenties, and some of them could pass for much older from their pics. It's silly though because where they describe themselves, they say that they are just 13 or 14. I've known these kids since they were in preschool, and it makes me a little uncomfortable seeing what some of them have on myspace. I worry about them because even though they know it's the internet, I think they assume only their friends are looking at it. There's enough publicity about myspace that parents should have heard of it by now, maybe the school could send a letter to parents telling them to talk to their kids about it. I don't want to be the parent who ruins myspace for the kids at my daughter's school, but if it could keep one kid safe, I think I should say something to someone.

I quit it. I felt like it had lost it's novelty. Plus I felt a bit of a hypocrite telling my daughter how dangerous it could be and then logging on myself. Meh, just my opinion.

I found this article this morning, it's kinda long but I thought it was interesting. Nice to know that they are trying to protect kids by looking for inconsistencies in profile info, but with 250,000 new members a day, I don't know how they can keep up: MySpace growth continues amid criticism Last modified: March 31, 2006, 1:05 PM PST By Dawn Kawamoto and Greg Sandoval Staff Writer, CNET News.com Popular community site MySpace is signing up new members at record speed. But along with that growth, the site continues to be the target of controversy regarding the safety of its users, a core group of whom are minors. MySpace, which has accumulated 67 million members since its launch in 2004, is currently growing by an average of 250,000 new members daily, said Dani Dudeck, a MySpace spokeswoman. That phenomenal growth rate has pushed its ranking among popular sites to a par with such notable players as Yahoo. With that growth, however, MySpace has come under increasing scrutiny. Earlier this month, for example, two men were arrested in separate incidences for allegedly engaging in sexual contact with minors, whom they met through MySpace. One of the minors was 14 years old and the other was 11. Ross Levinsohn, an executive with News Corp., which acquired MySpace last year , addressed the steps the site is taking to keep its younger members safe. According to press reports, Levinsohn, who was speaking Thursday before the Bank of America Media Telecommunications and Entertainment Conference in Los Angeles, noted that the site takes down offensive content, from nudity to racist material. MySpace, which requires its members to be at least 14 years or older to use the site, also will remove user profiles that fail to adhere to its policy. Since its debut in 2004, MySpace has removed 250,000 profiles of underage users, Dudeck noted. Dudeck declined to disclose the total number of profiles that have been removed for violations of the company's policy. Regardless, the number is likely to represent a fraction of MySpace's user base, said executives from rival community sites Friendster and Tribe Networks. "We're probably taking down 1,000 to 2,000 a week," said Kent Lindstrom, president of Friendster. "Every community site has to deal with pornography, hate messages or violent content." But if MySpace is wrestling with offensive or illegal materials more than competitors, it may have to do with two issues. First, said Lindstrom and Jan Gullett, chief executive of Tribe Networks, much of MySpace's trouble comes from the demographic it targets--the preteen and teenage groups, which often need more guidance about acceptable behavior. The second problem, said Lindstrom, is that MySpace adopted a hands-off approach to the site early in its evolution. Such a policy fostered an "anything goes mentality" which created an atmosphere of permissiveness on the site, said Lindstrom. "That goes a long way with teens and preteens," Lindstrom said. "We've always taken (policing the site) very carefully, perhaps to a fault. But on the other hand, the same kind of culture never developed on our site." MySpace, however, contends that many of its users are much older than people realize. "Nearly 80 percent of our members are 18 years or older, and that speaks for itself," Dudeck said. She added that the company does not take a "hands-off approach" to its user base, pointing to its other ongoing efforts to keep younger members safe. MySpace assigns roughly 90 employees, a third of its workforce, to the task of monitoring the safety and security of members, Dudeck said. Using search and algorithm technologies, MySpace employees will review information for such inconsistencies as claiming to be a 14-year-old member while putting information in a profile about a 7th grade teacher and class. As a result of the site's research, members who are not 14 or older will have their profiles removed, she said. MySpace also limits the amount of information displayed on profiles posted by 14- to 16-year-old members. If those members want to let a person view their entire profile, they can accept the potential visitor's request for full access. But the individual who gains access to the full profile is prohibited from allowing others to view the profile, Dudeck said.