Can You Keep Your Teen Safe on MySpace?

As the mother of a 15 year old MySpace addict, sometimes I think the notion that I have any control over my daughter's exposure on MySpace is just a delusion.

Don't get me wrong, there is actually a lot about MySpace that I do like. For instance, I like that my daughter gets to connect with her long distance friends daily. After a lifetime in California, we moved to Arizona 4 years ago, and then after two years there, moved here to Idaho. My daughter has had to leave a lot of very close friends behind, as well as cousins who are more like siblings to her, and it hasn't been easy for her. Since allowing her to create a MySpace profile about a year ago, she has been able to reconnect with almost every last one of the friends she'd left behind in our moves. With MySpace, she feels as close to them as she can get without being there. They get to keep up with daily events in each other's lives, and in a sense, still "grow up" together.

Another thing I like about MySpace is that my daughter often wants to change the look of her page, and because of that, has literally taught herself html and other aspects of web design. She knows it forwards and backwards, practically in her sleep. Learning such a valuable skill has been a nice by-product of her involvement with MySpace. Could she have learned html in another way? Sure. The question is though, would she have wanted to?

However, my top priority, of course, is my daughter's safety. Is she safe on MySpace? Let me tell you all of the actions I take to try to ensure that she is. First, our computer is located in our family room, with the screen positioned so that it can be seen from anywhere in the family room, dining area, and kitchen. This way we can look over at any moment and see what she is doing, and she knows it. Now, I'll admit, she's gotten very quick, and sometimes we'll notice that she minimizes a screen at lightning speed as we are approaching. It is usually an IM screen, and she just wants to keep her conversation private. Okay, I can respect that, I think it's fair to allow her privacy when talking with her peers. If I trusted her less than I do, however, I would probably not allow this.