The Dangers of MySpace

In recent news, General Attorney for the State of Massachusetts wants the minimum age to create an account on MySpace changed. Tom Reilly claims that the age should be changed from the current 14 years old to 18 years old. While his idea is a step in the right direction, it clearly has a few flaws. Currently, MySpace has no way of knowing your age and states in its policies that anyone violating and misrepresenting their age will be disciplined on the site and could have their account deleted. So if I was to create an account on MySpace and change my age to 99 when I am clearly not that (I am a graduating college senior), I could run the risk of getting my account suspended and/or deleted.

So this brings up the question: what is an effective way of securing MySpace and making it safer? I have a solution. Earlier this year, Mike Domirtz of The Date Safe Show and The Date Safe Project asked that question in his e-newsletter. I took on the challenge of answering him and in a phone interview with him, we discussed what could be done to make MySpace safer. Mike suggested that users of the site be forced to take a survey on internet safety and it would be mandatory that the user passes before enabling him/her to create an account on the site. The questions would be randomly generated so it would prevent (or at least make it harder) to cheat on the quiz. If the user passed, then they would be allowed to have a MySpace account.

I responded to his idea and told him I have an addition to that idea. While his idea is a good starting point, it has a few flaws. Anyone who wants an account that badly on MySpace will take the quiz over and over again until they essentially remember the answers to the quiz. This doesn’t equate to retention of the safety information in the quiz and thus somewhat defeats the purpose of the quiz in the first place. Overall, this wouldn’t make MySpace exponentially safer, and that’s what I was attempting to take on with Mike’s question.

I thought long and hard about it and came up with a well thought out idea. It uses age verification, which Chris DeWolfe (CEO of MySpace) says is “…there was no fool-proof way to verify the age of all users” (quoted via the above link to the CNN article). DeWolfe couldn’t be more incorrect and is just simply NOT INTERESTED in safeguarding the users on his site or implementing changes in order to make the site safer. It appears he feels that ignoring criticism of the site and ignoring the fact that child molesters are using his site in order to commit crimes is the way to go and if he ignores those threats and articles, then the problems do not exist which is simply absurd.

I personally challenge Chris DeWolfe to make a change and implement my system which is as follows:

In regards to the quiz…passing a quiz is relatively easy if you take it enough times (even if it’s randomly generated each time). Sure, it absolutely will deter those who aren’t “smart enough” to pass the quiz the first time. It will also help the younger generations (namely teens on the site) to learn about online safety. But learning about it doesn’t mean retention of the information learned. People generally assume they are safe online. This is especially true of persons under the age of 18 who are not internet savvy. Obviously, the internet isn’t a safe place unless you’re cautious about what information is given out.

So in addition to the quiz, I think a credit card verification is necessary. What it would do is require all new users to re-authorize their account with a credit/debit card - if they don’t do this, they are cut off of the system until a valid verification. This is pretty simple since the Privacy Policy of the site can do as it pleases since individual users don’t own the content, MySpace does). MySpace could then put a $1.00 charge on the card for verification and then do a reversal so the site is still free to users. New users would be required to have a credit card when signing up.

Why you might ask? Well for one, it verifies the person is 18+ or if not, at least has the parents permission to use the site. The parents are typically curious as to why their son/daughter would be using the card, so then that’s the PERFECT opportunity for parents to step in and say “Yes, you can have my credit card as verification” or “No, MySpace isn’t appropriate for you.” In this way, the parents have a better idea of what their sons/daughters are doing and gives them the chance help their children understand online safety. Plus, it gives a physical address tied to that account, real name, and anything else that can be obtained through a warrant for credit card records if it came to that.

In the event a predator lures a minor into their sick world, then you’ve the address and records of the child and the predator on file (through their credit card information). It’s an immediate tracking down of the predators. If the predators decide to run, that credit card on file can automatically be traced (if it came to that). Plus, the parents can no longer use the excuse “well, I didn’t know what my child was doing.” Yes you did…you gave him/her the credit card number for verification. Obviously, when the credit card expires, the user would be notified on the site and the same would apply as above: update your information or be cut off of our system.

Unfortunately, there will still be predators out there relying on MySpace to do the sick things they do. That’s a lot tougher to stop. But with a credit card validation and quiz, you know the person has an idea of what is safe online (the quiz) and you have a physical address of the person (via the credit card). I think it’s an additional safety precaution into the good idea of using a Online Safety quiz.

The podcast is available for download via iTunes or this direct link. For more information on the show, go to datesafeshow.com. Other shows from Mike Domirtz can be found at this link on iTunes (”Sexual Assault, Consent, & Our Students - Sexual Assault, Consent, & Our Students”):

I encourage comments and passing this on to Chris DeWolfe and personally challenging him to implement this system. Odds are he’ll ignore it since he assumes his site is safe because it’s based on user trust, which we all know that “everyone can be trusted on the internet…”