Slashdot Mirror
MySpace to Offer Spyware for Parents
mrspin writes "Following continuing pressure from politicians (and parts of the media), MySpace is planning to offer parents the chance to download software which will monitor aspects of their children's activities on the social networking site. From a business point of view, the move appears to be a highly risky one. The young users of social networking sites are notorious for their lack of loyalty — and history suggests that a change like this could tempt many to abandon MySpace for the 'next cool thing'."
Not your space anymore, son.
Just because your kids dont want you to know every single detail of their life doesnt mean that they are hooking up with 35 year olds. People take this business of monitoring their kids internet use too seriously. Would you tap your teenagers phone calls? If not whats the difference?
I almost forgot; queue the spammers with links to software download sites to allow you to monitor your children's activities. Nothing like a legit reason to download a keylogger... sheesh I can see it now. The next big virus will come disguised as a child protection monitoring software from https://d0wnl0ads.myspace.com/protect.cgi
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
Even if this move doesn't drive away the kids, if nogoodniks are able to pretend to be parents and monitor the activities of other peoples' kids, this is going to be a nightmare.
Perhaps I am dull witted tonight, but I can't imagine how they can make this spyware foolproof.
We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are.
-- Anais Nin
According to the article, the software only shows what name, age, and location the user is claiming. It does not provide any other information.
This is a well thought-out solution, as it provides the important information while still providing privacy to the user.
Unfortunately, for many teens any information is too much to share, and many parents think that any privacy is too much to allow.
Okay, let's disregard whether parents would/should need a piece of software to help them watch their children.
More importantly, how are these parents going to install and use this software? I would say that the majority children are more tech-savvy than their parents, and aren't likely to willingly help their parents peer into their private life.
So, how are parents going to install and configure a piece of software that will require user names and other information they might need to ask their children for anyways? What's to stop a child from setting up a dummy account to render the software useless?
Parents who install the monitoring software on their home computers would be able to find out what name, age and location their children are using to represent themselves on MySpace. The software doesn't enable parents to read their child's e-mail or see the child's profile page
So it tells the parents the exact same information they would get by searching for their kids name, email, or username on myspace. Even the private/hidden profiles that I've seen still show username, age and location. How is downloading some proprietary software to get publicly available information useful?
------ Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government.
So, that's a nice knee-jerk reaction there, but better parenting potentially involve having some idea of what your kid is up to with these things, no?
sic transit gloria mundi
I seem to see it as:
Everyone's all for spying, until they're the ones being spied on.
Most people's attitude about things like this change drastically after they actually have kids of their own to be responsible for.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
As parents, the only thing you can do is try to be as trustworthy as possible. If you have reasonable success, your children may actually heed your warnings or at least realize when they are in trouble anc come to you for advice. You cannot get more. Monitoring, threats, harsh limits, etc... will just cause your children to leave home when they can and think bach of you as cretins (and rightfully so!).
An essential component of this is to trust your children. Sure, they will do stupid things, but hey, they are children and still learning. And if they know they can talk to you they may actually come to ask for advice. Don't bbe shocked or appalled, just try to do the best you can. And if you don't know, say so. And if you are uncomfotable with some of your childrens choices, tell them that, but also let them make their choices.
Eventually it boild down to respect. Respect your children. If you do that, then there is no way in hell that you can spy on them, which in my and very likely in your children's eyes is the ultimate sugn of disrespect.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Things wont change that much, because most parents don't use that type software. Those that do, don't know how to use it, or don't feel they need to monitor their children. Typical Window's users.
As a parent, and a Linux user at home and Windows user I'd agree to a certain point. My kids want to use/see certain sites that I just don't agree with. My house, I pay the bills for internet, end of frickin story. I don't actually block sites, but I let them know which ones they should avoid.
Another thing, WTF are you grouping this as a "Typical Windows User"? Moron.
Life was hell, then I discovered Linux...
At some stage (normally when the child gets into their teens) the parent has to start letting go and relaxing their supervision (this is called trust). It is very important for a parent to talk to their child and as the child gets older the dialog must become more meaningful so that greater trust when given is something a child can look forward to earning.
Children are curious and will always try to see how far they can go before they overstep their boundaries. As parent it is up to you to define those boundaries with out being too restrictive although this can be a very difficult thing. Again this is were dialog comes in. It is normally a "cop out" on the parent's part to blindly agree with so called "well meaning" people who state that they are protecting their child's freedom because children are always going to do the wrong thing. Too many parents are willing to put their child's moral upbringing in the hands of people who probably have no idea of how to bring up a child themselves.
I have mainly trivialised this but common sense must prevail between parent and child and a parent must be willing (even if it is embarrassing) to discuss everything especially sex with their child, otherwise the child will find out anyway and usually from their peers who don't know that much or who have distorted view.
Hence if a parent does not know when asked a question by their child then the onus is on them to find out and come out with the correct answer that is not clouded by prejudice even though the parent may not like it because of their upbringing. If you as a parent can handle this you may actually learn something as well.
I don't mean to say that bringing up a child is easy, it is not, but meaningful dialog can go along way.
There ain't no such thing as proprietary standards only proprietary formats. Standards are by definition open.
You're right!
I've invented a perfect device for this purpose:
The KitchenTable(tm) (patent pending)
You install this device in a commons area of your home, and then one day you sit your kid down at the table and ass him or her, "OK, (name), I would never spy on you, but I keep hearing so much about MySpace and predators. Would you please walk me through the site and show me what it's all about? That would really make me more comfortable." (conversation NOT included).
This will in most cases cause the child to agree, and show the parent around the site (Warning: child/parent bonding may occur). If the tactic fails, the KitchenTable (tm) may be returned for a full refund, reddemable towards the purchase of The Dungeon (tm).