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'."

Comments

What's that sound?

[sporkme]

NFTFA:

An source which requested to remain anonymous stated that the new feature was to be entitled Myspace DeathKnell and stated that the board of directors was optimistic about the future of the social networking giant. "The future is bright. Much like the Titanic, this ship is unsinkable. The difference is that there is not a single iceberg in sight," stated another unnamed source.

With any luck, this will be the third-to-last /. article about MySpace.

Armageddon

[Anonymous Coward]

My GOD, it's DOOMSDAY. Myspace users will begin to leave myspace and begin to infect the rest of the internet. KILL ME NOW!

Re:Parental Paranoia

[kfg]

Would you tap your teenagers phone calls?

I don't have to. Like any good parent I smothered my daughter in bubble wrap and then crated her. Nice and safe. Nothing's too good for my princess. She can come out when she's 21. If I think she's mature enough.

Oh, wait, shit, she's 26 now.

Hoooooooney? Where's the crowbar? And what's that smell?

KFG

Re:Children are innovative.

[donaldm]

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.