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MySpace: good, bad and ugly

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MySpace may have launched in 2004 but it took a few years for the MSM to get hip to it, or rather, for MySpace to become a topic of broad interest -- thanks to millions of profiles, plenty of controversies, and the hundreds of millions of dollars it grew to be worth. Today The Times editorializes about the tragic suicide of Megan Meier, allegedly spurred by taunts from an adult using a made-up MySpace persona, and the courts’ response to it. It’s not the first time The Times has commented on MySpace and its prior legal entanglements, including from victims of sexual abuse who were tricked by MySpace “friends,” much like Meier.

On Jan. 20, 2007, the board commented that News Corp.’s purchase of MySpace in 2005 was the move that launched a thousand (or so) lawsuits, whether from media companies or victims of sexual assault:

These cases highlight the legal challenges facing any company building a business around its users’ personal expressions. MySpace and other social networking sites have to take some steps to deter users from violating the law, but just how far they need to go is still being debated in the courts, Congress and state legislatures….[S]ome critics want MySpace to do more to verify the age of its users in an effort to deter predators who pose as teenagers in order to meet school-aged victims. That’s easier said than done, particularly for users who are too young to drive. In fact, the vulnerabilities inherent in every protective measure only amplify the risk of relying on technology to safeguard children online. While MySpace can and should develop more tools to help parents monitor what their children do, the people best positioned to protect kids on the site are the kids themselves. Even an attentive parent armed with the latest monitoring technology can’t stop a resourceful 15-year-old determined to venture into the wild.

A little over a week later, The Times highlighted a more positive aspect of MySpace--politicians’ pages that make them more accessible, or at least more exposed:

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Following the trail blazed by Howard Dean in 2003, at least five of the nine would-be Democratic nominees are incorporating MySpace, Facebook and other social networks into their campaigns. In fact, many are taking a shotgun approach to the Internet, posting links to an array of sites in the hope of spreading buzz about their candidacy to the far corners of the World Wide Web, if not the world itself….The nine Republicans in the race are taking a more buttoned-down approach. Their sites include no links to social networks, viral video outlets or other sites outside the candidate’s control. Instead, they focus on the meat-and-potatoes of campaigning -- raising money and manpower. That’s not surprising, given the GOP’s knack for campaign discipline. When candidates embrace sites such as MySpace and YouTube, they sacrifice some discipline and control in exchange for energy, creativity and a network to distribute their message for free. The obvious risk is that someone in the loose-knit confederation will do something that embarrasses the candidate.

In February of that year, The Times further emphasized a point made above--that “MySpace isn’t Mommy.” It praised the decision of Texas federal judge Sam Sparks, ruling that MySpace.com shouldn’t be penalized for alleged sexual assault between two people who met on the site:

Sparks’ decision to dismiss the lawsuit was based mainly on the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which exempted websites and Internet service providers from responsibility for what their users said online. The law also states that those providers can’t be held liable for adopting imperfect protections against indecent or harmful content -- a provision aimed at encouraging sites to do the best they could to safeguard users. To its credit, MySpace has taken several steps to guard against sexual predators….These steps, however, probably won’t turn MySpace into a predator-free zone. Nothing short of direct monitoring of every user, page and post could do that, and that’s just as distasteful as having an Internet service provider monitor e-mails or a phone company listen in on calls. And even if all of MySpace’s new safeguards had been in place last year, they probably wouldn’t have stopped the alleged assault on the Texas teen. After all, the most vulnerable youths often are the most resourceful ones. Their parents and teachers are in a much better position to arm them against the risks than a website could be.

On Aug. 25, 2007, the board again looked to the bright side of MySpace and its capacity to bring candidates and voters closer together, this time with a series of talks with presidential candidates:

The sessions may be the best indication yet of the Internet’s ascendancy as a medium for political communication. At least 11 of the candidates have agreed to sit down for a one-hour grilling, including the front-runners from both parties. They’re doing so even though the events won’t be televised live. Instead, they’ll be broadcast online, using websites run by MySpace and MTV. Yet despite the absence of live TV coverage, the potential audience is huge -- more than 40 million people visit MySpace each month….And the MySpace format will not only pepper them with outside-the-Beltway inquiries, it will also provide instant feedback by polling the online audience after each answer. These talks may not make much difference in the long run. Thanks to the Web, cable TV, e-mail and various grass-roots techniques, candidates are able to speak to voters through an array of outlets, many of them better targeted at likely voters than MySpace and MTV. (Although the Internet has helped boost the turnout of young voters, they’re still a comparatively small portion of those who cast primary ballots.) But no one knows yet which of these channels will be most effective, so candidates are game to experiment online -- if for no other reason than to not seem like Luddites. Besides, a good showing could drum up a few hundred more volunteers for a candidate’s campaign.

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