Locals Discuss MySpace

MySpace.com, a social networking site launched in 2004, has quickly become one of the fastest growing sites. It has more than 60 million users and gets more hits each day than Google or AOL.

Company Spokeswoman, Dani Dudek, said about 6 million new members sign up each month. Last year, media mogul Rupert Murdoch bought the site for $580 million. MySpace has also become an outlet for aspiring artists to showcase their music and videos. In fact, MySpace will soon have its own record label for bands discovered on the site.

Even though the site is especially popular with teens, anyone can create a MySpace account, causing concerns about safety and privacy. Several weeks ago, officials in Oregon arrested a man for attempting to rape a 12-year-old girl he met on the site. This has not been the first instance of a pedophile or child predator using the site to sexually solicit youngsters. Teens have been punished for abusing the site. In March, a Costa Mesa middle school student faced expulsion for allegedly posting racist and other graphic threats against a classmate.

While nothing to that extreme has happened in La Cañada or La Crescenta, local school officials have been taking precautionary steps. LCHS PTSA president Karen Mathison said MySpace was the feature topic at a March meeting led by the school’s security officials. “We wanted parents to be fully informed about what this site is about and how they can approach their kids about it,” Mathison explained. She also added that the childhood rule of not talking to strangers applies to this situation.

“This is a very real issue, and our children are at risk,” Greg Krikorian, a member of the Glendale Board of Education warned.

He wants parents to use www.isafe.org, a site that gives parents tips on how to keep their children safe online.

Kathy Hernandez of the LCF Education Foundation spoke on MySpace at the 7/8 PTA on Tuesday. She also has a page on her website dedicated to giving parents tips on MySpace.

“I want parents to have an idea about what their kids are looking at,” she said. She acknowledged on her site that MySpace “can be a very effective way for people to stay in touch ? [but that] it’s very easy for predators to find and contact unsuspecting youth, and for kids to cyber-bully one another.”

Krikorian agrees. In March he attended a PTA meeting at Wilson Middle School that spoke about Internet safety. Krikorian, an opponent of MySpace, “strongly recommends parents to discourage their children from using the site because they’re risking their own safety.” He added that “no matter what you do you’re not totally protected. There’s always someone more intelligent who’ll find ways of getting personal information, and our kids are totally oblivious of that.”

Angel Cho, an 11th grade student at La Cañada High School who has a MySpace account, admits she is aware of the dangers but also believes that it would be, “highly unlikely that anything would happen to me or anyone else I know.”

MySpace has also proved to be a valuable tool in social networking. The students who recently protested in downtown Los Angeles on federal legislation cracking down on undocumented immigration organized their demonstration through MySpace. Teens have also used the site to find old acquaintances and be in contact with friends.

Crescenta Valley High School senior Cindy Bonilla is one such teen.

“I talk to all my friends [on MySpace], and it’s an easy way to keep in touch.” In addition, while she recognizes the dangers of the site, she said users “should know better than to put certain things up where everyone can see it.”

Still, Krikorian believes, “there are many other ways to keep in touch. In the end, the risks outweigh the positives.”