School Officials Concerned About MySpace.com

The rapid growth of MySpace.com has area school leaders taking steps to protect children, the site’s main audience.

Since MySpace launched as a social networking site in 2003, it has quickly become one of the fastest growing sites. It has tens of millions of users and has become one of the top 10 sites globally, drawing more visitors than AOL, according to Web traffic counter Alexa.com.

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.

Anyone can create a MySpace account, causing concerns about safety and privacy. Several weeks ago, officials in Oregon reportedly arrested a man for allegedly attempting to rape a 12-year-old girl he met on the site. This is not the first report of a pedophile or child predator using the site to sexually solicit youngsters. Teens have been punished for abusing the site. A Costa Mesa middle school student faced discipline this year for allegedly posting racist and graphic threats against a classmate.

While nothing to that extreme has happened in La Cañada or La Crescenta, 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 said, adding 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,” warned Greg Krikorian, a member of the Glendale Board of Education. Residents of western La Cañada attend Glendale Unified School District schools.

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 about 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. “[It] can be a very effective way for people to stay in touch … [but] 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 addressed Internet safety. Krikorian, MySpace opponent, “strongly recommends parents 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, a La Cañada High School junior who has a MySpace account, is aware of the dangers but believes 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 contact 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.”

“There are many other ways to keep in touch. In the end, the risks outweigh the positives,” Krikorian said.