February 23, 2007 Media response #3

Something that really scares me about the modernization of media is the whole myspace/facebook craze. It's not such a bad thing if you use it responsibly but there are so many ways to misuse and abuse these resources. What confuses me is all of the hype about how myspace turns all of these 12 year old girls into little whores. I mean, sure, it gives them a place to sell themselves by meeting strangers and posting near-pornographic images of themselves, but is myspace really to blame? I think that it is very possible that these girls (and the perverts too) would find a way to be sketchy even if they did not have easy access to myspace or even the internet. This is where things get a little blurred, though. Although I think that it is unfair to blame myspace for the actions of these mentally unstable children, it is also impossible to ignore the fact that many young children have been raped and stalked as a result of this seemingly revolutionary web-community. I do not believe that myspace is legally culpable for these events but I also find it difficult to separate the site from the activities that are carried out on its bandwith. I think that myspace should follow more in the footsteps of the more clean-cut facebook and keep profiles of strangers private. Although you are able to post suggestive and "erotic" pictures on facebook... at least they are only able to be viewed by your friends. Facebook also discourages you from "friending" people that you don't know. If you say that you don't know someone in your "friend details" it won't let you keep them as a friend. I have been using facebook a lot this week and it's made me think a lot about the ethics of these online networks. Are the people responsible for their individual activities? Their parents? Or myspace its self?