2007-2008 School Year

37^th Year of Christian Schooling

MYSpace Dangers

The following links are very helpful in helping us understand the dangers of MySpace.com.  Also below you will find an e-mail sent us by our internet service provider.

MySpace Dangers http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=4566549

MySpace.com Raising Flags for Parents http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11595700/from/RL.1 

Man Hunts Underage Girls on MySpace http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11612207/from/RL.5 

Men used MySpace.com to Meet Underage Girls for Sex http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11612207/from/RL.2 

MySpace Prank Results in Sex Crime Arrest http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11708746 

Parents Shocked at MySpace Content -- Parents Find Teens Revealing Information Online http://www.nbc10.com/news/7548205/detail.html 

Networking Websites Exploited http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11653408/from/RL.5 

FBI Agent on Children and Internet Safety http://msnbc.msn.com/id/11708217/from/rl.3 

At Integrity Online we received many customer requests to block Xanga and MySpace, as well as some customer requests to keep them open.  We have researched, at great length, the pros and cons of free, unmonitored, Web Logs ("Blogs") such as these.  It has become clear to us that in order to provide the best filter protection to our customers, we must block xanga.com and myspace.com. 

Blog hosts like these do not monitor, filter, or block the content of the Blogs they publish for all to view.  Children can easily access these Blogs, and millions of these Blogs have proven themselves to be obscene and even dangerous. 

As part of our research, we chose some words that might be used by ministries or businesses and searched for them on myspace.com.  The “hits” are how many times these words are found on MySpace Blogs. 

Now compare these words above with some obscene words below, that we searched on MySpace Blogs.   These figures are beyond belief but sadly true.

More threatening to our customers are the dangers to children.  National headlines have been made with tragic stories of sex crimes carried out against teenagers, and even younger children, through contact on these Blog sites.