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Beware Of Kids' Community Web Site

POSTED: 2:55 pm EDT September 30, 2005

When your children are online, do you know what they're doing?

NewsCenter 5's consumer reporter Susan Wornick said there is a Web site parents should know about.

MySpace.com has become a popular online site for children of all ages. If you haven't heard about it, you may want to take a look.

Myspace.com has a lot of useful information about movies, music and other things kids are interested in -- including each other. Anyone can log on, and by simply searching a name, users can find people who are using the site. Some users post pictures, and many of them offer very personal information in a preset profile questionnaire. Some of the questions are innocent like favorite foods and colors, but others are quite provocative about sex, if they drink or shoplift. The questionnaire even asks users if they have ever beaten anyone up.

Some of the answers children are writing is alarming. Although some of it may be bravado, but 15- and 16-year-olds should not be writing about how often they drink or have sex.

In addition to their own stories, users can post information about their friends and links to their profiles and most personal preferences and habits. The Web site offers links for one-on-one communication.

There are federal laws about Web sites like MySpace.com. No one is supposed to solicit information from anyone under 13. But there is no way to really know for sure how old the users are on MySpace.com -- children who are 11 and 12 can say they were 16 and 17. There is no one policing the Web site, except parents.

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