For Sparta teens, the battle over MySpace.com is a fight of perceptions

Story by Brenda Palomo Don’t talk to strangers,” was the usual warning parents gave their children anytime they left home. However, for the young people of the E generation, this warning does not start at the front door; it extends to their most personal spaces. In the shadow of news reports about sexual predators using MySpace.com, a popular networking site for teenagers, as a way to find and contact their victims, the site has come under scrutiny by parents and authorities nationwide. As is the case with many parental fears, however, the teenagers themselves are unconvinced that the site presents a danger. While parents and school and government officials, many of whom have never visited the site, are calling for more monitoring, most young people believe they are sophisticated enough to know what to reveal in this kind of public forum. “We don’t put anything real personal, just some pictures,” said Greg Morante, 18, of Sparta. Elizabeth Reichert, another Sparta teen, agreed. “If you’re giving specifics like your last name and town, then it is dangerous,” she said. In an effort to gauge the type of information being posted by local teens, The Sparta Independent spent hours reading the profiles of hundreds of the almost 1,500 members who have listed 07871 as their hometown zip code. The profiles examined varied in how much they revealed, from the ubiquitous photo with friends to one posted by another Sparta teen whose bare torso is only covered by her long blond hair and a small tattoo. As many teens claimed, most of the profiles provided very little personal information. Most young people provided only a first name, a hometown, and the name of their high school. But adults are concerned that personal information is inadvertently sprinkled throughout some profiles, even in subtle ways, such as in the answers they give to the questionnaires posted by their friends. “Some kids may not put their address on the site but because they post what school they go to, they can still be located,” said Becky Carlson of the Coalition for Safe and Healthy Families in Newton. “I think a big problem is the fact that these kids are sitting at home in their living rooms in front of their computers with a false sense of security and anonymity,” said Principal Richard Lio of Sparta High School during a phone interview. “Consequently, they’re putting information online that they shouldn’t be posting.” Sparta Police Department Public Relations Officer Ron Casteel agrees. “Judging by everything I’ve heard and seen on the news, yes, it is of real concern. These kids are just not using their heads by posting too much personal information,” he said. But MySpace is not only an outlet for posting information; it also serves as a channel for communication. Catherine McGurrin understands adults’ concern. “I guess it’s because girls meet guys online who could easily be posting fake pictures and giving the wrong age,” the 17-year-old said about the possibility that there is a danger in using MySpace to meet others. Nonetheless, some adolescents openly solicited new friends by posting their AOL Instant Messenger screen name and declaring that they were, “Here for: Networking, Dating, Serious Relationships, and Friends,” for example. This is the kind of behavior to which adults object. “Kids are still posting too much personal information even though (investigators) have locked up pedophiles who have admitted to using the site to get in touch with kids,” said Casteel. Despite the teens’ nonchalant attitude about the dangers of MySpace, the site itself recognizes that its services can be used by online predators. MySpace recently established a 20-person unit to work with law enforcement agencies searching for predators on the site. According to published reports, the unit averages 350 phone calls a week and assists with some 150 investigations per month. Some schools are also getting involved in the matter. Last year, Pope John XXIII issued a policy forbidding its students from using the site. Local teens interviewed criticized the approach, saying that it should be a “personal and parental choice,” and calling the policy “a little extreme” and a “violation of rights.” Lio agreed that school authority stopped at the door. “Well there’s not much I can do outside the building,” he said. “I can only intercede in school to make sure they don’t go on the site when they’re supposed to be working, and tell parents to monitor their kids at home.” Officer Casteel shares hopes for a collaborative effort. “It’s a parental responsibility to monitor them periodically but maybe something like peer counseling could work because a lot of the time kids just don’t want to hear what parents have to say,” he said. Despite the efforts of some schools to get involved, the primary battle for access to MySpace plays out between parents and their teens, with the young people pushing for more freedom and the parents worrying about the responsibility that comes with it. But some teens and their parents are finding ways to compromise. “I lowered my age on mine to keep it on private so that only my friends can see it. I don’t want people I don’t like or don’t know looking at it,” said Kristina Cayan, 20, referring to a feature MySpace offers for users under 16, which blocks out anyone not authorized by the user. Similar privacy options are available to all users; however, those features are not commonly used. The clashes over MySpace are only likely to increase as the site’s volume increases. By one count, the site is ranked number two on the Internet based on pages viewed and time spent by the users. And despite the new approaches by law enforcement and higher community awareness of the dangers, for some, the debate about MySpace will continue to pit generation against generation. “I think they don’t like it because they don’t know much about it since it’s a new thing they didn’t have when they were our age,” said McGurrin. “They don’t feel comfortable with it.”