Tiny ants wriggling about

It seems more often than not that Myspace is appearing in the news, linked to another horror story of child predators using the online community to lure children into dangerous situations.  Local school districts and lawmaker alike have been responding to the negative press coverage.   Myspace was also quick to respond with the appointing of a new safety czar, Hemanshu Nigam.  Myspace is being banned in school districts and libraries across the nation with no sign of a change in policy.  
            Online communities are useful and much appreciated to the majority of people who use them.  That’s why they exist.  I have a Myspace account, a Facebook account, Flickr account, as well as numerous e-mail accounts.  Each serves the purpose of communicating with people I know.  I rarely “meet” anyone online and would never encourage children to use the internet to meet new people, just as I would not encourage giving your personal information to everyone in the city park.  It all comes down to speaking with your children about theses networking sites and do not leave out the dangers involved.       
            Parents are quick to blame other people for what happens to their children when, often times, they, as parents could have prevented the incidents through open communication about new technologies and setting limits and monitoring their child’s activities online.  The sad fact of the matter is that sexual predators are going to continue to prey on children forever.  The best solution is to be open and honest about the dangers that children may encounter and hope children will become more proactive in keeping themselves safe.
            Most websites have many features to help prevent these atrocities from occurring.  However, in some of the incidents, the victim misrepresents himself or herself as being older and invites the sexual attention.  This makes the debate all the more volatile and still no solutions have been offered.