Idaho Falls teens on Myspace: sexy pics, drunken brags, and phone numbers
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Myspace has been making several headlines lately, and our own Local News 8 tried a surface-level report recently.
I had always ignored Myspace until the nationwide reports started surfing. Mass media news mostly focuses on scare stories, but Myspace.com has become one of the top 10 Internet sites and was recently bought out by Rupert Murdoch’s Fox empire.
Curious, I tried looking around Myspace, but you quickly realize most content is hidden until you become a member. I registered a free, basic profile with the most minimal information and no picture, then hunted around for Idaho Falls characters.
As a designer, I was deeply offended. Myspace profiles are like what geocities websites used to be a few years ago. Gaudy graphics, crazy fonts, and eye-straining color schemes abound. Then I realized this was just a kid’s exploration space, just like geocities was. Myspace seems to be a place for them to easily carve out their own niche. It’s good for kids to branch out and explore technology in this manner.
Then I started reading the comments friends would leave for one another on their pages, and was surprised at how brazenly our local teens bragged about drinking or even watching pornography. The teens talk about their parents in extremely disrespectful terms that clearly show they do not expect those parents to ever read them. Then I noticed several comments where girls would post phone numbers for their friends to call them!
The thing about Myspace is if you read a person’s comment (like a girl who just posted her phone number), you can then click on that person’s picture and their personal profile page loads up. So anyone has that girl’s phone number, has their page in front of them, can read what school they go to, and then can look at several pictures the girl has posted in her profile.
As Idaho 8 reported, some of the pictures are pretty racy. Ok, some of them are downright slutty, and I’d be furious to even let my daughter out looking like some of those pics, let alone to find them posted online. One pic even displays the side view of a girl underneath a guy and while no parts are showing, it is clear that sex is happening. This girl even put in a caption admiting they were having sex.
I shook my head at what I saw, then deleted my profile and decided against writing my planned article about local Myspace teens. I figured I had done stupid cr@p like that when I was young, and who am I to preach? A couple weeks later, however, I watched the Idaho 8 news report, and kept thinking about those phone numbers that were posted. Idaho 8 had not researched deeply enough to find that shocking information, or I am sure they would have reported on it.
Then I saw a report on Amber Hoopes, the girl who disappeared in 2001. I thought about these other local girls posting sexy pics of themselves with their phone numbers, and my social conscience for the greater good overcame my humility from my own sordid past.
Kids, you need to go online and get rid of the racy pics. If you would not show the pic to your grandfather, it should not be online. If you have ever posted your phone number in someone’s comments, go delete it, or ask them to delete it from their profile page if you are unable to.
Parents, Idaho 8 news unfortunately misled you in their report. They said you can search under your teen’s name to see their profile. Actually, most of these kids create profiles under aliases (which are often provocative terms, also). You need to just sit down and spend time looking through comments, friends’ profiles, looking through their comments, opening up their friends’ profiles, etc., until you find your kids’ picture.
I know kids across Idaho Falls are going to hate me for this, but I am offering to help parents find their kids’ profiles. I don’t want publicity, so I’m not going to like reserve a room at the library or anything. I would be willing to go to someone’s home, have a bunch of parents gathered together there, and I can take an hour to show you how to find the information. We may not find your kid, but you will likely recognize someone else’s kid, and you will see what you need to do to ensure your kid is safe.
Contact me via the idahofallz.com contact form or at our catch-all email address idahofallz@yahoo.com. We can arrange a time and place to meet where I can demonstrate this to you. I hate to be a snitch, but I only do it in this case because of the phone numbers I saw posted. The phone numbers present a clear danger to our local girls.
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Comments
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0 
0 Thanks for your offer. I hope people take you up on this. If parents are not sure if their kids are or aren’t on myspace they need to look in the temporary internet files to see if a link is there. This will point you directly to myspace pages of friends or people they are looking at. Make sure to cross reference web sites of their friends to see what your kid is posting on other sites.
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0 0 I hear lots of teens are moving on from MySpace, many even going so far as to close their accounts (rather than just abandoning them).
Where are the kids going nowadays? I hear Beebo, Vox, ?
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0 0 What is Beebo and Vox? How do we find these sites to check and see if our kids are on there?
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0 0 “How do we find these sites to check and see if our kids are on there?”
Learn how to use and read logs on your router.
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0 0 Mike, Type “Vox” and “bebo” into Google.
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0 0 If it’s not sexual predators using MySpace to hunt victims it’s cyber-bullying that leads to suicides, such as Megan Mier.
I’m surprised parents let their kids onto MySpace at all anymore. What conversations have you had with your kids about MySpace? Does anyone even use their MySpace profiles that much anymore?
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0 0 I have had myspace for probably close to three years and this article is so offbase it is comical. All I have to do to ensure people like yourself (middle aged pervs trying to find racy pictures of young people) dont find my profile is make it Private. Then noone who you havent already approved to see your page can. Does this not get rid of just about every concern you have? Im curious how you missed this after wasting so many hours on the website?
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0 0 Thanks for pointing that out, and it is a great practice to make your profile page private.
Unfortunately, most people do not do this, for whatever reason (some like to feel popular by seeing hundreds of ‘friends’). It is not terribly difficult to do, so parents if you have a kid with a myspace page, ask them to show you in their settings how to make it private, and make sure they do so.
However, this does not completely get rid of the cyber-bullying issue. Obviously this poor girl who killed herself would have made “Josh” a friend who could then do what he did. Teenagers will often allow ‘friends’ of anyone who goes to their school, and later those people may get into a tiff and start bullying others online.
So your simple solution is important, but it’s not a complete cure.
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0 0 It’s definately not difficult to guess YOUR age! And for your information kid, there are no pervs on this site. If you would have taken the time to actually read this post completely you’d understand that there are just concerned parents here looking out for their kids.. Obviously YOUR parents don’t bother to monitor what YOU do online, and that’s ashame. It’s obvious that they should be.
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0 0 I still use my myspace. I log on almost everyday. I am 34 which may sound sad to some of you that someone so “old” uses myspace but through myspace I have found many of the people I went to high school with that I haven’t seen or heard from in over a decade. My profile is set to public but my pictures are set to private so none but my friends can see them and I have tried to make sure my pics are appropriate for anyones viewing. Do I worry about all the kooks out there surfin the web? You bet I do. There are so many ways you can protect your myspace page. You can put in the codes to block others from seeing who your friends are. You can even block your comments from others view. Is myspace perfect no but then no site is.
None of my kids are on there yet due to their ages but you can bet that even at 4 and 5 we have talks about how to use the internet safely. When they are old enough to create an account on myspace or a site similar to it I will have another talk with them about what will be allowed and what won’t. I pay close attention to the sites my kids go to when they are online and they are not allowed to be online when I am not there.
You can’t shield your kids from everything bad in the world but you can make sure that you talk them to death about all the things that are bad and wrong and hope that some of it sinks in!
I don’t think myspace or facebook or any of the other sites like that are bad. It is just kids don’t know how to safely use them. Maybe there should be a new class taught in school about the safe way to use the internet!
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0 0 Being on Myface or Spacebook for 3 years is definately not something I would advertise freely. I guess some people just don’t have much of a social life.
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0 0 34 and on Myspace? Wow….now THAT’s SCARY! Dude move on!
Try “Classmates.com” if you want to find out about your high school friends.
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0 0 I am on classmates however I have found more people on myspace than I have on classmates. Have you ever gone onto myspace and browsed through your high school to see who was on there? It is amazing to me how many people are on there that are in their 30’s and 40’s and even 50’s. Many in my class have found others not on myspace and had them join. My graduating class has quite a thriving community growing on there. We keep up and the going ons of those we went to school with. Where they are. What their kids are doing etc, etc. Myspace is not just for teenagers despite popular belief!
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0 0 I’m 45 and I’ve got better things to do than hang out on a teen website. And I don’t keep track of high school friends. (I try not to live in the past) I have a few friends from college I either talk to on the phone or email occassionally. I seriously doubt there are folks in their 40’s and 50’s on there. It’s bad enough folks your age are on there. It was a site originally started for highschool kids to keep up with their friends. Facebook was originally set up for young professionals to network with each other, but it didn’t really take off the way they intended it to.
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1 0 Myspace was not founded as a teen site and many of their users are over the age to 30. If you doubt me take 5 minutes and browse. You might be suprised. I am not living in the past by keeping track of H.S. friends. I am living life to the fullest by having and enjoying a wide variety of friends. Just because it is something you choose not to do does not mean you have to knock people who do.
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1 0 Different strokes for different folks.
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2 0 Absolutely I agree, different strokes. I don’t have a MySpace page, but my little brother does (and he’s in his mid-40s) and I’m pretty sure my teenage stepchildren do.
I have no problem with MySpace. As with any forum (including this one) there are good things and bad things.
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2 0 I have checked my daughter’s myspace records and found it disturbing how many of the individuals who put up pages entered false ages for themselves. Let’s don’t forget that the owner of the page gets to “choose” what information to put in. One of her male friends had entered his age as 29 when in actuality, he’s sixteen. I am neither pro nor anti myspace, just open-minded (skeptical) about what I read there.
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1 0 Jose, Slimpickens and Guest, I think your comments to ‘passingthrough’ were unnecessarily mean. Let’s face it, we ARE online here at Idahofallz, right?
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0 1 Posting on a blog is quite a bit different than posting a webpage on Myface or Spacebook. For someone who claims to know as much as you do, you should at least know that much.
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1 0 wow!! nasty again!!! what do I claim to know so much about???
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1 0 Let’s not forget craigslist was originally created for gay men to hook up and now it has erupted into a site advertising just about anything for sale or trade. Of course there is still a lot of that “activity” on craigslist so I prefer to use other forms of advertising all the same.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t the crazy sicko who took a class of high school kids hostage in Colorado this last year find a few of the girls on myspace, and tracked them to that high school? Anyone recall this?
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3 0 I feel compelled to reply to the posters here that ridicule adults for having pages on MySpace. The best way to keep up with what your kids are posting and who they are “friending” is to have your own page and “friend” with theirs, as a condition to having a page at all. That way you have total access to whatever they are posting. Don’t knock it, it helps.
Sorry if that was already addressed and I missed it.
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2 0 As a networking site, Myspace can be fun and rewarding. I know I’ve pulled a deal or two from there in the last year and a half or so that I’ve been messing around with it and I’ve even made a few friends along the way. That being said, however, doesn’t make it a wonderful place to be all the time. I view places like myspace, facebook, tagged, linkedin and a few others as I view gun control. It’s not the gun that kills, it’s the person behind it. In other words, you have to be trained to use something dangerous before you use it.
The problems don’t start with myspace, they start in the home. Families aren’t engaging their kids anymore like they used to. There is a plethora of stuff one could go over with regard to this topic but that’s where it’s at. Don’t blame MySpace for its capitalistic money making venture, blame the families that don’t pay attention to their kids anymore. I’m not pointing the finger at anyone here by the way… it’s just my own personal thoughts regarding a networking site.
Here or some of my own guidelines for my kids…
1. They DONT get a myspace account until they’re older. There’s no reason for my little girl or my son to have one at this time.
2. When they do get one I agree with Alice, get involved! It’s not some evil place that only a demon would visit… pay attention to what your kids are writing and thinking. Talk to them about it! It could be a great way to quell problems before they get out of hand?
3. After they’ve gotten on and have a MySpace account find out how many friends they have. If they have 400 friends sit down with them for 10 minutes and ask them to tell you a little bit of something about each one of them and how they know them… I’ll bet they can’t…
As Alice said, it’s easiest if you just get involved from the start and don’t allow them to add 400 friends in the first place. A general online rule of thumb in my household is, “If you don’t know them and talk to them on a daily basis then you can’t associate with them online!” Remember, you’re dealing with a lot more than Myspace on the world wide web here. We haven’t even hit on Instant Messengers like Yahoo, MSN Messenger and a bunch of others like them.
Have a great day!
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2 0 My wife and I both have myspace accounts. I also have 3 of my 4 sons on myspace as well. My 17 year old went to live with his mom when he was 15. I found out a lot of stuff that really made me sad about him on myspace.
His behavior, along with his friends was dangerous and illegal! I shared everything I learned with his mother who blew it off and said none of it was true! That made me even more sad! Because it wasn’t hard to tell that all of it was true!
The boys that live with me act completely different than their brother. I think it is because we are so involved in their lives. Enough that they trust us and will take direction from us.
My other son, ‘who lives with his mom’, doesn’t take direction from us. Unfortunately he doesn’t take it from his mom either.
It’s a sad fact that some teens will get involved in dangerous behavior that can effect them for the rest of there lives! As parents of teenagers it can be a tremendous struggle! We want the best for our kids and can only do so much for them. Eventually they will have to make decisions for themselves. It is our jobs to help them learn to be responsible, well informed respectful young people!
99% of teenagers or maybe more think they know everything! When they are younger it is easier for parents to have more control of their behavior. But teenagers are a whole different story! They are fighting for control of their lives! Accepting this can be hard for many parents. It was for me anyway.
A big thing to remember, for me at least, was to remind them that trust and respect were earned! I am grateful to have my kids trust today, also that I can trust my kids when they are on the internet! Especially sites like myspace.
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4 0 When I saw my son’s first MySpace account, I told him what changes I would like him to make, and he made them. There was no battle, he knew where I was coming from.
I also use my page for my own small business, and it’s been very helpful in keeping my customers informed on what’s new in the store. It also lets my customers contact me any time, which they seem to enjoy.
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1 0 I saw your page, Alice, it was very appropriate for your business! I should stop in there sometime just to be aware of what you have (not my thing but I know plenty of young folks who like your products).
My stepkids have my space pages, as does my youngest brother (who turned 44 yesterday). They enjoy the pages but they certainly don’t do outrageous things on them…
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1 0 If you visit make sure to tell me who you are so I can put a face to the name ; )
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0 0 I will do that, I’m not shy about who I am…
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0 0 i am doing a research paper on wether myspace it bad or not.
though i understand parents concerns about the site myspace does offer security. when you hear about teens on myspace dealing with cyber-bullying and stalkers and other problems you cant blame myspace. teens choose who they want as friends if they decide to add some creep on their profile its not myspace to blame. those teens decided to put their racy pictures and numbers up on their page, they are the ones that control their ‘about me’.
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0 0 whats a “drunken brag”?
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1 0 It’s what a lot of us did back in college nightclubs and bars but I forget the details. 
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Given all the bad stuff published about MySpace since this article was written, I hope our local teens are taking greater precautions in their actions on MySpace.
I don’t like to see the media demonize MySpace or other technologies, because they often overhype the dangers and completely overlook the responsibilities that users have to personally take upon themeselves.