Blog Blocker : The Blog

This is from the “lesson learned” file.

Parents who were monitoring their daughter’s MySpace page found out that she was hosting a drinking party while they were out of town.  The parents called the police and 29 underage drinking citations were filed.

(source article)

Sean Lennon of Ravena New York was arrested and charged with rape of a 14 year old girl.

Investigators said that the girl went willinging after the predator went through the grooming process to break down her initial resistance.

State Police Investigator Joe Donohue suggested that parents monitor the MySpace activity by moving the computer from their bedroom to a public spot where they can be watched.

A quick search turns up two profiles that fit the description. Disclaimer: The linked profiles may or may not be the scumbag mentioned in the article.

(source article)

Remember back in January when MySpace said they had something called “Zephyr” in the works that would allow parents to monitor their child’s MySpace usage?

Well, the public beta has arrived, and they’re calling it ParentCare. Let’s just say that parents hoping for a quality product will be sorely disappointed.

The only thing you’re going to get from ParentCare is your child’s display name, location (which you would already know), and the age that they put in their profiles. That’s about it. Their Profile ID is given, but you better hope they have a public profile, ’cause if they don’t, the ID is useless.

Finally, sorry Mac users, but this software is Windows only.

I’d post a screenshot but the EULA prohibits that. In fact I probably shouldn’t even be talking about it. Brandon at IMSafer handled the Fight Club references that I wanted to make regarding this ridiculous policy.

But since it’s a PUBLIC beta, feel free to check it out for yourself. Here’s the ParentCare FAQ and the direct download link to the software.

… And any other sites their kids might be getting into as well.

This article on Canada.com does a fine job of outlining the need for parents to keep a vigilant eye on what their children do on social networking websites. Some stats from the article:

• 58% of parents know where to download parental control software, but only one-third actually use such programs
• Only 49% of parents know the online aliases their children use
• 26% of parents are unfamiliar with YouTube (Wiki Article)
• 33% of parents are unfamilar with MySpace (Wiki Article)
• 41% of parents are unfamiliar with Facebook (Wiki Article)

Article was originally discovered via JustMySpaceStuff.com