Perspectives: MySpace, MyKids, MyHome

NOTE: My ministry maintains a page on MySpace as an evangelistic tool. The page can be viewed by clicking here.

In February, the LA Times posed the following question: Who's to blame when a 13-year-old, referred to as Julie Doe, lies about her age, meets an older guy on MySpace.com, and accompanies him to dinner and a movie before allegedly being sexually assaulted by him in a parking lot? According to Judge Sam Sparks, the fault does not rest with MySpace.com -- a social-networking site with over 100 million users that is growing at a rate of approximately three million new profiles per month.

Social-networking sites are a popular new means of online communication that is here to stay. Instead of gathering at the local hangout, kids now meet in the virtual world of MySpace and similar sites, such as Facebook.com, Friendster.com and Xanga.com. These sites allow users to create personal profile pages that represent who they are, or a least who they claim to be. It's similar to a souped-up diary on public display.

"It's an online community that is part chat room, part movie theater, part shopping mall, part bar, part concert, and part slumber party," wrote Jason Illian, author of MySpace MyKids: A Parent's Guide to Protecting Your Kids and Navigating MySpace.com and cofounder of MySpaceMyKids.com.

Unfortunately, this virtual world of socialization that connects millions with the touch of a button doesn't exist without problems and dangers, which have caused many people to view MySpace as nothing but a sexual predator's playground and a portal to pornography.

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