Social Networks like MySpace and Facebook are Hunting Grounds for Predators Hoping to Connect with Your Child

Do you know what your children are doing on line, who there associating with, talking to, listening to other then you

Welcome traveler to our continuing discussion of the threats that exist on the Internet for all users today. Today well discuss online social networks and the inherent dangers involved with children socializing on these hunting grounds for predators and hoping to connect with children they can influence and control.

The world is becoming smaller every day, the ability to converse, exchange personal and professional information across the world using the World Wide Web has been one reason for the increased feeling of the finite size of our world. The ability to reach out and communicate with people using Internet sites like MySpace and a newer face on the Internet social community, Facebook. Has given millions of children around the world the ability to socialize like they are older, more mature, then they actually are and possibly be taken advantage of by individuals trolling these sites looking for young impressionable minds they can exploit for their own purposes.

MySpace and Facebook are Internet sites visited by millions of minor's everyday, at these sites they post all their personal interests and personal information for the multitudes surfing these sites to view. Exchange information and socialize with people who are coming to these sites with the single minded purpose of a predator looking for prey and according to experts the incidence of children being exploited on these sites is increased by the methods of business employed by sites like MySpace and Facebook.

Experts point to the evidence of a fertile ground for child predators on the hunt for prey on these 24 hour sites that continue to grow with little or no control over who uses the sites services. This spring, MySpace, the world's largest networking site, which is owned by media giant News Corp, reported that thousand of known child predators were registered with the service at the time of the announcement. Jumping into the fray several state attorney generals immediately demanded a list of names of these predators, citing many previous cases in which predators had exploited minors they had contacted through MySpace, according to the self appointed leader of the group of state attorneys, Roy Cooper. Reacting to the call MySpace eventually decided to hand over a list of more than 7,000 names of individuals considered online predators and then immediately closed these 7,000 accounts as a second response to the demands for the list of predators.

This will certainly not get rid of the problem as predators will just adapt to the changes in the service, so we think danger still exists for children socializing on these sites. And this danger will probably continue to grow unless controls are put in place to prevent children under the age of 14, the current age limit of minors registering on MySpace, from using the MySpace services. Controls that are apparently needed as recent surveys done by industry professionals and Consumer Affairs indicates that at least 13 percent of minors registered on MySpace were younger that 14 at the time the surveys were taken and at least 3 percent were actually under the age of ten and these were just the ones that parents knew about. Could your children be secretly socializing on these networks without telling you?

The finding by industry professionals and Consumer Affairs of underage children socializing on their site hasn't been disputed by Hermanshu Nigam, chief security officer for MySpace. He points out that MySpace kicks off about 8,000 profiles weekly of minors misrepresenting their age when they sign up and they are currently working on solutions to the problem. MySpace is currently taking steps to keep underage minors off its site, they will be offering software this fall that lets parents know if their children are using MySpace, and what name, age and location they have given during registration. According to MySpace using age verification is not feasible with the current software, Nigam says there is no viable way to implement such a technology, but we feel this is probably just a case of no one creating it yet. As the increased need for better age verification ability continues to grow, necessity will eventually see a profit and act to rake in a few of the available shekels for a software company able to produce the tools needed to make sites unattainable for minors under the age of 14.

How you protect your children depends on their age and maturity, but we suggest you talk to them about the inherent dangers existing on site like MySpace and Facebook and make sure you keep the computer they use to surf in an open family area so their activities are less covert. Keep track of your child's screen names and accounts, using parental controls supplied by the Internet service provider, monitoring the child's online activities and posts and using software that blocks inappropriate site from your child's reach.

Well that's it for this hub on line social networks and the possible dangers they could pose for your children if they are using sites like MySpace or Facebook. We hope this information will help you keep your children from the reaches of predators operating on the Internet and allow all parents to better understand what could be happening to their children when their socializing on the World Wide Web.

The final hub in this series will be 19 ways we have thought of for you, your children and all people using the Internet can stay safer while their trying to connect. Until next time hubber, happy hubbin