Welcome to Kittattinny Regional

High School•A nationally recognized Blue Ribbon School

•New Jersey Governor’s School

•A state Star School

•Winner of nine New Jersey Best Practices

Congratulations

• You are taking the first step toward becoming a more informed and effective parent.

• You may protect your own child or someone else’s.

Relax• Just sit back and listen.• Notes of the entire presentation

will be available at the conclusion of the program.

Questions• Please hold your

questions until after our break.

• Jot down any questions you have on the index card you were handed as you entered.

• Hand in the cards during our break.

Why are we here?

• To explore the Internet phenomenon known as social networking.

Internet social networking?

• Mystery or history?• A new parenting challenge

Ever heard of MySpace?• That’s a social networking site.• Many more similar websites exist. • A few examples:

* facebook.com* xanga.com* friendster.com* hipster.com* peepsnation.com

Time for the test

• Are your children using MySpace or a similar site?

Are you sure?

•Are you really sure?

•Are you really, really sure?

Statistics suggest…

• More than 150 million MySpace users exist.

• About 40 percent all teenagers have MySpace accounts.

• MySpace is one of the top eight most visited websites on the Internet.

Look around you

• Roughly 40 percent are American teenagers

• That means for every five teenagers, two are MySpace users.

• Children may not realize their activities could be dangerous.

Ask yourself again…

• MySpace provides accounts for free.

• Could your child have a MySpace account without your knowledge?

• It happens all the time.

Dateline NBC Report on MySpace

• Please pardon the delay and the commercial, but this clip is worth watching.

• MySpace and the Internet present new parenting challenges.

• http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11064451/

The good news…

• Give yourself a pat on the back for coming out today.• Research shows involved, caring parents exert the greatest influence over their children’s lives.

Key questions for teenagers on MySpace?

• What are they revealing about themselves?• Are they hiding it from you?• Are they disclosing things online that they would never tell you?• Are they making themselves vulnerable to sexual or homicidal predators by posting information that identifies them and their whereabouts?

• Logo—a place for friends.• Reality—it’s a place for stalkers, pedophiles, drug dealers, cyber bullies, gangs, and promiscuity.• Reality—it endorses drinking, adolescent sex, crime, pornographic-like photographs and explicit language.

Time to warn you…

Due to graphic content,

viewer discretion is advisedIronically, this

information is available to typical Internet users, including children.

Consequences when a teenager reveals too much on

the Internet• http://youtube.com/watch?v=TFmT2

n5G8Js

Time to view some MySpace pages

• All the information is posted on users’ web pages or adjacent blogs.

• Take a close look.• Would you have to be a detective to

track down these teenagers?

Time for a test• How does this female describe

herself on MySpace?A.Junior and varsity cheerleader

at Woodbridge High School

B.Drives a Toyota Corolla

C.Would take her clothes off for “the fantastic four”

D.Takes gymnastics classes at ATF

E.She’s friends with a girl at KRHS.

How clever is she?

The above girl’s first and last name blocked out

Name

Do you think could you find her?Her name

Her name

One student’s resume posted on MySpace

• (Name removed)• Modell's Sporting Goods

Newton, NJ USAssociate Footwear

September 2006 to Present

• Dominicks PizzeriaNewton, NJ USDishwasher

Sometime in 2005 for 2 months

• CitgoNewton, NJ USGas Station Attendant June 2005 -

August 2006

• Student at Lincoln Technical Institute in Mahwah, NJ

Complete with photograph

• To make it easy to track him down.

• Many people on MySpace like to post pictures of themselves with guns.

• If they don’t have one, any photo of a lethal weapon will do.

Boasts from MySpace profiles

• What subtle form of peer pressure is occurring?

• The seamy side of social networking• Look at part of American culture that

is invisible unless you search for it.

Boasts from

MySpace

If you can’t read it, it says:A good friend will come and

bail you out of jail...but, a true friend will be sitting next to

you saying,“Damn…that was fun!”

Racist terms are common

                           

                        

Dec 11 2006 2:13P

whats going on freakin negro

She brags about not paying attention in business class. Look at her grammar. Did she pay attention in English?

Anorexic Networking

She can’t get skinny enough

Xanga Suicide Support

Xanga Satanism

MySpace—a place where pimps recruit young prostitutes

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xj9wL3KMkOA

Time for a 15-minute break

• Snacks are available in the cafeteria.

• Please leave questions in the basket on the stage.

• When we return, we will discuss how to check to see if your children are on MySpace and tips on how to protect them.

Computer Access

• Home computers• Friends’ houses• Sussex County Library system• Kittatinny’s computers are

blocked, but some students try to overcome firewalls, filters, and controls.

How to check MySpace

• Go to the Internet• Go to http://www.myspace.com• Create an account by signing in.• This gives you greater access to

the site.

Privacy settings are where users can choose whether to make their profile public or private. Private is the safest.

Not recommended

Safer

Click on search on the tool bar.

Enter your search terms.

Search terms• Kittatinny• Street address• Nickname• Town• Friend’s name• Birth date• Phone number (home or cell)• Anyone your child may know

You can also check by your child’s email address or a friend’s email address.

Email addresses• You may not know all of your

child’s email addresses or profiles.

Key tip

If you have trouble finding your child, you may locate their friends. Click on any photographs to be automatically transported to friends’ sites.

What did you notice about the account we just used?

• It contained phony information.• There was no way to confirm

the information.

Phony pages or profiles

• Fictitious pages• You don’t know who is really behind

the pictures.• People can create phony profiles.• Phony profiles can target students,

teachers, and parents—anyone users don’t like.

• They can list personal identifying information about someone else.

Ways to protect your child

• Click on the history button on your browser and look at places home users have visited.

• That might provide a clue.• However, histories can be deleted.• Users also can use proxy websites

to conceal their entry to MySpace.

Other tools

• You can use filters, but technologically savvy children will find ways to circumvent them.

• Check out software programs like Spector Pro that takes snapshots of your monitor and provides reports of the most visited sites.

• Find safety tips online and the hand-outs you will take home.

The best advice of all• Use your parenting skills.• You know your child.• Will they talk to you openly?• Will they try to hide what they are doing?• Do you have to spy?• Will they volunteer honest information?• Nobody knows your child and your rapport

with him or her better than you do.• Use that knowledge.

Public pressure on MySpace

• Because of crime and stalking, MySpace is under greater pressure to safeguard its users.

• In December, MySpace hired a security company to track and delete profiles that match those of registered sex offenders.

Perhaps this one from Branchville

http://www.nj.gov/njsp/info/reg_sexoffend.html

Another tip--Viruses and Spyware

• MySpace and Facebook are two of the worst places to visit to infect your computer.

• Music embedded on MySpace often contains malicious computer codes that hackers use.

• If your computer is working slowly, these sites could be reasons why.

Social Networking Sites• Some are associated with crime and

lawsuits.• Safety is not guaranteed.• People are supposed to be 14 to join,

but obviously birthdates can be altered.

• Anything that is posted on MySpace can exist forever even if it is deleted. It can be printed out.

• About 60 percent of employers check MySpace.

In case you think all is lost, consider Andrue.

Andrue makes me feel better…

•IF HE’S REAL.

•That’s the problem with social networking sites. You never really know to whom you’re talking or giving precious information.

Welcome to the World Wide Web

•It can inform and ensnare.•If you didn’t know already, it

made your job as a parent harder.

QUESTIONS?

???

Sources• http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/scene/

20070128TDY21001.htm• http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/01/27/

MySpace_scareware_myscare/• http://www.forbes.com/security/2007/01/25/MySpace-security-

identity-tech-security-cx_ll_0124MySpaceage.html• http://www.vividlight.com/40/images/02%20Gold%20Finch

%20Relax.jpg• http://weblogs.hitwise.com/bill-tancer/MySpace%20google.png• http://www.consumermachine.com/images/MySpace.jpg• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySpace• http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?

vid=6&hid=116&sid=09454ca8-7286-488f-aef6-fff412815494%40sessionmgr107

• http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=6&hid=116&sid=09454ca8-7286-488f-aef6-fff412815494%40sessionmgr107

• http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06015/638279.stm• http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2007-01-05-MySpace-

responsible_x.htm• http://www.nj.gov/njsp/info/reg_sexoffend.html