The MySpace Backlash

[The ClayTaurus]

Last December, a mischievous student used a home computer to create an account on the social networking site MySpace bearing the name and likeness of his school principal, Eric Trosch.

The profile the Hermitage, Pennsylvania, Hickory High School student bestowed on his principal was not kind. For "birthday" he listed "too drunk to remember." And for vital stats like eye and hair color he wrote, simply, "big" -- a poke at the educator's girth that he managed to weave into most of the 60-odd survey questions in Trosch's fictional profile: Do you smoke? "Big cigs." Do you swear? "Big words." Thoughts first waking up? "Too … damn … big."

The teen told some friends at school about the gag. Big mistake.

As a judge would later put it, "word of the parody … soon reached most, if not all, of the student body of Hickory High School," and the fake MySpace profile, along with several less nuanced commentaries crafted by other students, became a monster hit at the school. The administration banned student PC use for six days, canceling some classes, while they traced the profile to 17-year-old senior Justin Layshock, who promptly confessed and apologized.

"We grounded him and didn't allow him on the computer for two weeks," says Layshock's mother, Cherie Layshock. But the school had stronger medicine in mind. Layshock was suspended for 10 days, then transferred into an alternative education program for students incapable of functioning in a regular classroom.

A gifted learner who had been enrolled in advanced-placement classes and tutored other kids in French, Layshock spent the next month in a scaled-down three-hour-a-day program where a typical assignment saw students building a tower out of paper clips as a lesson in teamwork. The punishment led to an ACLU lawsuit that is ongoing, and garnered the school district a slew of critical stories in the local papers.

And that's how the thin-skinned educators of Hermitage joined the great MySpace crackdown of '06.

Similar scenes are playing out around the country, as school teachers and administrators hold community conferences or send home bulletins alerting parents to the dangers of allowing their kids to use MySpace unsupervised.

...

There's a sense of déjà vu surrounding the MySpace furor. Parents in the 1950s were horrified to discover that the comic books their children were reading contained violent and sometimes gruesome cartoon imagery, leading to congressional hearings and the formation of an industry "comic book code" that held titles to wholesome standards.

In the 1980s, parents opened their kids' bedroom doors and were buffeted by heavy metal music, leading to another round of panic and "Parental Advisory" labels on albums. In the '90s, it was rap. In the wake of the Columbine massacre, wearing a Marilyn Manson T-shirt to school could be grounds for suspension.

This time, though, the target of the crackdown is content created by teens and not just consumed by them.

The very design of a teenager's MySpace page can be shocking to adult eyes. A highly customizable amalgam of blogging, music sharing and social-discovery services, a typical page is a near perfect reflection of the chaos and passion of youth: a music-filled space, rudely splattered with photos and covered in barely-legible prose rendered in font colors that blend together and fade into the background.

"The profiles are hideous," says a technology specialist at a southern Oregon school district that's recently started blocking the site for safety reasons. "I've seen yellow text on a red background before."

"It looks like a teenager's bedroom," says Boyd. "It's not parsable to most adults, because it's not supposed to be for them."

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,70254-0.html?tw=rss.index
Thoughts?

 

[Mr. P]

Thought; can’t get the parent to put em on Ritalin, put em in the alternative school.

I said on another thread something to the effect that the kids are smarter than those charged with educating them. For me, this is a prime example.

 

[Hobbit]

If for anything, MySpace should be shut down for eyesore. I swear I'd rather have by eyes poked out with a red hot, rusty, salty spoon than look at any of about half those profiles. It doesn't look so much like a teenager's room as it does a 7 year old's art project.

 

[fuzzykitten99]

i hear a lot of older people setting up spots on this site, then I hear that it's almost always filled with kids as young as 10yrs old. it just sounds like a kids/teens thing to me.

 

[Mr. P]

i hear a lot of older people setting up spots on this site, then I hear that it's almost always filled with kids as young as 10yrs old. it just sounds like a kids/teens thing to me.

But several of our current posters have a spot on MySpace. No, I don't.

 

[Fmr jarhead]

Yep....

You'd be surprised how many older folks (over 30) are there for the purpose of meeting people, and learning about how to network with people via a computer. It is an ingenious website, that should be a viable business within a short period of time reaping big rewards....

...the kid was wrong, in what he did to his principal, but it is humorous, too....

 

[fuzzykitten99]

Yep....

You'd be surprised how many older folks (over 30) are there for the purpose of meeting people, and learning about how to network with people via a computer. It is an ingenious website, that should be a viable business within a short period of time reaping big rewards....

...the kid was wrong, in what he did to his principal, but it is humorous, too....

yeah, i hear it is becoming popular with college-age and older people now, which I am not sure I understand, but whatever floats yer boat...

a friend of ours with whom we get together with every so often, has a space and has about 5 stories on there now. The one about his mom is great, since we know her very well. Now after reading it, I won't be able to look at her the same way again. go to http://www.myspace.com/justinthorsvik and read "Most Infamous Stories Episode 5". The rest of the entries, well...ya gotta know him to understand him...

 

[NATO AIR]

It has its uses and benefits.


However, it has become a haven for child predators.


Like anything, good and bad together.

 

[Kagom]

Thing is, my school had fake profiles for two of our gym teachers. They were funny and they weren't serious. And the principal profile sounds like something we'd do for our own principal (though he probably is too drunk to remember).

 

[Avatar4321]

I rather like myspace. I have a profile there. its kept me in touch with tons of friends i havent seen in forever.

However, i do think they should prevent kids from getting on. youd be surprised how many 15 year olds are pretending to be like 25 or 29 and have this incredibly scandalous pictures up. and im just like this is not good.

Its also pretty easy for people to pretend to be others. and i hate the porn ads.

 

[NATO AIR]

I rather like myspace. I have a profile there. its kept me in touch with tons of friends i havent seen in forever.

However, i do think they should prevent kids from getting on. youd be surprised how many 15 year olds are pretending to be like 25 or 29 and have this incredibly scandalous pictures up. and im just like this is not good.

Its also pretty easy for people to pretend to be others. and i hate the porn ads.

We just recieved training about this last week, apparently some sailors and marines in san diego have been getting in hot water because hormones overcame common sense and they were hooking up with high schoolers on myspace who were claiming they were 18-20 when in fact they were about 15-17.

 

[theim]

Facebook > MySpace


On the article, :shrug:, sounds like the little shit got what was commn'.

 

[Just a guy]

It has its uses and benefits.


However, it has become a haven for child predators.


Like anything, good and bad together.

I saw a program where the reporters claimed to be kids on such a site, then got in to contact with those sick f***ers. Then they showed up and put the camera into their faces and asked what business they had with a 12 year old. Good stuff - no more hiding behind "LillipopBoy129".

Those guys sexual preference is equally strong as normal heterosexual's and they cannot be "cured". With life long therapy they can function in society but must not ever have anything to do with children. Most of them know that they have a problem and avoid the temptations by themseleves, others seek pleasure - and internet is their playground.

I would like the form of those sites changed totally. No one should be able to be anonymous. Validate users by phone, letters or what ever and let parents sign for the kids. Grownups who like to be anonymous can still have their own spaces and as a parent I can easly block those sites to my kids.

 

[Abbey Normal]

...and i hate the porn ads.

That reminds me, I'd better check our filtering again to make sure it is working well.

I have heard that police in Connecticut are investigating a link between MySpace and 5 rapes.

My daughter and her friends have a great time on MySpace. She knows to never give out any "personally identifiable information" (privacy jargon), and her photos are set up so that they can only be seen by the people she specifically gives those rights to- her close friends. We also keep her computer in the office, right next to mine where I am typing this now, so it is visible. I think we are responsible and proactive in this area, but I sometimes wonder if these kids who get lured by predators had responsible proactive parents too.

 

[rtwngAvngr]

I cry when I look at the profiles on myspace.

"I'm april. I like dragons, hanging out and green day."

 

[The ClayTaurus]

I cry when I look at the profiles on myspace.

"I'm april. I like dragons, hanging out and green day."

Perv.

 

[rtwngAvngr]

Perv.

Are you into Anime?

 

[The ClayTaurus]

Are you into Anime?

Fuck no.

 

[fuzzykitten99]

Fuck no.

i second that. Anime sucks. Give me non-politically corrected Looney Tunes and Tom&Jerry, Heckle&Jeckell, Woody Woodpecker, Chilly Willy, Mighty Mouse, and the rest of the REAL cartoons anytime.

 

[Fmr jarhead]

We just recieved training about this last week, apparently some sailors and marines in san diego have been getting in hot water because hormones overcame common sense and they were hooking up with high schoolers on myspace who were claiming they were 18-20 when in fact they were about 15-17.

F*ing Marines!