DANGERS:
All of these interactive friend web sites have many commonalties and differences. According to the average college go-er, the main advantage of these sites are to meet people. The facebook and myspace have more friendship opportunities than most other web sites. As I already explained, the advantages of meeting different people through these sites are endless, but when is it appropriate to draw the line? The danger of these web sites are rarely spoken about. Cyber stalking has become increasingly popular over the past few years due to the popularity of the internet. Myspace.com has a very lose hold on privacy. For example, one can access pictures of whomever they want as long as they have an account. Facebook.com is different because it is only opened to college and some high school students.
About a year ago a story was written in Seventeen Magazine that outlined the dangers of internet friend sites. The article was a profile of a 16 year old girl who had an account on Myspace.com. She claimed that she used Myspace only to meet new “friends” and contact old ones. A man had contacted her and appeared to be 17 and from a town nearby. The 16 year old began speaking to him and the decided to meet up. One situation led to another and the result was quite unsettling. The man sexually assaulted the 16 year old female and it turned out he was in his late 30’s and nowhere near her age. He clearly did not want to make friends, he was just using myspace as a crutch to further his disgusting erotic behaviors.
I’m sure there are many different situations such as this one that put both men and women who use these sites in danger. I felt it was necessary to write about this because people tend to underestimate the dangers of the world wide web. These web sites have paved the way for many other similar sites but they can not be 100% trusted. Please use these sites with the proper internet etiquette.