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My granddaughter had supervision in the home for Internet use, with optional parental controls in place. The parents were attentive, involved, and provided supervision, and while you might think this was more than adequate to ensure reasoned protection and access Ð it didnÕt achieve the goal. She circumvented the prudent constraints in her home, went to ÒfriendsÓ houses where there was no parental supervision and, with them, established her URL on MySpace.com. Although our crisis went well beyond the internet use issue, what we found on her MySpace ÒsiteÓ Ð and those of her school friends and their friends Ð was illuminating and more than a little disturbing. While our inquiry began trying to ascertain more information about her activities, we soon found there was a network of sites involving multiple teens with explicit and inappropriate information that any parent would be concerned about. My granddaughterÕs high school has approximately 1800 students. 9th thru 12th grade. Simple searches on MySpace revealed just over 370 of those students in a selected age group had spaces on MySpace, approximately 26 of those associated to one extent or another with our teen and her site (ÒfriendsÓ). When we began this inquiry we had no idea what would be out there and so there were no bias about the MySpace service or what we might find.
MySpace is only one of at least a dozen ÒservicesÓ with similar kinds of information readily accessible by anyone. The terms of service for these sites required the person to be Òat least 14,Ó but a mere mouse-click is all it takes. There is no charge for the service and no proof of age is actually required. A user name and password maybe required for full access to the userÕs site, and the site can be set to ÒprivateÓ (too many arenÕt). We also learned some teens have more than one site, i.e., one for parents to see and one not. We also found incidents where teens had refused to provide parents with the user name and password for their site. ItÕs generally one of those ÒcoolÓ little secrets some teens like to keep from tech-challenged parents. It may be a Ònice place to meet,Ó a social thing, but it isnÕt safe or secure. The teens may know the computers, but theyÕre too naïve to know the dangers. ItÕs not Hollywood, itÕs not a game, this is the real deal, and young people become victims because of it. Read a portion of my thoughts to the state Attorney General (below). By way of background to this letter, my 14 year-old granddaughter was found unconscious and non-responsive in a wooded area proximate to her high school. Drugs and alcohol were involved, and the four or 5 teen "friends" with her at the time abandoned her when she became unconscious - leaving her in the 20 degree cold and snow, knowing her state. Some 20-45 minutes later, a student not involved in the incident, but who had been told what was taking place, informed school officials. When paramedics arrived on the scene, my granddaughter was near death. After some 3-4 hours on a ventilator in the local hospital in a non-responsive state (doctors told the parents to call in family), she improved enough to be transported to Boston General where she recovered further. She has since been moved to a clinic in NH for further treatment. In making inquiries concerning this incident, I learned my granddaughter had a URL on MySpace.com. She is underage and all of the "friends" sheÕs identified on her pages (with the exception of two) are minors 13-15 years of age. I acquired the password for her pages from her parents; the password has since been changed and she refuses to reveal it. I reviewed the emails and blog entries on her URL. The fact that she has ÒpagesÓ on the service - along with a majority of her minor friends - is not in violation of MySpace's express terms of use, which, in my view, is nothing more than a hollow legal contrivance in any case. Perhaps key in this matter is the ÒserviceÓ this firm provides allows (a) detailed information about the minor children (name, location, photo, exchanges of phone numbers, sexual preferences and experience, drug/alcohol use and experience, etc.) rendering them much more vulnerable to exploitation by all manner of deviants and, (b) exposure to, or involvement in, all manner of minor inappropriate Net-based activity. Further, parents can easily be deceived about the content of the pages their teen puts on the service (no access due password), or excluded entirely from the teen's activity. I have learned some teens have one site for their parents and one for their other activities. Clearly, MySpace.com requires no demonstrable proof of age beyond a mouse click (e.g. requiring a credit card or other reasoned documentary proof) is a classic example of the variety of reasons to establish prudent regulations requiring "service providers" to obtain meaningful evidence for proof of age. While I am firmly committed to the freedoms our Constitution guarantees, irresponsible and exploitative conduct via the Net dictates enactment of appropriate constraints to better safeguard our children. Such safeguards can be implemented without unwarranted infringement on our basic freedoms. Even given optimal training and professional experience, parents do not have the necessary tools and resources to deal with this problem until specific legal requirements are put in place. I
request your attention and actions to implement whatever measures
are required to have MySpace.com and similar services cease
providing hosting without legal proof of age. New technologies
demand new laws, and I have every confidence this will
be a giant step in reducing inappropriate and potentially
dangerous exposure
of our children via the Net.
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Reflections & Opinion >
Opinion 
We
began our review of material on the various ÒsitesÓ with my granddaughterÕs
pages and blog. We were stunned by what we saw. We proceeded
to review the pictures, information, and entries on all the sites
identified as her Òfriends,Ó then went to the Òfriends of friends." The
sites contain every imaginable kind of information about these
minors, all between the ages of 14-17. Their high school, name,
address, phone numbers, discussion of sexual preferences and
activity, drugs and alcohol use, sexually explicit photos and
language, after school schedule, and the list goes on. Essentially,
what the kids had out there amounted to a treasure trove Ð Òone
stop shopping by catalogueÓ Ð of specific information a pedophile,
sexual predator, or other miscreant could easily exploit either
on-line or through direct contact. It doesnÕt end there. 
