Yesterday I received a message from MySpace about a picture I reported 4 months ago, believe it or not. I wasn’t surprised that it took that long to respond to me, but the answer I did receive surprised me.
To give some background on the picture in question I ran across a random MySpace while searching for my sister-in-law and the front page picture drew my attention into the space. After looking at the picture I was amazed to see a girl who said she was 16 years old not only drinking a beer in one picture but also smoking a bong in another picture and looking really out of it in another picture. Her fourth picture was a shot of her nude except for a pair of underwear and she was showing her breasts from the front.
I’m not trying to appear as a prude but I found myself being concerned that a young adult would post pictures like that especially when the fourth picture violated the policy of no nudity on MySpace.
So back to my message from MySpace. They informed me that none of the pictures violated MySpace’s policy. This amazed me and the pictures are still there. But this brings to question: What is/should be acceptable on MySpace?
I did some research on nudity on MySpace and found that everyday people were being reported to the administrators at MySpace for nude art and they are having their accounts banned for it, but young adults and even 14 year old’s are being allowed to get away with posting nude photo’s of themselves on MySpace. Some of the young adults get caught, but a lot do not.
I’m not saying all young adults are able to get away with posting nude pictures of themselves on MySpace but it seems to be a hit or miss situation as to what is acceptable and not acceptable over at MySpace. Maybe it depends on who is answering the complaints for that day, maybe not.
I’m sure anyone reading this is familiar with a story or two of how young teens are lured into encounters with sexual predators on MySpace and I would think this would be a concern with anyone using the site, especially parents of young adults using the site. After doing more research it seems that most adults are taking an active roll in their children’s MySpace usage and I think this is a positive step in the right direction. Unfortunately young people seem to think it is ok to post a picture of them nude on the site.
The company recently formed a Content Assurance Team where employees post fake profiles on the site, pretending to be vulnerable teens or clueless adults. The profiles are designed to keep tabs on everything from sexual predators to spammers, so who knows if that was a real space I reported, but I’m guessing, sadly, it was real.
I can only hope that the person who’s site I reported or the countless other ‘spaces’ like hers realize what they are doing could get them the unwanted attention of someone who has no concern other then to pray on their vulnerability.
