Kids have always loved computers and technology in general. Specifically, online message boards or personal web pages have become extremely popular for kids of today’s generation. They all love it. Kids love sending messages, posting comments, and especially posting pictures. MySpace has become a community in and of itself. And it can be really fun to create a little identity for yourself online. But it can also be a waste of time and even dangerous if your kids aren’t using it carefully. This is why you, as a parent, need to know what is on your child’s MySpace profile. But since you’re not totally up on the hip websites like MySpace, you might need some tips for finding your way around. So here are some tips for finding a MySpace profile
First of all, let’s talk about what you should know about your child’s MySpace page. As a parent, you most definitely want to know what your child is up to. You want to know what they’ve been doing, who they’re talking to and what they’re talking about. But if you can’t find the places where these conversations are occurring, you won’t be able to monitor your child’s activities.
Also, sometimes kids get involved with people through the Internet that you may not want to them to be talking to. You may not know them. Your child might not even know them. But it’s very easy to disguise yourself online. Anyone can create a webpage about themselves, wherein they claim to be something or someone that they are not. This is another reason why it’s so important that you, the parent, know what your child is talking about and who they’re talking to. You need to be involved so that no unfortunate events occur.
MySpace is a popular social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos internationally. MySpace offers options to post bulletins, join groups, send instant messages, and even read the news. The minimum age to register an account is 14. Some children have, however, found ways around this.
If your child has a MySpace account and you want to find out what’s on it, here’s what you do. First, open your Internet browser. Next, type in www.myspace.com. Once the page loads, you should see a long white search bar at the top of the webpage. It should say “search.” Now, simply type in your child’s name and click “enter.” You may not find it right off the bat. Scroll through the list of names and pictures that come up. If you haven’t found your child by then, try the “find a friend” option on the side of the page. Type in your child’s name or email address. Or you can try to include your location. So type in the name of your child, plus the city you live in. Scroll through your results again. If you still haven’t found your child, do another search using nicknames or an email address of your child. If you have found your child, here’s how to find their profile.
Before you click on the picture or name of your child, there should be a few links you can click on, such as “view profile” or “send instant message.” Since you want to see your child’s profile, click on “view profile.” Clicking there will take you to your child’s main MySpace page. You can scroll through the types of things that have posted about themselves, see messages, view their friends, and read people’s comments to them.
Now that you’ve found it, it may be a good idea for you to keep a close watch on what goes on in your child’s MySpace account. It’s up to you whether or not you decide to tell you child that you found his/her account…
