Twenty years ago, then-Waco High School senior Joyce Douglas would run home in bell bottoms from school and attach herself to a boat-shaped phone in the living room. She would stretch the phone’s curly-q cord through the hallway and into her bedroom where she would talk into the night with her best friend, Val, about boys and banana clips Douglas is now a mother of two in a cyber age that has replaced pink journals tucked behind sock drawers with online diaries of intimate thoughts and pictures – accessible to the Internet’s nearly 840 million users. These days, her youngest daughter, Keyuiona, rushes home to the computer in her bedroom to send messages and pictures from her account on MySpace.com, a free, social networking Web site.
On the site, the 16-year-old’s love for pizza, ’80s rock music and Brad Pitt, “the number one hottie,” stand out in light pink writing next to a head shot of her at a school pep rally last year. The rest of the page is dedicated to posts recollecting memories of last weekend’s party and chain letters that promise true love if sent to 12 people before midnight.
Keyuiona is one of four million young adults between the ages of 12 and 17 who maintain similar Web pages on leading providers such as MySpace, Xanga, LiveJournal and Facebook. Many of the sites are harmless outlets to express teenage angst and send electronic party invitations. Local high school students post homecoming pictures and klutzy greetings like, “n-e-wayz how are u?” They experiment with flashy screen backgrounds and switch out music that plays when users enter their Web pages.
But Joyce Douglas and other parents worry that teenage naivete allied with this tech-savvy generation is producing injurious consequences – at best, embarrassment as outrageous posts and risque pictures lead to school suspensions; at worst, abductions and stalkings as a result of students’ postings of personal information.
Keyuiona may know more about technology, but her mother knows more about life.
“These kids are putting everything out there for the world to see,” Joyce, 42, said. “I am glad she is learning a lot about computers and the world by using the Internet, but I worry that she will be talking with some of her friends one day and she will accidentally post information that could lead a crazy person to our house or something.”
The way kids keep in contact may change, Joyce said, but parental authority has not. Just as her mother pried the phone from Joyce’s hands at the stroke of 10 p.m., Keyuiona must shut down her computer by 10:30 p.m. and allow her parents to see what she is working on. Keyuiona has promised to never post inappropriate comments on her site or meet anyone she meets online in person.
Waco police Sgt. Ryan Holt, a spokesman for the department, said the intimacy of high school social circles creates a false sense of insulation from the threats and scrutiny of the World Wide Web. Students assume only their friends will visit the sites and tend to not question the validity of information and pictures posted on the Web pages of strangers.
With the power of the Internet, Holt said, comes a great personal responsibility to protect yourself.
“Why in the world, if you wouldn’t tell your brother or father the most intimate things in your life, would you post them online for everyone to see?” Holt said of Web listings. “Just because it asks for the date of birth and home address doesn’t mean you have to list them. As responsible members of society, you don’t share that information. I tell people run, don’t walk, and take that information off your sites.”
The ability to falsify user information is appealing to jovial, cunning teenagers. University High School student Diamond Pope, 18, acknowledges she created a fake MySpace account under a friend’s name. She sent messages, as her friend, to a boy Pope liked to determine whether he would return her affections. He responded favorably.
But Holt warns that anonymity doesn’t truly exist on the Internet. Authorities, for instance, are able to trace malicious comments made on falsified MySpace accounts back to the computer from which they were sent. Two Oregon City High School students learned of the tracing technology when police charged them with posting derogatory comments about fellow students from a fabricated MySpace account.
Word of teenagers posting hit lists or threats like, “If you saw the movie ‘Saw,’ you know what’s coming next” and young girls falling prey to sexual predators have thrust teenage blog sites into the national spotlight.
Holt said he is not aware of any criminal actions taken against students in the area for electronic threats, or “cyberbullying,” but said some local teens are participating in the behavior.
Waco Independent School District spokesman Dale Caffey said the district has not taken any disciplinary action against students for content on social networking sites. Waco ISD’s proxy server, SmartFilter, blocks any sites deemed unsuitable in the education process. Students have not been able to access MySpace, LiveJournal, Facebook or Xanga from campus computers since winter break.
But an inability to access the technology at school hasn’t slowed the craze. Type “Waco High Schoolâ€Â? in the search field of MySpace.com and 315 profiles of area students appear on the screen below a box to refine the search. Users may narrow the inquiry by checking boxes next to an age, as young as 16, or weight categories ranging from “body builder” to “more to love.” They can also refine the search by income, religion and sexual orientation.
Some sites appear innocuous, such as that for R@ndom Rob, whose motto, “Pretty fly for a white guy,” rests above pictures of him skateboarding with friends. Lurking nearby, however, are more questionable sites.
A few clicks of the mouse transport users to the dark side of sprouting social networking sites. Local teen Web pages broadcast cop-hating slurs, tales of drug binges and blogs about hating gays. One teenager who specifies attending Robinson High School posted pictures of friends drinking a neon blue substance out of shot glasses.
Holt said harassment cases involving online journals are underreported because of the daunting number of Web pages. He said prosecuting drinking offenses from networking sites is also difficult because the police must, for instance, be able to prove students are tossing back shots of alcohol and not raspberry Kool-Aid.
Even so, posting inappropriate material can have consequences.
“I tell people that if they put a photograph up online that is against the student code of conduct, they should expect that someone is going to take action against them,” Holt said.
Many of these students don’t comprehend that the blogs they post during their high school or college years can impact their college prospects, he said.
“Future employers are also getting on these sites to review job applicants,” Holt said. “A Fortune 500 company is not going to hire someone who is irresponsible enough to post derogatory information on their blog.”
Many social networking sites restrict user age and patrol sites for age or content violations. LiveJournal requires that children under age 13 have a parent or guardian review and complete the registration process.
University High student Diana Ramos, 16, who started blogging on MySpace in August, discovered the efficiency of MySpace’s search for inappropriate content in pictures and posts. She wrote what she deemed a playful joke about a fellow student on her main page and received a warning from site administrators a few days later asking to remove the possibly offensive material.
Conversely, Ramos has reported the display name of an older man who told her “he wanted her so badly� in an e-mail.
Most people don’t comprehend how serious such offenses can become, Holt said. Depending on how graphic a threat is or whether the victim is in imminent fear of bodily injury, the charge can be classified up to the highest category of misdemeanor. And if people commit more than one harassment, they can face a felony charge.
A handful of private schools and universities across the country have banned the use of such sites, even at home, but experts question the legality of such restrictions. Some area teenage bloggers say school sanctions should be imposed on students who create Web sites dedicated to hating a specific student. They propose the same for those who post pictures of illegal activity on school property. But they’re equally adamant that schools should not engage in policing material unrelated to school.
“I have never seen any outright threats, but they should be taken seriously and those students should be held responsible,” said University High School student Louis Olvera, 17. “But at the same time, I don’t think the school should get involved when students post pictures or write about stuff that doesn’t involve school kids or school property. But some teenagers are going to drink and use profanity. They always have and now it’s just out there more.”
Area bloggers can’t talk enough about the hours they spend chatting with friends and downloading backgrounds that they switch out as frequently as their moods. But a room full of teenagers discussing the topic quiets and heads shake side to side when the students are asked whether they would let their little brothers and sisters sign on the network. Their inner parent comes out in protection of their younger siblings.
“No way would I let my little sister get on it,” said Pope, who has eaten dinner, talked on the phone, watched television and blogged on her MySpace account all at once. “She doesn’t know what is out there and she is so trusting. She would probably give out personal information and add a guy as a friend who doesn’t have a picture of himself and says he wants to ‘get to know her better.’ I won’t let her get on.”
[Source: Sunday, February 12, 2006: Katherine Heine (Tribune-Herald staff writer)]
