Friday, February 17, 2006

The MySpace Trend

MySpace has been the target of a lot of bad press recently -- some of it rightly so, given the news about how a child molester used this site to assault young girls. Unfortunately, MySpace is not the only website used in this manner. So why pick on it more than the others? Simple: MySpace is huge. It was the 8th most visited site in January 2006 (comScore Media Metrix).

MySpace allows anyone 14 and over to post a profile. In just over two years, it has over 54 million viewers with 150,000 signing up every day. About 1 in 4 are minors, according to the New York Sun (Wall Street Journal reports that 19% of users are under 17).

So, what you have essentially is a community of 54 million people -- some adults, some children. Some good people, some not so good people, some bad people. In a virtual city with a population of California and Texas combined, there are bound to be bad people. While it's important to emphasize internet safety, we should also remember that cyberspace is just one place where the bad guys hang out. It's also a place where some good people hang out too.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Its not Tom's fault (the maker of myspace) Its the kids own fault. Myspace shouldn't be getting the shaft.

micahspringer said...

Tom did not create myspace...