The internet social search phenomenon, MySpace, has just announced its intention to offer free parental control software which will monitor the online profiles of users who interact with children on the site. Additionally parents will be able to monitor the name, age and location of their children's online profile, along with any changes they make.The software, called "Zephyr", represents only the latest move from MySpace to reinstate confidence on their site after several cases of child molestation and murder from adult users meeting underage kids. The decision to provide higher security to protect minors comes in the same week that MySpace received four separate lawsuits from parents whose underage daughters were sexually assaulted last year after meeting their attackers on the site.
MySpace is a social networking website that is specifically designed to display people's profiles, along with blogs, music, videos and interests. The site encourages interaction with friends online, and meeting new people with similar interests. However, problems arise when users create fake identities; some teenagers will claim to be older in order to bypass restrictions imposed by the website, while online child predators will often adopt the identity of someone much younger.
Zephyr will keep parents informed about the activities of their children on MySpace, but will also allow some privacy to these children, as the content on profiles or e-mail correspondence will remain private. Additionally, children will be made aware when data is being shared with their parents.
With over 115 million profiles on MySpace, it will be a mammoth task to try to control, monitor and detect users who pretend to be someone else. These circumstances make large networking sites a perfect ground for paedophiles to find victims, and a nightmare for parents and law enforcement officers.
Is Zephyr really an efficient software?
The Spyware will notify parents of their children's profile, along with changes in age or location. Even if a child does change the information from an external computer, their home computer - and therefore their parents - will be notified of those changes. However, if the child does create a different profile outside the home computer, Zephyr will not be able to detect it. More worryingly, the software does not appear to tackle the big issue of adults posing as teenagers.
While any effort to protect children's safety from online predators is always welcome, Zephyr only seems to monitor children whose profiles are known by their parents. Nevertheless, this will only be a useful tool for those parents who are aware of their children's presence on the online world of MySpace. Zephyr is just another useful tool, but it fails to close the gap between real data and online data. And, until there is a system in place that connects online profiles with government databases, it appears that creating fake personalities over the internet will remain a simple task.
