School, community monitoring takes keyword ‘my’ out of MySpace site
By Jessica Carver
IV Leader Staff
MySpace is a phenomenon that has taken over teenagers all over the world. From as young as fourteen on, teenagers are able to make friends with other teenagers from all across the globe.
The trouble starts when this starts to be monitored. I do not mean by their own parents; I mean by other members of the community and school officials. They feel they have the right to designate what is right and wrong for teenagers.
They have no more right to do this than I do, and I have absolutely no right to do so at all. Schools have blocked the use of MySpace on their computers. This clearly denies a teenager a right to freedom. They have forbidden a site that is neither offensive nor harmful.
There are also other members of the community that want to stop access of MySpace by teenagers. They have the ulterior motive of making the Web site obsolete throughout the community. Both of these parties claim they are doing this to help protect the teenagers.
If they were truly concerned about the teenagers’ safety, they would be targeting chat rooms, where there is not even a picture to go off of.
If a teenager wants to use MySpace, there is absolutely no reason why they should be denied that privilege. MySpace does not belong to parents, teachers, school officials or any other member of the community.
It belongs to those that use it. They are the ones that make MySpace, my space.