The Internet Really is That Scary

Matt Wood — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 13:40:00 GMT

Surely you've read a bazillion stories warning about the dangers of kids using MySpace, Facebook, et al, and giving up personal information, exposing themselves to predators, etc, and those fears are founded. Just ask Megan Meier's parents. But at least those sites are popular enough that if you even get a whiff of your kids using them, you can stay on top of what they're doing. Plus, they're run by massive media operations that maintain a semblance of ethical responsibility, if not always the best marketing judgment.

What would be scary to me if I had a kid who was of the age to want to join social networking sites (I'm hoping I at least have another four or five year break from that) is the number of copycat sites targeted at kids that abuse the online community concept simply as a way to gather marketing data, or worse. The Texas attorney general filed civil complaints against two such sites this week for failing to protect users' privacy and safety.

Thedollpalace.com, a site devoted to "the art of making cartoon dolls," and Gamesradar.com, a video game site, both asked users for personal information before verifying that they were at least 13, which violates the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. Besides asking about height, weight, and eye color, The Doll Palace also asks questions about whether a user "would like to meet someone older than myself" and their "idea of a fun date." Yikes, creepy.

I suppose they could hide behind the veil of ignorance, claiming that they aren't geared toward kids, but c'mon, look at that site. What self-respecting adult would be caught looking at a page like that? Of course, I think the same thing about half the MySpace pages I see, so I'm just a grumpy old man.

The answer is to watch your kids when they're online and keep the family computer in a shared room. This sounds great and all, but of course they can check most of this stuff on their phones now anyway, so good luck with that. I can't wait.

Photo: News8Austin.com

Cafemom: Social Networking for Mamas

Patti — Tue, 09 Jan 2007 01:00:00 GMT

Three years ago I had this great idea for a social networking site for parents that I posted about on my personal blog, and then I promptly forgot about it (given that I refer to my idea as "Momster" instead of "Momspace", you can see how long ago it was). Now I can't believe that it's taken this long for someone else to have the same idea, given the rising popularity in parenting communities on the web, including ours truly.

CafeMom is essentially Myspace for the mother set, with individual home pages, friend-inviting, space to journal and upload pictures. It's an offshoot of ClubMom, who you may remember from their ignominious start as being ad-saturated and impossible to navigate, but has since streamlined itself quite a bit. CafeMom may be just what Clubmom needs to set themselves apart from other communities, as we here at Babble have our urban-conscious, tongue-in-cheek look at modern parenting, Maya's Mom has their excellent activities and groups content, and ParentsConnect takes a wide-ranging approach to the whole shebang.

Here's my favorite thing about CafeMom: the diversity, which I hope survives and flourishes. Search profiles by self-assigned traits like "Political Views: Extremely Conservative" or "Relationship Status: Lesbian Relationship" and you get dozens of profiles that match the request (maybe less so if you search for both at the same time). At this stage of its development CafeMom is all over the map, and long may those freak flags wave right next to their less freaky counterparts. And may they add one another as friends, because dude, if there's one thing I've learned from partaking in online parenting communities, it's that we are all in this together.

Strollerderby : online communities

The Internet Really is That Scary

Cafemom: Social Networking for Mamas