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MySpace Launches Internet Safety Campaign With Parents' and School Administrators' Internet Safety Guides

Posted on: Monday, 25 September 2006, 09:00 CDT

MySpace.com, the leading social networking and lifestyle portal for

connecting with friends and discovering culture, announced today the

launch of an Internet safety campaign with the publication and

distribution of Parents' and School

Administrators' Guides to Internet Safety. The

launch, a strategic partnership with Seventeen Magazine, the

National School Board Association and the National Association of

Independent Schools, supports the third annual National Cyber Security

Awareness Month in October, a nationwide effort to educate Internet

users about safe online practices.

"We're committed to

doing everything we can to improve internet safety,"

said Hemanshu Nigam, Chief Security Officer of MySpace. "While

technology plays a critical role in tackling the challenges of Internet

safety, any measures must be part of a comprehensive solution, and

education is an essential component." Nigam

continued, "We're

pleased to enlist experts such as Seventeen magazine, the

National School Board Association and the National Association of

Independent Schools to continue a productive dialogue on safe Web

practices."

Through the partnership with Seventeen magazine, MySpace will

target parents, teens and teachers and offer tips, suggestions and

information on safe Internet behavior. Seventeen's

editor-in-chief, Atoosa Rubenstein, will help MySpace communicate this

information to teens and parents through her highly-trafficked profile (http://www.myspace.com/atoosas).

"The Internet and social networking are part of the fabric of this

generation's daily life," said Seventeen's Rubenstein.

"Parents and teachers already keep an eye on a teen's friends at school

or night time plans, but they need to keep the same tabs on their

digital lives. We all need to do our part to keep teens safe."

The Parents' Guide to Internet Safety will

help define MySpace for parents and answer questions about social

networks and the Internet in general. Guide topics will include how

members use MySpace, information on company safety practices and Seventeen's

Web safety tips for teens. The Parents' Guide

is available for download from MySpace at http://www.myspace.com/safetytips

in the "Tips for Parents"

section.

The School Administrators' Guide to Internet

Safety is being distributed in October in conjunction with the National

School Board Association (NSBA) in celebration of National Cyber

Security Awareness Month. This Guide explains how MySpace works and

addresses the various challenges that students and educators may face in

relation to the Website. MySpace will work with the NSBA to send out the

guide to approximately 55,000 public school administrators representing

grades 7 through 12. Additionally, MySpace is also working with the

National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) to disseminate the

Guide to independent schools.

The Parents' and School Administrators'

Internet Safety Guides will join MySpace's

best practices including safety-enabling technology such as heightened

security settings for younger users and full privacy options for all

members. Additionally, MySpace relies on its industry partnerships with

the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Common Sense

Media to convey the message of online safety through a series of public

service announcements and educational programming.

Seventeen Magazine's Editor-in-Chief,

Atoosa Rubenstein, includes the following teen safety tips in the Parents'

Guide to Internet Safety:

1. Be Careful--Unless your profile is set to private, anyone

can check it out. You should never post personal information

such as your phone number, address, school, or where you

regularly hang out. If you wouldn't share it with a creepy

stranger on the street, don't post it on MySpace. Remember

that the Internet is a public place and you should think

about what you share.

2. Be Skeptical--We may have an idea of who someone is or

why they're messaging us, but the truth is, when we're online

we should be a little more skeptical. As you're connecting

with people, get to know them first before adding them to

your friends list. Only add the people that you want to see

your profile, check out your friends and view your photos.

3. Be Picky--We all want to share funny things we've done

with friends, but once you post something online it can live

in cyberspace forever. Before you post an image or comment,

take a minute to consider if it's something that might haunt

you in a few years--imagine a potential boss or college

recruiter is doing a search on you. Don't blow your

opportunities for tomorrow just to be cute or outrageous

today.

4. Be a Good Online Citizen--MySpace is a place where

everyone should feel welcome. If you see hate speech or

inappropriate content, or if you're being harassed by another

user, talk to your parents and report it to MySpace

immediately. Think of this as a great, new neighborhood we

ALL want to keep safe.

5. Be Real--MySpace is a community and you get out of it what

you put in. Use common sense and think about what behavior is

ok and what's not cool for the community. The more respectful

you are to others, the better the site is for everyone. If

you disrespect the community by posting fake profiles or

lying about your age, you'll be removed--no exceptions.

About MySpace.com

MySpace, a unit of Fox Interactive Media Inc., is the premier lifestyle

portal for connecting with friends, discovering popular culture, and

making a positive impact on the world. By integrating web profiles,

blogs, instant messaging, e-mail, music streaming, music videos, photo

galleries, classified listings, events, groups, college communities and

member forums, MySpace has created a connected community. As the second

ranked web domain in terms of page views(a), MySpace.com is the most

widely-used and highly regarded site of its kind and is committed to

providing the highest quality member experience and will continue to

innovate with new features that allow its members to express their

creativity and share their lives, both online and off.

(a) Among the top 2000 domains comScore Media Metrix, August 2006.

For more information on comScore Networks, please go to http://www.comscore.com.

About Seventeen

Seventeen reaches more than 13 million readers every month and is

today's largest selling young women's magazine. Seventeen is part

of Hearst Magazines, a unit of Hearst Corporation (http://www.hearst.com)

and one of the world's largest publishers of monthly magazines, with a

total of 18 U.S. titles and 145 international editions. Hearst reaches

more adults than any other publisher of monthly magazines (76.3 million

according to MRI, spring 2005). The company also publishes 19 magazines

in the United Kingdom through its wholly owned subsidiary, The National

Magazine Company Limited.

Source: Business Wire

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