While many students today use the internet for education and entertainment, you should be aware of what you child is doing on the internet, including viewing/posting information to MySpace.com at home.

MySpace.com is a website that allows anyone to post information about themselves and read information that other people have written about themselves. The site is composed of several areas, including electronic bulletin boards, chat rooms, weblogs (blogs), and personal ads. MySpace.com is the most popular of these “online communities,” but there are others—Friendster.com and Tribe.net .  Because of potential inappropriate content, Myspace.com and other online communities are blocked on the SRVUSD network.   While the site is blocked at school, students may be accessing it at home. We want you to be aware of the site, how it works, and why you should monitor you child’s use of it. 

Recently, two missing girls in the Bay Area were linked to use of this website. One of the girls was found dead. The caution to you as a parent is to monitor the use of computers at home to make sure your children are not revealing any private information, such as their name, address, telephone number, meeting places for friends including dates or times, or other information that could be used by others.

To participate in any MySpace.com area, a person must join the MySpace community. Access to the website is free and signing up is simple. No attempt is made to verify any personal information entered. This allows for total anonymity, but it also allows people to provide false information about who they are, such as their age and gender. Sometimes older people will pretend to be teenagers in an attempt to meet minors.

MySpace.com’s electronic bulletin boards and chat rooms are areas where people get together via the Internet and discuss different subject areas. MySpace.com’s blogs allow members to create web pages with a diary style narrative that anyone can access and comment on. These pages can be further personalized with pictures and other media.

While many of these are innocent, some topics are inappropriate for young people and often contain offensive material, including nudity and profanity. In addition, sometimes people post rumors, false information, and negative stories about other people. As such, law enforcement is growing increasingly concerned about false and inflammatory information that is posted on MySpace.com.   

While online communities can be great tools to help people develop written communication skills, interpersonal skills, find friends of similar interests, and explore creativity, it is important that you as parents and guardians supervise and provide guidance to your children who use MySpace.com or participate in another online community.   

If you are looking for a good resource on internet safety, try www.isafe.org. i-SAFE is a non-profit foundation whose mission is to educate and empower youth to make their Internet experiences safe and responsible.

For More Information about Parent Education:

The San Ramon Valley Council of PTAs is the next organizational level of PTA beyond the school site or unit level. Our council represents all 29 school PTAs and PTSAs in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District.

Council meetings are on the second Wednesday of each month and are attended by the presidents and delegates from all 29 units and the council executive board, which includes Superintendent Rob Kessler. These meetings are held in the Board Room at the SRVUSD Education Center (or district offices), 699 Old Orchard Dr., Danville, 94536.

The Council provides parent and teacher education opportunities and legislative information and events, training for PTA officers, communication to and from school district administrators, and coordination of a variety of programs for the school sites. We also award scholarships to one graduating student from each of the district high schools.

San Ramon Valley Council is a member 32nd District PTA, which is the county-level PTA organization, as well as California State PTA and the National PTA.

Join any of our Mailing Lists: http://www.srvusd.net/Community/SRV_Council_of_PTAs/