What Parents Should Know About Kids’ Favorite Sites

MySpace is the biggest, mostly widely known social networking site, popular among millions of kids and teens. When you factor in degrees of separation, it’s possible for users to have hundreds or even thousands of online acquaintances. MySpace participants can post messages, create personal profiles, and upload photos and videos to the site.

One of the dangers of MySpace is that kids aren’t always discerning about the types of personal information they post on the site. Some disclose e-mail and home addresses, and even phone numbers. This type of information can easily be exploited by ill-intentioned individuals. Learn more about the potential dangers of MySpace and other social networking sites, and what you can do to help protect your kids, by watching this video from Dateline NBC.

MySpace’s top competitor in the social networking industry is Facebook. Although Facebook’s interface differs slightly from MySpace’s, arguably offering users more extensive privacy options, there are still many reasons why visitors should be vigilant and exercise restraint in the posting of sensitive information. The University of Texas at Austin has a guide to using Facebook geared toward college students (the site’s most prominent demographic), but also valuable for the parents of younger users.

Chat rooms and instant messaging are efficient ways for people to interact across the Web, but they too should either be monitored closely or avoided altogether, depending on the age of your child. Learn how to keep tabs on your child’s Web chatting using these tips from Microsoft.

The findingDulcinea Social Networking Web Guide has a section devoted to safe social networking. Find Web sites aimed at both teens and parents that can help with keeping youngsters protected on the Web.

Miss Bimbo calls itself a “virtual fashion game.” This relatively new U.K.-based Web site was fairly obscure until recently, when the media discovered it and incited a veritable circus over the site’s premise. Miss Bimbo is aimed at young girls between 9 and 16. Players compete to make their “bimbos” skinny, obtain boyfriends and build a “bimbo attitude” in beauty shops and clothing stores.

The chief aspect of the game that the public pounced on was the opportunity for players to give their “bimbos” diet pills to keep them thin. Parent and media watchdog groups were concerned about the ideas youngsters would develop by playing the game. The diet pill portion of the game has since been removed. Presently, the game is unavailable, but Miss Bimbo promises it will be back as soon as possible.

At HotMaybeNot, Web site users are greeted with, “Hallo all you Potential Hotties.” Users submit a photo of themselves, and others users rate their looks to determine whether they are “really as ‘hot’” as they think they are. “Top Girls” and “Top Guys” are all available for viewing. There are other sites that rate looks as well, including RatingMyLooks and the pioneer of the genre, HOT or NOT. Many also serve as chat rooms.

A person’s self-esteem is strongly connected to his or her looks, social skills, and popularity, according to a study by the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. “People state emphatically that it is ‘what’s inside’ that counts and encourage their children not to judge others based on appearances, yet they revere attractive people to an astonishing degree,” said one researcher. If you suspect your child needs help developing good self-esteem, try this advice from KidsHealth.

In addition to the risks Web sites like Miss Bimbo pose for the self-esteem of young girls, “pro-anorexia” Web sites have attracted worldwide attention. The super-skinny models adorning fashion pages have drawn the ire of French lawmakers in particular who want to impose fines on media sources that promote eating disorders with their images.

Fashion moguls and medical professionals alike, however, remain unconvinced about whether punishing Web sites for showcasing skinny women will help girls with eating disorders or self-esteem problems. “Never will we accept in our profession that a judge decides if a young girl is skinny or not skinny,” said Didier Grumback, president of the French Federation of Couture. Learn more about the story from the Boston Globe.

The Washington Post discusses the “shrinking” fashion industry in Manhattan and the growing trend toward using skinnier models on the runway. To understand what advocacy groups, lawmakers and even fashion designers themselves are talking about, browse the photos of a casting call for designer Tracy Reese. “I was surprised the last two years,” she said. “We’ve gone from a model who’s a 2/4 to one who’s a 0/2.”

Your children may love music, but if they’re downloading it online, make sure it’s legal. Otherwise, your kids (and possibly even you) could end up in financial or legal trouble. Studies show that boys are some of the most “aggressive downloaders” of files from the Web. Learn about these online dangers and others from Disney Family.

Sites like Childnet International can help parents ensure their kids are not downloading dangerous or illegal music.

FindingDulcinea has a Web Guide to Music Downloading that spotlights some of the best online resources for learning about legal and illegal music downloading.

FindingDulcinea offers a Web Guide to Internet Security that provides Web resources for keeping kids safe online and other tips about Web safety.