The MySpace.com Handbook: The Complete Guide for Members and Parents
MySpace.com is a free social networking Web site that allows you to share with others your photos, weblogs, user profiles, e-mail, web forums, music, video, as well as offers you the opportunity to participate in groups. MySpace.com is the largest online social networking portal on the web; it has 61-plus million registered users with 21-plus million unique visitors. It is the second largest destination on the web by page views. With a MySpace account you can speak with friends online, meet potential friends, connect with friends of other friends, keep up with family, and find lost classmates, friends, or business associates. Many parents however feel they have been left behind on this new technology, and have legitimate concerns about their children’s safety. People aren’t always who they say they are and recent news stories have alerted parents to the potential problems with predators using MySpace.com.
The MySpace.com Handbook provides tips, secrets, and tricks to creating and personalizing a MySpace profile and provides a complete overview of MySpace.com. Learn how to use online social networking Web sites, personalize your account, and add photos and music. Parents who are not Internet savvy will find the book very useful as well as it will assist them in developing discussions with their teens about MySpace, step-by-step instructions detail critical information and safety issues for parents and parental controls are detailed, as well as how to stop contact from strangers, eliminate profile invasion, spyware software threats, avoid online sexual and criminal predators, web monitoring services, cyber bullies, hate groups, phishing and other internet scams, learn how to report inappropriate content, and protect your identity.
There is an important chapter for businesses as well others that may want to use the site to market products, music, books, etc. Although this book primarily deals with MySpace a chapter is devoted to other social networking Web sites. Whether you are a potential or current member, or a concerned parent of a MySpace potential or current member, you will find a wealth of helpful advice and useful commentary and tools.
Please visit our web site http://www.atlantic-pub.com/ .
I was new to Myspace before I read this book, and I was totally overwhelmed. After reading it, though, I absolutely love it. This book is great for anyone who wants to use Myspace but isn’t really sure what to do. It’s also great if you have kids and want to keep them safe from any online predators.
The book goes into a lot of detail as to how Myspace works and how you can use customize your own page, as well as keep your children protected. And though I’m not to the point yet where I’m making money through Myspace, this book would make it a lot easier for me if I wanted to do so. Overall, I’d say this book is ideal for a lot of people, especially those who are new or relatively new to Myspace.
Comment by A reader — April 14, 2008 @ 3:58 pm
The myspace.com handbook
As a mom with a teen I have heard all the reasons why myspace was a must have. To add to my daughter’s social dilemma, she is home-schooled. Her social life is limited to church events and friends staying over night. You can imagine all the moaning I heard when I said “no, you can’t have an account”. Her arguments were fair. She just wanted to be able to keep in touch. Her friends all used myspace and few of them still used traditional email.
Unlike most parents concerns I am not worried that a predator will stalk my daughter. We have a very open relationship and she knows the signs to look for. I am however very worried about what she is exposed to. I have a strong belief that continual exposure, no matter how slight, will have serious consequences on a child’s development. Myspace was an area of exposure that is not acceptable in my home. As I understood the site to work my daughter would be bombarded with friend requests from unfamiliar teens, advertisements that may not be appropriate, and an inability for me to readily supervise her activities. Myspace.com was simply off limits and I had no reason to feel any different. That was of course until I read the myspace.com handbook.
This book offered an amazing amount of information for the myspace user and parents of teens with myspace accounts. It touches in great detail on areas of privacy and how to protect yourself or your child. It shows how to avoid unwanted friend requests and advertisements. The book even explains how to use myspace in a way that shows how friendly social networking can be. There is a section devoted to protecting yourself and your teens from many potential threats and gives a realistic view on these threats. After reading this book I am confident that my daughter and I can work together allowing her to join the social network her friends keep begging her to join. I shared the information in the book with her and she was willing to work together. Not too mention thrilled that mom also wanted to share this with her.
Any parent that is having doubts about their teens on myspace.com needs to read this book. It is the most informative guide I have seen out there. Even parents with active myspace users should read this book to better understand what their teens are doing. Not a parent? This guide offers a cluster of information on how to create and maintain a unique and creative myspace account. This is a book you will use over and over again as you utilize all the possibilities with a myspace account. This book receives a five star rating from me.
Comment by Michedolene Hogan — April 18, 2008 @ 6:16 pm
This handbook could be renamed A Parent’s Guide of the Internet. It explained a ton of detail, from website history to detailed information. There were things that I thought would be over my head but in the concise and simple language the concepts were clear- such as the differences between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0.
There were sites that I’d heard of but had never ventured to understand but the book lays them all out carefully, even explaining their site history and details- Orkut, Bebo, Flickr, and YouTube. Many of us recall Classmates.com from a number of years ago but didn’t realize it had become Reunion.com and it likely on its way to further extinction due to sites like MySpace.
The social forum details were something I wasn’t clear on. The fact that MySpace has issued a Terms of Service agreement (among them, no one less than 14 can have an account) gave me some confidence that there are efforts to monitor outside of what a parent can do on their own. Additionally, no one older than 18 allowed in the under 18 forum and in the event they do attempt to mask their identity and participate in a minor’s chat forum, criminal prosecution can occur. There is also software strictly for monitoring PC use that a parent can use.
Additionally, I began to understand the use of MySpace for me. The Keeping in Touch section discussed finding old classmates and friends- something that previously only use to happen by chance but instead is now often just a few clicks away. 5 out of 5 stars.
Comment by Sheryl Platte — April 28, 2008 @ 11:10 pm
The Myspace.com Handbook is a great step-by-step book on how to use Myspace.com for all your family. This is a step by step guide for parents on how to help your teen set up an account and also how to protect them from inappropriate sites and sexual predators. As a parent it is a relief that there is a website that is willing to step out on limb and say “Here is our spot, this is how you can use us, your children can safely blog and get to know people and you don’t have to worry about who might be looking at your kids.” This is a must have for any person who is looking into the myspace.com website. 4 stars
Comment by Sjones — April 30, 2008 @ 1:53 pm
Speaking as an avid myspace user, this book did the website and its users appropriate justice. I recommend this book for everyone from myspace members that want to fully understand the opportunities myspace presents to the concerned parent not too sure of all that this website entails. This was entertaining yet insightful.
Comment by Jean Jonez — May 12, 2008 @ 9:52 am
As someone who uses MySpace.com regularly but struggles to understand it and how to use it most effectively, this book is an excellent find. The sections are well-organized and although it’s very detailed, the book is a pleasant, interesting read.
It’s a great general resource not only for parents but for anyone who wants to learn about the history and basics of social networking, the essentials of using MySpace and its role as a marketing and promotion medium. I really liked the sections on ways to communicate with other users and how to use themes, backgrounds and multimedia to make profiles unique and personal. There’s even a section that gives an overview of common communication abbreviations that I always see but was too embarrassed to ask for definitions.
The chapters on safety and privacy are especially well done and provide parents everything they need to know about steps to take to protect their children’s safety online. I especially like how the author tries to separate the facts from the hype, covers the different aspects of potential threats such as cyberbullying and outlines specific strategies for dealing with threats.
This book is an informative, useful guide that I highly recommend for anyone who is looking for a thorough, well-rounded education about the different aspects of MySpace.com and how to use it safely and effectively. I rate this one 5 out of 5 stars.
Comment by Ron — June 26, 2008 @ 2:26 pm
Social Networking sites like Myspace.com or Facebook are all the rage in today’s world for both children and adults. In many cases the sites perform a tremendous service. For an up and coming band, these sites are great marketing tools. For young teens, they can be a dangerous area. The recent disappearance and murder of a young Vermont girl, a case in which her uncle used her Myspace account to lead police down the wrong trail, only helps solidify the danger of these sites when used incorrectly.
I’d like to say that the information provided in this book is not new, and that parents already know about Myspace and how it works. Sadly, I know too many parents who don’t pay attention to what their children are doing online and figure their children are smart enough to stay out of danger. For that reason, I urge every parent to purchase this book and read it thoroughly.
T. Brian Chatfield offers an insightful look into the history of these social networking sites before delving into ways Myspace can be a safe environment for your teens to socialize with one another. The problem is that few teens and even adults bother to read privacy practices and place too much information about themselves online. Chatfield covers many safety tips in THE MYSPACE.COM HANDBOOK. The best part is that he does it in an enjoyable, sometimes witty style that makes reading enjoyable.
THE MYSPACE.COM HANDBOOK covers everything from setting up and maintaining your Myspace account to learning how to recognize potential dangers online. Readers learn about blogging, joining groups, chatting with other Myspace users and more. Yet, all the while, there is strong emphasis placed on the most important part of Internet socializing, parents must be active in their child/children’s activities. This is the most important lesson parents should learn from reading this book. If you are letting your child onto the Internet and ignoring what they do, you’ve got to use the advice in this book and become active.
If you’ve ever questioned the Internet lingo you see floating around online discussion boards and chat rooms, you’ll love the guide that the author includes. Every Internet shortcut in existence is included. You’ll learn what BRB, GYPO and NIFOC mean, if you do not already know.
Chatfield covers more than how to keep children safe from predators. Cyber bullying is also covered in length. While many schools have learned to prevent bullying, many bullies have moved to the Internet with tragic results. He also covers potential dangers from phishing, malware, spyware and keeping passwords safe.
Parents of pre-teens and teens should cover the material found in T. Brian Chatfield’s guide with their children. It’s not enough to simply hand your child the book to read, you MUST discuss online safety with them. Don’t assume they already know it, remain active in their online socializing. It’s better to be a little nosy than to find out when it’s too late to help.
Rating 4 out of 5
Comment by Tracy — July 14, 2008 @ 11:33 am