MySpaceSafetyTips.com

Immediately after joining MySpace, go to your home page and click the “Account Settings” link in the box at the upper left of the page. The “Account Settings” page is the most important page MySpace provides a user. This is the page where you can configure what access others have to your pages and posts on MySpace. From the account settings page, click “Privacy Settings.” Our recommended selections for the most critical privacy settings are as follows:

• Require email or last name to add me as a friend: if you check this, then others cannot request being your friend unless they know your last name or the email address you use for logging into MySpace; check this if your goal is to use MySpace only for contact with your real-life friends.
• Approve Comments before Posting: checking this is highly recommended; if you don’t check it, other people can post comments on your page without your awareness of what’s in the comment; checking this let’s you reject any comment that contains personal information that would let someone identify you, or content you don’t want associated with your online presence, before anyone else sees it.
• Hide Online Now: check this for safety and privacy, and to avoid some profile invasion scams; if you don’t check this, people you don’t know can see when you’re online on MySpace.
• No Pic Forwarding: for safety, this should be checked. Otherwise, people you don’t know can send emails with links to your pictures to other people you don’t know.
• Friend Only Blog Comments: if you use your blog as a kind of newsletter or online diary for sharing personal experiences with your friends, then check this option; if you use your blog for commentary on topics of general interest, like national politics or technology, it’s OK to leave this option unchecked, because in this case you are writing your blog to invite discussion from anyone interested in the topic. Most teens will want to check this option, so that only friends can post blog comments.
• Friend Only Group Invites: increasingly, people are using MySpace groups to post adult content. These people often invite MySpace members they don’t know to join the groups, in an attempt to boost the group’s membership count. Check this option to eliminate contacts of this type.

In addition, users under 18 can specify Who can view my full full profile? The choices are:

• My Friends Only
• Anyone under 18 on MySpace

If you select the "My Friends Only" option, your profile is said to be "private". This is the recommended setting for teens who are using MySpace for socializing with their real life friends—which is the only truly safe way to use MySpace if you’re a 14–17 year old. As of April 2006, the "Anyone under 18 on MySpace" setting did not work. In our testing, the teen’s profile is open to all MySpace users, regardless of age, if this option is selected. In addition, if "Anyone under 18 on MySpace" is selected, anyone on the Internet can view the profile. Being a MySpace member is not required. Therefore, we highly recommend that all 14 and 15 year-olds select "My Friends Only," thus setting their profile to private. Changes in account settings may not take effect immediately. After you change account settings, allow time, perhaps up to 30 minutes, before you conclude that your requested changes were not put into place.

I DID CHANGE IT TO Anyone under 18 on MySpace AND IT STILL SAY’S ITS PRIVATE AND IT ASK FOR MY EMAIL AND LAST NAME WITHOUT IT BEING CHECKED ! ALSO I DID THIS HOURS AGO PLEASE RESPOND BACK

Posted by Stephany Lopez on 29 December 2006 - 23:35