After consulting with a circle of friends and relatives, I relented. I would let Taylor have a MySpace site, but only if she agreed to follow some rules.
The first was that her site would have to be set to "private." That meant that only those she had approved as "friends" could see her page.
Next, she could not add as a friend anyone she did not personally know. We also agreed that no foul language or inappropriate materials could be used.
And, most important, she had to give me complete access to her site, including a password that let me view hidden e-mails.
Taylor was so excited that she immediately agreed to everything and signed the contract that we had drawn up.
In the high of the moment, I felt good, too. I had found a way to allow my daughter an activity that she seemed to love while protecting her from online predators -- my biggest worry.
But in the days and weeks to come, our honeymoon glow would turn to alarm on my part and an increasing boldness on hers. And I would find it harder and harder to balance my parental instincts with technologies that seemed to me to be rewriting the rules of adolescence.
Read the full article - Mom on MySpace, via YPulse
Technorati tags:: MySpace, youth+culture
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