A computer screen shows the myspace.com Web site. Some parents fear that MySpace, a social network site, makes it easier for sexual predators to find and stalk young victims. DAVID LEESON II/DALLAS MORNING NEWS

MySpace is a dangerous place.

Date published: 3/19/2006

PRING HILL, Fla.--The days of thinking children are safe in their own rooms, in their secure, gated communities, are gone. Children as young as 8 years old are going into cyberspace to expand their universe.

They travel without an understanding of the dangers to which they are exposed.

MySpace, like "Facebook" for college students, contains photos that verge on soft porn. The difference is younger children are flocking to MySpace. Parents of young children are obliged to go online and browse the Web site (myspace.com) to judge for themselves.

You will not be alone. Although under many parents' radar screen, over 40 million mostly young people throughout the world use this site to become "virtual friends" with total strangers.

Over 87 percent of youth in the 12-to-17 age bracket are actively involved online.

Ask your 10-year-old about MySpace and he will probably have some knowledge of it. The concept of being highlighted online is spreading like wildfire in the youth culture. It is seen as being sophisticated.

In our fragmented existence, children have little responsibility in helping the family--and too much idle time on their hands to create a fantasy existence.

As the proverb states, "An idle mind is the devil's workshop." Our youth, with their abundance of unsupervised time, are writing up biographical sketches with often provocative photos exposing too much skin and too much information to attract new, so-called "friends."

The interests and photos are usually altered to present an image of what they want to be, rather than what they really are. There is no easier way to develop an identity than to instantly project one to an unknown audience.

Most of modern young people know more about the perverted world of Hollywood than they do about their own relatives. On MySpace, anyone is given a stage to be a celebrity to an anonymous audience.

Children feel invincible. They may have been taught the dangers of being online, but they think any problems would never happen to them--only to someone else.

The real danger to our children is that there are many deviant people who can view the child's Web site by only clicking on their picture, name, address, or zip code.

By this simple procedure your daughter or son becomes vulnerable to being the next potential victim of a predator.

DOMENICK MAGLIO is a culture-war expert who has written and lectured extensively on subjects affecting American teens and children. He has been in private psychotherapy practice for over a quarter of a century, and is the founder and director of Wider Horizons School.

Date published: 3/19/2006