MySpace Unraveled: A Parent’s Guide to Teen Social Networking from the Directors of BlogSafety.com

Chapter 5. Social Networking Safely

BASED ON RECENT NEWS REPORTS, you might think that something incredibly dangerous has burst on the scene—that there’s a predator lurking behind nearly every keyboard waiting to sexually assault a teenager. Well, predators and tragic cases of sexual assault do exist, but before you yank the broadband modem out of the wall, consider the real risks.

We recently heard about a video that exposes the “current pandemic of sexual predation via the Internet” (from a company that offers a monitoring service), and plenty of other people are only too willing to tell you about the “growing epidemic” of kids who have been victims of Internet-related sexual exploitation. It’s enough to scare a parent to death.

But despite ...