No doubt you’ve probably heard by now that a South Carolina family has filed a lawsuit against MySpace because they say two of their daughters were raped by a man they met on the social networking site. Why then, you ask, are we teaching classes on MySpace and encouraging you all to learn more about it and use it as a tool to reach your teens? Because, yes, there are nasty people out there who are more than happy to use the technology for their own evil ends, but just as you wouldn’t lock your children inside the house and never let them leave, you can’t lock them out of what has become the most used Internet site in the world.

We teach our children how to protect themselves in the “real world” by being cautious with strangers, avoiding being caught in strange places after dark, etc. We must do the same in our online lives, and libraries can do a lot to teach teens and parents what to do to safe.

An article I read on the lawsuit on the WIS-TV website, quotes a local Internet expert, Dan Don Cantrell, who says that parents shouldn’t restrict their children from using MySpace, but teach them to use it responsibly. I agree with him wholeheartedly, but that will be difficult for most parents if they’ve never used the site themselves or aren’t very computer savvy. That’s where libraries can help. Show parents that the positives of MySpace can far outweigh the negatives if their kids are armed with good information and a bit of caution.

In October, I blogged about a great entry I saw over at Youth Tech. Matt Gullett talks about MySpace classes for parents and shares a brochure he uses for his classes. It’s worth another look. If you’re interested in doing classes of your own, let us know. We’ll be happy to help in any way we can.