Hemanshu Nigam

It’s All a Matter of Perspective

Recently, I was driving back from a weekend soccer tournament with my then 8 year old daughter. Not surprisingly, we hit Los Angeles freeway traffic much like every other Sunday night in the LA area when everyone is hurrying back from Santa Barbara, Las Vegas, San Diego, or San Francisco.

“Oh look, a candy cane,” announced a sleepy voice from the back seat.

I started to think my daughter, who had fallen asleep in the back seat, was going to show me a candy cane she found hidden away somewhere in her soccer backpack. Instead, she leaned forward and pointed straight ahead. I looked at all the billboards, but didn’t see any sweet red and white candy anywhere. I looked at the hills surrounding the freeway, still no sweetness anywhere.

A bit frustrated, my daughter said it again, “No, no, look at the cars – they look just like a candy cane, yummy!”

And there before me curving into the hills, intertwined in all the cars moving ahead of me with their red brake lights and all the cars coming towards me with their white head lights, was the sweet image of a red and white candy cane made of mint and sugar.

I smiled.

“See, I told you!” my daughter said with confidence, as she slowly leaned back and began to rest comfortably again.

I thought for a moment and suddenly the rush of traffic had turned into the peace of kids enjoying their favorite holiday candy.

It’s all a matter of perspective – just like when you think about approaching your teens about safety and privacy. In your mind, you might be wondering whether your child will think you’re intruding in their online space, so you decide not to say anything. But maybe that’s just your perspective – dividing up the online from the offline and treating them differently. We all have no problem teaching our teens about driving safely and not talking to strangers in the offline world. For kids and teens, it is just one world – no distinctions, no separation. So why not approach it from their perspective. They have let you guide them before, they will do it again.

Get empowered. Learn about our safety and privacy features and talk to your teens about some of the tools they can use to guard their privacy and be safer online.

Click here to learn more.

And remember, it’s all a matter of perspective.

It’s New Year’s Eve – Don’t Stop the Dialogue

It’s New Year’s Eve and your teen is all decked out and ready for a big party. She’s got her iPhone, BlackBerry, or some other cell phone with a camera in her pocketbook. And she’s ready to roll. You’re glad she’s got these gadgets so you can get in touch with her. You tell her to call to check in, to let you know she got there safely, to ask for permission to stay later. She agrees. You give her a quick hug and run upstairs to get ready for your own party to celebrate the arrival of a new beginning. You even remember to put the new digital camera you got for Christmas by your purse so you don’t forget it.

Of course, you talked to your teen about not drinking, not driving too fast, and not staying out past curfew.

Did you chat with her about all the photos that she and her friends will take with those gadgets? Photos that might have her kissing another girl on a dare, doing a shot with her best (boy)friend, flashing for the camera as the new year rings in.

Did you chat with her about all the photos that she or her friends might want to put up on their MySpace or Facebook pages?

Myspace, Facebook? That’s all that techie stuff the kids do…what will you say, what can you say?

Too often it seems too complicated to talk to your teens about online safety. After all, it’s the online world and they know it better than you do. But is it? Did you know how a car engine works, what the transmission does, or how an airbag gets deployed when the car bumps something at 30 mph? Yet, you got right in there and taught your teen how to drive. Correction, you taught your teen how to drive safely.

And that is exactly what we’re talking about – teaching your teen how to drive online safely. You’ve done it all your life – these lessons on safety. “Look before you cross, don’t talk to strangers, respect your friends and neighbors, don’t go anywhere alone”.

The world may have changed, but the lessons are still the same. Don’t stop the dialogue.

Here’s a way to start an online safety dialogue –

To learn more, visit www.myspace.com/safety

Remember, you’re the parent in the offline and online worlds. You can do it.

Our Commitment to Online Safety

In January 2008, MySpace and 49 Attorney Generals released a joint statement regarding MySpace's commitment to online child safety and security.

We have been working hard at backing up these commitments with actions and are proud to tell you that we have put the majority of these promises into practice.

The full content of the statement can be found in my blog here.

In addition, I gave a speech for the online industry to the California Cyber Safe Summit in March about the work we have been doing. You can read the full speech, "Setting the Bar for Social Networking Safety" by clicking here.