MySpace Unraveled: A Parent's Guide to Teen Social Networking from the Directors of BlogSafety.com by Larry Magid, Anne Collier, Anne Collier

Product Details

Synopsis

In this timely and indispensable guide to MySpace for parents, online safety experts Larry Magid and Anne Collier demystify the world's largest social network. This concise, hands-on book explores how teens are using MySpace and other social networks and shows you step by step how to use MySpace and help your kids use it safely.

Larry and Anne remove the fear and hype surrounding social networking and take a clear-eyed look at what is really going on in online teen hangouts.

To help you understand MySpace, the authors step you through how to set up and personalize a MySpace account and how to manage an online social life. Then they look at how young people are changing the Internet and how to guide them as they navigate the social Web.

VOYA

What a breath of fresh air! This book does not buy into the fear and hype associated with MySpace and other social networking sites. Instead it is a positive look at what MySpace is, why teens use it, and what parents should know to help guarantee that their teen is safe when using MySpace or other social networking sites. Magid and Collier take a step-by-step approach to the topic. After explaining what MySpace and social networking is, the authors let parents know how to set up a MySpace account, describe how each of the features (adding friends, music, IMing, and so on) work, and even explain how to keep track of a teen's activity on MySpace with special Web services and software. The theme all the way through is that it is a parent's responsibility to know what's going on with MySpace. Inserted throughout the book are sections labeled "Key Parenting Point." These sections highlight features of MySpace and social networking to which parents should pay particular attention. For example, the authors point out that teens should not share their MySpace calendars. These "Key Points" do a good job of highlighting some of the features that parents might miss or might not think too much about. By stressing these issues, the authors give parents jumping-off points for talking with their teens about safe use of social networking technologies. The book is easy to read, filled with colorful screenshots, and sure to help parents understand what their role is in their teen's involvement in social networking. With this title in the collection, librarians will have a quality resource to recommend to parents who are wondering about social networking and concerned about its impact on teen life.

Biography

Anne Collier is an analyst, children's advocate, and journalist who has worked in media since 1980--in print and radio and on TV and the Web. In January 1999, she launched Tech Parenting Group, which publishes NetFamilyNews, the digital "community newspaper" of the tech-parenting and online-safety community. Larry Magid's Web site SafeKids.com is quite probably the world's best-known Internet safety resource. Larry Magid is the author of the earliest and most widely circulated Internet safety guide, Child Safety on the Information Highway, published in 1994 by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Larry is also a journalist and commentator on technology matters.