Former Dialog Guest down on MySpace …

Dominick Maglio, author of Invasion Within, says MySpace is a dangerous place … Check out the press release:

MY SPACE IS A DANGEROUS PLACE

The Associated Press has brought the My Space internet problem to Americas attention. The problem is they only scratched the surface. My Space is A Dangerous Place. It a problem and American parents need to take notice and take action.

Interview Domenick Maglio, Ph.D., a moral culture expert who has written and lectured extensively on a variety of 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, a private K-12 college preparatory school since 1983. Maglio deals with the My Space issue at his school and has written an Op Ed piece on the topic. Please contact me to set up an interview. I have attached an Op Ed piece as background for you.

Thanks,

Deborah Ruriani
TCI-SMITH PUBLICITY
www.smithpublicity.com

By Domenick J Maglio, Ph.D. Moral Culture Warrior

The days of thinking children are safe in their own rooms, in their secure gated communities are gone. Children as young as eight years old are going into cyberspace to expand their universe. They travel without an understanding of the dangers to which they are exposed. My Space, like Face book for college students, contains photos that verge on soft porn. The difference is younger children are flocking to My Space. Parents of young children are obliged to go online and browse the website www.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 twelve to seventeen age bracket are actively involved online. Ask your ten-year-old about My Space 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 devils 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 she wants to be rather than what she really is. 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 My Space 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 childs website by only clicking on their picture, name, address or zip code .By this simple procedure your daughter or son becomes vulnerable to become the next potential victim of a predator.

Do not feel too complacent if your child is younger than 15 years old. According to the guidelines of My Space, anyone under the age of fifteen would have a limited website viewed only by their friends who have their email. However there is no check on any material entered on the site including age — so younger children often make themselves appear older.

My Space is not a master plan to gain access to children. It is an enterprise for making a profit. The business purpose of My Space is to make money through advertising. The more people driven to the site the more a business can be charged for ads.

My Space has found a sure fire way to increase traffic to its site. It provides a vehicle for youngsters to become popular at least online and in their own minds. The seductiveness of My Space for children is to develop a network of friends. The more risqu the photo the more hits you get. You are advertising yourself to get people to click on to contact you. The number of friends is listed on the persons website so the more friends the greater the bragging rights of being cool.

Young people placing their photos and interests online is a frightening process for those of us with life experience. Children with a limited number of years on earth have an equally limited knowledge of human nature. More and more stories are appearing with people who have met an evil person online and have come to a bad end. The unlimited access to millions of people will only add to the number of these tragedies.

There is no denying that cyberspace is a reality of modern times. There are no fool proof means of insuring our children are not venturing into this precarious world except one: their WORD. We need to depend on our children pledging themselves to do what they say they do. They must tell the truth.

Instilling a moral code in your children by teaching them to be honest will prevent them from doing things behind your back. The cost of embarrassing ones parents becomes too great to distort their personal history to impress others.

Involved parents are the antidote to the world of ever expanding temptation. Stronger parenting will stop boys and girls going wild into the dangerous world of online fantasy and into the arms of waiting predators.

Dr. Maglio is a moral culture expert and has written and lectured extensively on the subject. He has been in private psychotherapy practice for over a quarter of a century and is the founder and director of Wider Horizons School, a private K-12 college preparatory school since 1983. Dr. Maglio holds a Ph.D. in Human Development and has 40 years experience working in the psychology/educational field. He has also worked as a professor in the university system for a decade, been a clinical psychologist in a Florida prison and spent ten years directing a domestic violence counseling program. Dr. Maglio is the author of Invasion Within: Overcoming the Elitists’ Attack on the Moral Values and the American Way, Regnery Publishing; and Essential Parenting: Revitalizing and Remoralizing the Family in the 21st Century. Invasion Within is available for purchase in bookstores and online booksellers. Please visit drmaglio.com for additional writings.

You’re kidding, right? Moral Culture Warrior? That’s what the guy put as his “title.” What is he? Bill O’Reilly’s protege?

He makes it sound like MySpace was invented by predators and pervs for the mere sake of getting 15 year olds into bed, but then he points out that that’s NOT the case:

My Space is not a master plan to gain access to children. It is an enterprise for making a profit. The business purpose of My Space is to make money through advertising. The more people driven to the site the more a business can be charged for ads.

So which is it?

Just like Robert Peters, the guy I had on the Interview Friday, Maglio blames the media, in this case, MySpace. It’s funny how these “moralists,” seem to want the government to protect us from the real world instead of insisting that parents RAISE THEIR OWN FRIGGING CHILDREN!!!! But these are the same folks who whine about liberals and their “big government” policies.

In fact, if you listen to the podcast from Maglio, you’ll get the gist – just as I did, that “smuggers” is just a new way to say “liberals.”

Mr. Maglio … Mr. Peters … get your government the hell away from my internet and my cable. If they want to control “the airwaves,” that’s fine. But they can’t control speech. A little something called The First Amendment says so.

Okay, I’ve espoused enough. Have a good night.