MySpace to get parental controls

Parents could soon be able to keep a much closer eye on what their kids are doing on the popular social networking site, MySpace.

According to reports, News Corporation, the owners of MySpace, are planning to offer free parental notification software.

The Wall Street Journal reported that News Corp has bowed to pressure from the US government and will release a software program, codenamed Zephyr, that will allow parents to find out details of their child's MySpace profile.

The child's age, name, and location would be made available to the parents, though the child would be informed that he or she was being monitored. Parents would not be able to read their child's email or intercept personal messages.

MySpace currently has safeguards in place that stop the profiles of members that claim to be 14 or 15 being viewed by those who list their age as 18 or above. This is intended to protect vulnerable teenagers but it is thought that many members lie about their age to circumvent these methods.

The move is unlikely to go down well with teenagers, who make up a large part of MySpace's user base. According to figures from Nielsen//NetRatings, 18 per cent of visitors to MySpace in December 2006 were aged between 12 and 17, and 31 per cent were aged between 18 and 34. Interestingly, the over-35s made up 47 per cent of visitor's to MySpace in December.

http://myspace.com/

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