You are supposed to be aged 13+ to have a MySpace account. MySpace says it takes extra precautions to protect younger users.

My Space has helpful videos which are a good place to start. Unfortunately nothing else in their safety section was working at the time we last looked at it. We reported this to MySpace and we'll provide a link to it when they get back to us to tell us it's working. If you EVER come across anything on the internet, whether it's on a social networking website or anywhere else, where people are making suggestions to you that make you feel uncomfortable or upset, please tell your parents or another adult. CEOP (The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre) investigates cases of sex abuse and grooming on the internet. Grooming is where people make friends with you and try to involve you in inappropriate activities. In the UK this behaviour is a criminal offence. You, your parents, or anyone else who is concerned, can report incidents by clicking the red button on the top right hand corner of the CEOP website.

Although the police can get information from your computer's hard drive, it's helpful if you don't delete anything you think is dodgy until the police have decided whether they need it as evidence.

Safety tips

Don't post anything on MySpace or in your profile which gives your real name, address, school, phone number or which will allow a stranger to contact you in real life. Make sure you don't ID your friends either!

Don't upload anything that might embarass you at a later date. You might not realise it but things you post on the internet now could come back to cause problems for you later on, for instance when you go for an interview for college or a job.

When you go into a social networking site like MySpace people might approach you to be a friend but remember that no matter how much they tell you about themselves, they are still strangers and they might not be telling you the truth about themselves. There have been cases of men in their forties and older pretending to be teenagers online. This is called grooming and is a criminal offence.

If anyone makes you feel uncomfortable or embarassed online then please tell your parents or another adult. If they're doing it to you then they might also be doing it to other young people. It's particularly important NEVER to meet up with anyone you meet online in real life, if anyone suggests that to you and particularly if they suggest you keep it secret that's a real danger sign.

If you have a webcam never be pressured into taking pictures of yourself that you wouldn't want other people to see.

Abuse

Don't get into arguments online, this is called flaming and it can get nasty. If you break the MySpace rules then the content is likely to be removed and you might have your membership terminated.

You're not allowed to upload anything which is offensive or racist and which promotes physical harm so don't make threats to anyone. Neither are you allowed to harass people or to encourage other people to harass them. You're not supposed to ask for personal information from anyone under 18 either so if you are under 18 and anyone asks you, for instance, where you go to school, make sure you report them to MySpace.

If you think you can settle a score by spreading rumours and making up false things about an ex-friend then think again because you'll be in trouble if you upload anything which is threatening, abusive or which is defamatory. It's defamatory if you say untrue things about someone which give them a bad reputation they don't deserve. It can also be harassment which is a criminal offence in the UK.

You're not supposed to upload a picture or video of anyone without their permission either.

Bullying UK gets lots of complaints about identity theft and people setting up social networking website accounts in the names of other people, often uploading false and upsetting things about them. Impersonation is against MySpace's terms and conditions.

Remove Friends

You can remove people from your Friend List so they can't add Comments to your Profile page, you can delete Comments on the Profile page and you can delete messages they send via MySpace mail without reading them.

You can also view their profile and click "Block User" so they can't contact you again.

How to get abuse removed from MySpace If someone has created a nasty profile about you, or created one pretending to be you, then contact MySpace customer services . Give your name, email address and tell MySpace what has happened.
How to delete a MySpace account

Click on "Account Settings" and then on "Cancel Account". The cancel confirmation page then shows and you should click the red button which says "Cancel my Account". You can give a reason or not, it's up to you.

Click "Cancel my Account" again and an email will be sent to the user's email address. When the email arrives, click on the link to finish the process and confirm that you want the account removed.

If the email doesn't arrive have a look in your email spam folder to see if it is there.

If you're a parent and you don't receive the email, remove all the content from your child's profile and in the 'About Me" section type "Remove Profile". You can also set your profile to private so that nobody else can see it.

Parents can also email parentcare@myspace.com

If you need help from Bullying UK email us here