The MySpace phenomenon began in 2003, when an Internet visionary and UCLA graduate named Tom Anderson reclaimed the moribund http://myspace.com domain. Prior to Anderson's initiative, http://myspace.com was a file sharing forum. The original Web site had to be disbanded in 2001 due to a poor ROI and lack of general consumer interest.

Anderson's vision of MySpace as a place where kids could network and form their own communities manifested in a huge way. In 2005, MySpace's parent company was purchased for nearly $600 million ? since then, the network has only increased in size.

MySpace Today

MySpace supports a number of media, including videos and images, and is especially popular with teenagers, who use MySpace for several reasons.

They can connect with friends from school after class and share gossip and funny videos, pictures and sites from around the Internet. They also can meet other teens with similar interests or potential friends within geographic proximity. Finally, teens can check out prospective dates. In many ways, MySpace has replaced traditional dating sites, such as http://match.com and http://nerve.com.

What parents of teenagers can do

A MySpace page reveals a tremendous amount of information about your teen's personality and interests. By looking at your teen's MySpace page, parents will get to know how their teen acts and interacts with his peers. It will give you a chance to comment on your teenager's creativity or to catch potential problems your teen might be facing.

While MySpace is generally safe and PG rated, your teen should be on the lookout for predators who prowl the Internet with fake profiles. In many ways, MySpace is a mixed blessing for teens. It provides new ways to interact with peers and experience media, but it also opens teens up to dangers, such as Internet addiction and predators.

MySpace can be a forum for so-called cyber bullying, in which feuds at school carry over to the online realm. Your teenager also might spend too much time online meeting virtual friends while falling behind on his or her homework. Given the vulnerability your teenager faces by sharing his or her experiences and opinions with others, parents need to be aware and talk with their teen about potential dangers they might expose themselves to on MySpace and the Internet in general.