Frankly I think regulation of these sites is inevitable, with the swarms of parents incapable of using or understanding technology complaining to lawmakers daily about their children's improper use of websites - as if it's the government's job to raise their children.

Also, shouldn't alarm bells be ringing from the very fact that we can predict a downturn in users if they were more aware of what they're getting in to?

Ben -I'm old enough to remember what places looked like before anti-pollution regulation came in, and all the bitching about how much that would cost business, reducing their freedom to crap on your doorstep.

Equally, it amused me to see the same voices who complained about the burden of regulation, suddenly turn round and blame the sub-prime mortgage calculation on 'weak regulation' - rather than poor business decisions and poor investment decisions in backing those poor business decisions.

The subprime mortgage, if anything, was caused by heavy regulation. The entire industry was threatened years back if they didn't approve more mortgages, the belief at the time being that it was racially motivated.

Regulation doesn't really stop this stuff from happening, but it does cause a false sense of security and remove one more area of responsibility from users that could easily be dealt with through common sense. Oh well, people love their diapers.

Facebook, Google, Microsoft, IBM, and so on can do whatever they like with their properties. If suckers and naive people want to put their details out in the public domain as in Facebook, that is their choice, since Facebook didn't put a gun in their heads and demanded that they joined.

Leave businesses alone. For suckers and naive people out there who demanded that their detail that they have voluntarily given to Facebook, just bugger off. Request Facebook that your detail be taken down and you're free not to moan about what other private business owners do with your detail, simple as that.

I am a mom, and my daughter like the rest of America had a MySpace page. I followed all the safety tips, and made specific rules that my daughter was expected to follow. I checked her page almost daily, read her friend comments, etc. Another words, I was extremely diligent because it made me nervous that my 15 year old had "friends" she had never met!

June 6, 2006 is when my nightmare began. That particular day she was held hostage for 12 hours, drugged with cocaine, and raped twice before being let out on a street corner nearly 30 away from home. To make a long story short, she was terrified and would not talk. I was so out of my mind with fear, that all I could do was kiss and hold her. I made many fatal mistakes on that day, and should have listened to my intuition. I did however, have her drug tested the very next morning, and that's how I learned she had been drugged.

Like any parent, I demanded that the MySpace page be deleted. As further punishment, I took her cell phone and made it clear she would NEVER have contact with this person again. Problem solved, right? Not even close....

The next six months were pure hell! My 15 year old changed drastically, but I knew where she was at all times (or so I thought). A routine doctors appointment turned up a pregnancy; a pregnancy I knew nothing about and argued wasn't true. The kid still wouldn't talk..so I had her arrested and placed in juvenile detention. In California the age of consent is 18, and since she refused to talk to me, I gave some tough love of my own! I soon realized that I saved my daughters life.

I did my own investigation. I interrogated all of her friends, I called every phone number in her cell, and I searched her room. Again, to make a long story short what I learned has changed her life forever. I forced her into an abortion, preserving the remains for DNA. We just made the funeral arrangements to have her 15-16 week twin babies cremated. Here is where I beg all parents to protect your children from social networks.

The police, my daughter(eventually), and me worked together and after a highly successful sting, arrested a 30 year old man. He was originally charged with 6 felony counts of rape, stalking, and drugging of a minor. Bail was set at 1/4 million dollars. The arrest took place on November 14, 2006 and I spent the next 17 months attending each and every court hearing. At the preliminary hearing, 6 additional felony charges were added. On April 8, 2008 justice was served! The defendant accepted a plea the day we were to begin trial. We had enough direct evidence and the testimony of the victim, to win a 34 year sentence. The defendant accepted a 20 year term, answered to all 12 charges, accepted two strikes, must register as a drug offender and a child sex offender, and upon his release will wear a GPS monitor for the remainder of his life; thanks to "Jessica's Law". What this man did to my daughter was sick, no doubt about it.

What makes me sick, is MySpace! The day the suspect was arrested, I began sending emails with documentation to MySpace. Each and every email was ignored and never given any type of response. Needless to say, the suspect had access to computers in county jail, and logged on his page frequently. He continued to victimize my daughter by using MySpace to gain support and rally friends to harass her. On the day of the sentencing hearing, I once again sent an email attaching proof of the crime....this time, I got a response. They simply stated that they would have to conduct their own investigation, and that did not mean they would ask a member to leave! So, I did some harassing of my own. First I forwarded their response to the Prosecutor; and boy did she have fun with that! And, I took the Plea documents that listed all 12 charges and his signature next to each, and I posted it as a bulletin addressed to all his "friends" on his personal page! And for the purpose of sincerity, I included a personal message about his two dead babies and the court order I got keeping him and/or family from ever knowing the burial location.

I know that our case might seem very extreme, and in many ways it is. But it happened because their was no regulation over who can view these kids pages. There is over 6,000 registered sex offenders who are members of MySpace and prey on children. I never really thought this would be my child, how about you? Please, please we as parents need to fight to change how these social networks are operating.

MySpace was not at fault here. This was solely your fault for allowing a computer to be in your house in the first place. Remember, that MySpace didn't force your daughter with a gun to join them. Your daughter solely joined them on her free choice.

See, I am aware that there was a case in the US recently, where an obese person sued McDonald for his weight problem. I heard that the judge who presided over this case threw it out and thank God, commonsense prevailed. The obese guy cannot blame McDonald for his weight problem. The blame is entirely on himself and no one else. McDonald, KFC, Burger King and the likes can't be banned solely because some irresponsible obese individuals over-indulged themselves by eating in those fast food chain regularly which led to their weight problems. The same applies here to your case, MySpace was not at fault.

By the way, I hate social networking sites, since I see it as useless. Some people say that it is good because you keep in touch with your friends, yeah right! I don't need to track 24 hour of what my friends are doing, such as which public toilet they've been to recently, which fast food chain they had their dinner at the weekend, which bars they went to last week and so on, (useless things to know about). For anyone who joins a social networking site, I summed it up in this way:

social networking == vain

Even if 90% of the population wanted this it would be a bad idea. The masses react to emotion, not sound policy.