The Akron Beacon Journal ran a feature story on Thursday about MySpace and its enormous popularity especially with the high school crowd. I know from talking with my kids here at school, that most of them make daily visits to this popular site, and in some cases, this activity has almost supplanted telephone conversations and email correspondences.

However, Bob Dyer's report unearthed some very disturbing truths to this website: kids are posting pics of themselves in self-incriminating situations...without thinking of the consequences. He reports...

Why else would so many area teens post their photos on the Internet -- and sometimes their full names -- alongside evidence of illegal activity and/or incredible vulgarity? No local school system is immune, public or private. How do we know this? Because these freewheeling kids routinely identify their schools. (Yes, Hoban was mentioned in the article!)

And their friends.
And their families.
And their activities.

In fact, they supply enough personal information that any perv on the planet could locate them in five minutes. If you're a parent who has never prowled around on MySpace, you're in for a shock. In addition to countless photos of underage kids swilling beer and booze, you can find an endless parade of fresh faces dropping enough F-bombs to flatten a small nation. By clicking on "search" on the top of the MySpace home page, you can sort out people not only by their school but their year of graduation.

Pretty scary, huh? So am I ready to jump on the bandwagon and pronounce that MySpace is evil incarnate? No. MySpace and personal blogs, like this one, has provided unprecedented ease at locating information on individuals. Check this out...

When I got to work this morning, I had an email from someone whom I'd never met in my life. This gentleman told me that he has relatives from Michigan; he has taught high school; he currently leads Sunday worship at his church; his dad has served our country in the military; and, if that wasn't enough to share in common, are you ready for this?...his name is Rob Eubank! Considering the fact that Rob lives in Tacoma Washington, the chances of us ever actually meeting are probably remote, but I have every intention of keeping in touch with him. How did he find me? You guessed it...this blog. Here's his...