With more and more of the younger generation spending their time on computers and less time in the traditional young adult hang-out spots, the military decided that it was time to modernize their recruiting tactics and market themselves and their causes in the online world. 

As if staking out high school lunchrooms, hanging out at malls, and calling students at home wasn’t enough – you can now find the Marines on MySpace.   Their profile has been up for about five months, and remarkably it seems to be going over well there.  The Marines are hunting down new “friends” and being added to others’ friends lists just like they are “one of the gang”.

The Air Force advertises on MySpace, but does not have a profile page, and the Navy has no presence on the site at this point in time.  The Army’s profile page is apparently being worked on now by its ad agency, and according to military personnel, it should be up soon.

The MySpace effort on the part of the Marines (and soon the Army) is a part of the millitary’s broader effort to use the Internet to find new recruits. Since the launch of the profile, they have gained over 12,000 “friends, and report that 430 have gone to their site and signed up to be recruited. Simply recruiting online, however, is only just the beginning. Don’t think that they’ve stopped at MySpace. 

Their efforts also entail spending $1 million a year on banners and profiles linked on popular sites like sportingnews.com and gamespot.com.  They hope that this will drive more traffic to their websites, and in turn, help gain more recruits.

And now, it has been revealed that the military is using our hard-earned tax dollars to fund military personnel surfing the net.  Just what do these net-surfing millitary folks do?  Well, apparently they are fond of leaving blog comment spam, and infiltrate popular web forums and online discussions.  Allegedly, they have a special affinity for politically and militarily inclined discussions.  The purpose of these efforts is again to drive people to their website, showcase the efforts of the military, and to correct people from sharing so-called incorrect information. 

They also work with about 250 bloggers to disseminate “news about the good work being done by U.S. forces in the global war on terror.”  Through this, they are reaching a total target audience of around 17 million people.

Don’t believe me?  Check out the U.S. Department of Defense website where they openly talk about their online blog efforts.

Welcome to the 21st Century.

Be wary of what kind of information you include in your MySpace profile, or on another other publically posted website or profile.  Your employers, or potential employers are now heavily using MySpace to check out prospects.

Think no one’s watching you?  Think again.  Just listen to what happened to 18 year old Scott Schafer, a US baseball pitching prospect.  His MySpace profile cost him an agent and a lower salary.

Additionally, a number of companies surveyed indicated that they often check MySpace before even giving a candidate a job interview.  MySpace gives them a good indicator of what kind of person the applicant is, and while young adults may think that this is just their place to let off steam or act silly, employers don’t quite see it that way.

My advice? Don’t post anything online that you would want them to find out in the first place. So next time you want to post about your drunken revelry, or post racy pictures, think again.

It was only a matter of time before something like this happened; a fourteen year old girl and her mother are sueing MySpace over an alledged sexual assault that occured after the girl met a 19 year-old offline.

The lawsuit, which was filed Monday in Travis County, Texas, claims that MySpace is aware that sexual predators get in touch with minors on the site, but do nothing to stop it.

They are seeking damages for fraud and negligence in misrepresenting the site’s security measures to protect minors.  Additionally, the pair are seeking damages from Peter Solis, the accused 19-year-old, for alledged sexual assault and emotional distress.  They are seeking compensation of no less than $30 million.

The girl first came into contact with Solis on MySpace on April 6, when she claims he said that he was a high school senior that played on the football team. Soon after, the girl gave him her cell phone number.  The two met in person six days later, at which time they went on a date and the girl claims to have been sexually assaulted.

Okay, so where is MySpace responsible in all this?  Was it not the girl who gave out her phone number and met up with the guy?  And where were her parents in all of this? 

It’s no different than people meeting over AOL, or any other internet service or chat room.  Common sense tells you, the person you’re talking to online might not be who they say they are, so don’t give out your personal information or meet up with them unless you’ve set up extra precautions with a parent or something.

If the assault occurred, which in itself has not yet been proven, the ones I hold responsible are the young man, the girl, and her parents.  The young man for doing, and the girl and her parents for being so damn naive and stupid and allowing the meetup to occur in the first place.

If they make any money off this from MySpace, I will be sick.  So, what are thoughts on all this?