Six Degrees Of Deprivation Part 2.

The MySpace subscribers compose profiles and blog about themselves. Some of them publish their names and addresses along with their pictures and ages; many of which are exaggerated.

In some respects blogging is like writing on the bathroom wall at school, except it's no longer mysterious or anonymous, but someone can still get hurt by what is written.

Sadly, every time I watch the news, I hear how another pedophile has infiltrated MySpace. Every so often, NBC's Primetime does a special on pedophiles who chat up cyber Lolitas from MySpace and make arrangements to meet for sexual exploits.

One parent found out that her underage daughter was running away with a man 20 years her senior. Luckily the mother was able to abort their mission when her daughter's best friend tipped her off -- this time?

There is something distressing about human beings slated for auction. You don't have to buy them with money, just by saying the right words that they desperately want to hear.

For every auction, there is a re-auction. If you didn't get a chance to buy the first time, you'll soon get another chance. At first, I didn't get the whole camaraderie of MySpace?

I was a teenager too and I never had the desire post my availability or accentuate various body parts on an electronic billboard that diminishes my character and integrity.

The IM generation seems to be missing the boat. With all the technology at their disposal, they are burning themselves out and craving something much more substantial, something deeper; a reconnection with their spirit.

I get the sense that they feel deprived. They congregate with other kids who also feel deprived until it becomes six degrees of deprivation.

It's like a hole inside, the more they fill it, the bigger it becomes. They feel disenfranchised, like they are alone in the world, unloved and unresolved.

In their world, the only place that provides what they want or need is MySpace. However, that isn't an excuse to give up of your kids. Sure, teens have their own pressures of trying to fit in, but if they don't learn how to cope now, what kind of adults are they going to make?

How can they make informed decisions without the correct information? How can they be good parents if their parents are not around?

Growth is a slow and measured course on God's timetable. Kids want to grow up yesterday.

A parent has to explain the importance of having principles, integrity, responsibility, virtues, family values, self-respect, long-term goals, cultivating decent relationships, learning how to love, how to be a good human being; everything that makes a respectable person.

In all fairness, not everyone on MySpace is desperate or out to do ill will. However, parents should be aware of the dangers that exist.

Don't let strangers behind the screen offer your child candy or become your child's keeper. So many teens wish that they could talk to their parents, but their parents are either not available or kids are intimidated by them.

Know where your children are? Know what they are doing. Know that you are responsible for their well being. Be available for them.

Be an example. Be ready, willing and able. Tell them that you love them.

Love can cure deprivation. It can warm the heart, heal the hurt, help you sail to a new day. It can help rescue your child from feeling like they have no one.