'Playboy' to Feature 'Girls from MySpace'
Playboy plans to publish a photo spread of Girls from Myspace featuring "women" from the social networking site. Wait! arent MySpace users like one forth minors?
Playboy often taps into the pop culture for its photo spread features - having published in the past photo spreads on Enron, Starbucks, Donald Trumps Apprentice, and more...
Myspace has come under recent scrutiny for exposing teens to 'Online Danger', as a 14-year-old girl was murdered last month, allegedly by a man who met her through the site. What kind of a message is this then?
Pete Blackshaw of Intelliseek is quoted as saying the Playboy.com spread "complicates the debate." While MySpace is not primarily a teen site, "it's a site typically associated with teens, music mavens, and by and large younger segments."
I guess since Myspace has a "No Nudity" policy on the site for profile pictures, this is certainly another way to capitalize on the sites success. Whats next? Myspace bottled water? Its all about the Benjamin's Baby!
I for one will be awaiting to see "The MySpace Spread".
- "Hey Dad!.... Dad!.. renew your subsciption to playboy damnit!"
[ UPDATE ]
Found the REAL Playboy 'The Girls Of Myspace'
http://www.playboy.com/sex/features/girlsofmyspace/









Comments
that is f***ed man ok i don't have nude pixes on myspace but what are you going to do with all the underaged people on myspace who have nude pictures if you are doing a myspace issue ok you guys are fucked in the head!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Posted by: heather | February 14, 2006 02:18 PM
Um... I think you may have missed the point here.
Actually, what are you talkin about?
Posted by: DanGeR | February 15, 2006 05:30 PM
Found an interesting article on this subject:
MySpace Isn’t for Advertisers, It’s for Sex
There has been a debate in the community about MySpace and the sexualization of the “young users” by Playboy, who is doing a “Girls of MySpace” issue. One of our staffers recently questioned if this is appropriate considering that the majority of users on MySpace, according to some experts, are under 18. This is relevant to our industry since both MySpace and NewsCorp are attempting to sell MySpace to the agency and advertising community as a “safe place” for teens and teen interests, where advertisers can reach this hard-to-reach demographic in a community setting where they are most open to buy products.
On top of this, there has also been a lot of debate in many circles (from law enforcement to the interactive advertising community) about whether MySpace is really a safe place for children – and there have been several horrendous cases in recent times of predators using MySpace to find easy targets. In fact, as I was writing this article, I received a notice from a private law enforcement list that I am on, that a twenty-six year old man in California was just arrested for meeting a fourteen year old girl from MySpace, and committing statutory rape. So serious is the problem that several juristictions are investigating MySpace, including the Connecticut Attorney General’s office for not properly shielding children from preditors. Obviously there are some questions that need to be answered.
MySpace in the past, and recently parent company NewsCorp, have come out clearly stating that they are providing a safe place, and trying to strengthen security standards. They have notices on how to keep “your kid” safe for parents, and a special FAQ for kids about protecting themselves online. It would at least seem that they care about our children.
However, there is a problem that is inherent in MySpace, that leads me to believe that they are not taking these issues with their site seriously and are allowing it to be used as a “sex-finder”, where people of all age can meet online for the purpose of not only chatting, but eventually having sexual encounters. These are important points that the press has missed, that promote this point:
1) You can register as “bisexual” and search for others by sexual orientation. I can understand why people might want to identify themselves by sexual orientation, but I don’t know of any children-oriented sites that ask children their sexual orientation. While there perhaps might be a need for a place where gay and lesbian teens can find themselves, its not MySpace where adults can interfere in their conversation and worse use it as a method to prey on them.
2) You can register as “a swinger” on MYSPACE. This doesn’t mean an interest in 1920’s dance – and its not something I’ve ever seen on a questionnaire in highschool. The fact you can specify that you are specifically on MySpace to have sex is bothersome.
3) There are many MySpace groups including “Lesbian Passion” where members can meet to “have a good time”. I found that there were members as young as 14 years old, and members as old as 55. Myspace is allowing (perhaps passively) 14 year old girls to join a group that is clearly sexual in nature, and also allowing 55 year olds to join this same group. Topics of conversation included conversations about which myspace member other members of this group would have sex with.
4) It took me about 10 minutes to find discussions between adults and children about sex in public forums – about having sex with each other. This was not in private mail, but in easily accessed private forums that are supposedly monitored by MySpace. This was frequent throughout the site, and numerous groups seem to exist just for this purpose.
5) It took me another 10 minutes to find another forum where men calling themselves “bears” where discussing in a public forum sex with young boys, and the main topic of conversation was trading photos of each other. Many of the photos were suggestive photos of young boys, and some were completely nude.
In fact, in browsing MySpace I found sexual discussion between ADULTS and CHILDREN to be quite frequent and easily found. It didn’t take an expert to find these groups. Groups called “Boys with Hot Bodies” with photos of topless underage boys in the process of undressing were frequent. There were groups called “MYSPACE Whores” which had been in existence for several months and had photos of women naked throughout the group. There are groups called “Sexy Swingers” where I found HUNDREDS of naked photos of the members, some asking for “sex with young girls.”
Let’s make this clear – I’m 100% sure many teenagers are having sex, and this isn’t the forum to talk about that topic. However, I do not think you want your 14 year old learning about sex from the 45 year old guy down the street who he/she met on MySpace – and advertisers have a reason to shy away from a site that while might not be promoting child exploitation, has done little to remove the sexual environment of the site where pornography and children can easily be connected.
As someone who has worked in law enforcement and helped catch child molestors, I can tell you that MySpace is a buffet for any pervert looking for easy targets. As someone in the interactive advertising industry, I do not see that major brands should be considering this space for advertising their products until there is a serious change in the policing of the community. Major brands can not associate themselves with this type of site until it’s cleaned up and MySpace makes an effort to ensure the safety of our children. MySpace needs to work with law enforcement, experts and the interactive advertising community to come up with a concrete plan immediately to remove groups that promote child exploitation and to create a safe space specifically for children. If they want to be an adult oriented site, they need to require credit card verification and prevent children from registering ever on the site.
Posted by: DanGeR | February 15, 2006 08:55 PM