Truth for angels on myspace

In regards to myspace.com

The basic petition request can be found in the last sentence,
however for those that want all the information, please read on.

Fox Interactive Media (the owners of myspace.com) state on their web site:
"Fox Interactive Media (FIM) is an interactive services company dedicated to connecting, informing, entertaining and empowering consumers with the most compelling online media experiences. FIMs business is structured into three arms: Web Properties, the FIM Audience Network and the Digital Publishing Group. FIMs popular Internet destinations across social media and high-value content verticals reach the largest global audience of any major media company."

more specifically to myspace:
"MySpace (http://www.myspace.com)
The worlds most popular social network for connecting with friends, discovering popular culture, and making a positive impact on the world."

Sounds great huh? It is for the most part.

However this petition is to challenge how much FIM & Myspace really means it when they state "empowering consumers", "high-value content" and "making a positive impact on the world".

There are thousands of memorial pages on myspace.com and many, like me are using the site by sharing our children's lives and deaths to help save other parents from our nightmare.

FIM and Myspace have been censoring and deleting the photo's of our children that we selflessly share in order to save lives. These photo's are our reality and our child's truth. We might choose to share OUR child in the morgue, car crashes and in their casket. Using our best judgement and done with heartbreaking devotion to allow others to learn from our children.

These photos, if a parent chooses to use them, are put in a "friends only" photo album marked with a warning that some may find them difficult to view. Not all the photo's are of people that have passed away. Many are of burn victims where the family is showing their progress. Some are people in intensive care. It only takes one jerk to report a photo that they shouldn't be looking at in the first place if they find things like this hard to look at. Then Myspace deletes the photo and the loving comments that friends and family have left. Our memories that show our child made a difference in this world.

Myspace should use some common sense, compassion and actually take a look at the context in which the photo has been posted.

No one is forced to view them. It's fine if you don't agree with this, however please read on.

When a photo gets deleted by myspace, this is the message given:

"We had to remove an image (or images) from your account because they violated our Terms of Use. Our site is for people as young as 13, so we can't have certain kinds of pics (nude/sexually explicit, violence). Find out more about content we don't allow at www.myspace.com
If you continue to violate our Terms, we may be forced to remove your account.

If you find an image which you feel is in violation of our Terms, please feel free to use the 'report image' link below the image.
Thanks for your understanding.
MySpace Safety & Security"

________________________________________________

Keep in mind the photo's you personally have seen on myspace. Let that sink in for a minute.

We've all seen some if not all of these on myspace: guns, drugs, nudes, high profile pages with girls wearing nothing but a thong- hands covering their breasts (if that). Mock blood shown dripping down a woman's body sometimes coming out of her eyes or a fake cut across the throat,(showing FAR more 'blood' than any of our photos) lying in a real morgue. People drinking & driving, straight up porn photo's, graphics showing black children being hung by a tree, women & men masterbating (with objects), photo's of REAL aborted fetuses, victims of war with their limbs & heads blown off, charred remains of 9/11 victims, PETA photo's of abused animals and so on. Yet a mother who lost her son in the war cant show a photo of him in a casket because he's dead? Does this make sense to anyone?

Given the above references, we demand to know in what manor FIM & Myspace find our children's photos of their last hours on earth "nude/sexually explicit, violence" ??? Gee it's not our fault our children didn't come wrapped in a pretty pink (or blue) bow for the people that run myspace.com.

We saw our children when they were born and we saw them the day they left this earth. It's outrageous to deny us, grown adults, PARENTS- the right to share OUR child's truth with any of our family & friends that wish to view these photo's. Some of our photo's and myspace profiles are shown at high schools across the nation. Schools known the importance of showing the reality of reckless behavior. Why doesn't myspace or FIM?

The reason the photo's are posted is to save lives. The comments in this petition will show the impact our photo's WERE making before myspace deleted them. Myspace was asked 4 years ago to please give a contact person that we could go to for help on these issues. The request was ignored & instead we get customer services reps that lie to us with this message:

"We received your email about images being removed from your profile. We are very sorry that this occurred. Unfortunately, once images are removed we do not keep a record of the content and would be unable to restore them to your page."

_________________________________________________


That is simply not true. Thousands of us know this is a false statement.

Allow us parents to provide the full information that some need to not take that OxyContin , not get into a car with a drunk driver, for minors not drink & certainly not for anyone to drink & drive, not race, not speed, wear a seatbelt, not drive drowsy, not play the choking game, not stay in a abuse relationship, not take extasy, not commit suicide and all the other life threatening behaviors we have lost our children to.

We are aware that "Our site is for people as young as 13", umm, that's the point. 13 year old Kerry got into a car with a drunk driver, he's not on myspace. He is dead. His mother wishes he had the opportunity to view a teen laying in the morgue (fully clothed, no more blood than you would see on a skinned knee) as he viewed the grief of the family left behind. Why deny the next Kerry if myspace and FIM is REALLY about making an impact? Or is that just media hype? Interesting and pathetic the amount of ALCOHOL advertisement on myspace, given that it has members as young as 13. Way to send a positive message. *shakes head*

We wonder why there is so much destructive images on myspace yet they target our photos that actually help save lives. The photo's we show are not anything more than you see on the news. Why is it ok to show princess Diana's crash, Anna Nicole's dead body, James Brown in a casket-- but not our children? Our children were not "famous" but they were and are stars in our eyes and how dare anyone try to hide their truth.

IRONICALLY FIM OWNS PHOTOBUCKET, WHERE OUR PHOTO'S ARE NOT DELETED AND CAN BE VIEWED BY ANYONE.

This is to ask that FIM & myspace allow us as parents and active responsible members of the myspace community, who actually purchase from their ADVERTISERS (or used to) to grieve for OUR children OUR way and to continue with our life work and life saving work.

We ask for myspace to assign a contact person we can go to for our issues and we ask that myspace stop deleting the photos of OUR precious children!

Thank You