Playboy's 'Girls of MySpace'

Playboy likes to capture "the cultural zeitgeist," as Online Media Daily puts it, so of course it will soon feature "Girls of MySpace" on its Web site. "MySpace is not participating in the pictorial, but Playboy.com has established its own MySpace page, which is promoting the search for women to pose; Playboy.com also has purchased ad space on MySpace," according to Online Media Daily, which adds that Playboy has been "overwhelmed with the number and quality of submissions." The development "comes at a dicey time for MySpace, which has found itself under scrutiny for exposing teens to possible danger." MySpace spokespeople point out that MySpace.com is not a youth site and told the San Jose Mercury News last week that 75% of its membership is over 18, but a quarter of 54 million members is 13.5 million teens (the Mercury News piece was about what unwise blogging can potentially do to teens' reputations). Here's a sampler of related news this week: a sort of primer from the Associated Press, "MySpace: A new online star that isn't Google"; "Teen Web hangouts can be gold mines for predators" at Pioneer Press in Minn.; and a two-part series, "The trouble with MySpace…," at the Rutland Herald in Vt. (Part 1 and Part 2).