Myspace for the Early Childhood student?

As I caught up on a couple blogs this weekend, I was really interested by a post I found on Weblogg-ed. Here is the link to the post:

Social Networking for Kids

Linked in this post was a short audio clip from a podcast, so I should probably link that as well:

Listen to this podcast (Introduction to Social Networking for Kids)

Now, as someone who is self-admittedly addicted to various social networking sites, I have to look at the pros and cons of this new development through both a personal and professional standpoint.

If children are being taught, by their parents, how to properly be a member of these various social networking sites at a young age, perhaps instances of cyber-bullying can be lessened. Students may be better prepared for Myspace; which in my opinion is a very big positive for these sites.

However, I have to ask myself, is it already too late for this type of action to be taking place? During my internship, I found that students in my Computer Club were already well aware of other networking sites geared towards elementary students. The site that seemed to be most common was "Club Penguin" You can check out this site here:

Club Penguin

Students are far ahead of us; they have already found their niche on the Web and I don't know how responsive they will be to having their parents push a new "safe" site on them. Why would they be when they know there is another place that is unregulated that is even more easily accessible? As a teacher, I'm not sure kids will go for this; it will have to be presented in a very positive light for students to take notice. What does everyone else think?