• Is it age appropriate?

  About our ratings

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  Not age appropriate for kids under 17, age appropriate for kids over 18; suggested age 17.

• Is it any good?

  1.0

• Common Sense says

  Macabre, death-obsessed obituaries rehash gory details.

Why We Rated This

The good stuff

• Educational value:

  Not an issue.

What to watch out for

• Online interaction:

  Any registered user can post comments and information about a death. The interactions are grim but not necessarily mean.
• User-created content:

  "Premium members" can create their own "image galleries" which can be scary. The juxtaposition of people's former MySpace pages with news of their death seems to be trying to make some kind of commentary on how public our lives are in the era of social networking.
• Messages:

  There is some shared empathy and frank emotions about death, suicide survival, and other related topics discussed here, and some elements of support within the Web site's community of registered users. However, many of the discussions are quite macabre and take on a fascination with death that many parents may be uncomfortable with their teen or young adult focusing on. 
• Violence:

  This site is about deaths, many of them violent. There are photos of people who have died in murder-suicides, suicides, drug overdoses, domestic violence, car accidents and more.
• Sex:

  Sexually suggestive photos of both the deceased and the living people who are posting on the discussion boards. Suggestive comments posted like "You are really hot," and "I shouldn't have looked at that at work."
• Language:

  Even though there's a site rule against profanity, the "f--k," and other swear words (as well as lots of morbid language) are snuck into posts.
• Consumerism:

  Ads on each page. Connections to MySpace and other social networking and news organizations.
• Drinking, drugs, & smoking:

  Drug-use and drug overdose-related deaths, including those of celebrities are highlighted.

How safe is it?

• Personal privacy:

  Even though you need to submit an email address to register, there's an option to hide it from public view. The profile page doesn't have to be used, but if it is, a lot of personal info can be divulged, including a photo, date of birth, location, addresses to other social networking sites like MySpace and more.
• Parental controls:

  Not an issue.

What Parents Need to Know

About My Death Space

Families Can Talk About