Potential good news in the world of social Web sites: Some teens are reporting that MySpace is on the decline, in part because they’re uncomfortable with its privacy issues. The stated policy of MySpace is that anyone 14 or older can post a profile with personal information — accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. I’ve argued that only adults should be allowed to do this, given the site is a draw for predators.

The teens in the story said that Facebook was the new Web site of choice, which is great because Facebook has much better security. Even at the college level, Facebook members can only see profiles from people from their school. To see anyone else’s info, you have to send a friend request to prove you know them.

Facebook will never replace MySpace, as the latter is far superior for music. Anyone (including me) can start a band page, with free bandwidth to post up to four songs. That’s great for independent musicians, and pretty much all the biggest bands have MySpace presences.

The story also gives some good but inconclusive data. The most important statistic — that MySpace is adding 320,000 profiles a day — strongly suggests the entire thesis is wrong. The other pertinent number, that average time spent on MySpace rose for awhile and then held steady for the last year, seems to suggest a plateau rather than impending doom, but other networking sites have tended to rise, peak and decline. Again, though, music sets MySpace apart.

Robert VerBruggen blogs at http://robertsrationale.blogspot.com.