Well, Sue, here I am. The Queen of MySpace sneakiness.
If your child's profile is set to private, yes, the only people in your CHILD'S friends list can see the profile. So, for instance, if I have your son in my profile, your son's friend's cannot see my profile unless I add them, too.
However, when your child's profile is set to private, their photo, location and last log in IS still visible. Just nothing else. So, for example, my profile is set to private. Go to myspace, look me up by jannaminnich@hotmail.com, and you will see what you see on a person's profile that is set to private.
Now ~ my difficult child 2, B, has a MySpace account. I am in his friends, or he is not allowed to have one. He has said to me that he is embarrassed when I leave him comments on his page, like "showing some love", etc, etc, cuz he is 15, and obviously, wants no parts of me. So, the deal is, I am a "friend" in his friends list, and I can see what he's doing, but I don't comment anymore lol. Additionally, I have all his log in information, as well as his email information, should he decide to change his information. If he would happen to block me somehow from not being able to log in, all internet privelages are blocked, permanently (not that he has them much lately anyway).
It does show the last log in. So, if someone is looking at your child's page today, but he hasn't logged in for a week, someone could message him and say, "hey man, saw you were on today, why didn't ya say hi?" LOL! Busted.
You can go to "account settings" and click the "hide Online now" button, so that it doesn't show you are actually online NOW, but the date will still show.
I would be absolutey happy to help you with anything else, as I think I've figured this out. As far as difficult child 2 goes, what I do is, I wait until days he logs in. Then I wait, until he's at camp, school (best time is school, cuz ALL the kids are in school, so nobody can catch you), then go spy on him. I read all his messages, in and outgoing, and don't feel bad about it at all.
If you're in his friends, you can see all comments and photos, all the time, always, and read blogs.
*sigh* I have no life.
