The masses have signed up for the online self-supporting community of MySpace.com, but what they may not realize is their profiles are everyone’s space.

“The police have eyes and ears everywhere,” said DeKalb Police Lt. Jim Kayes.

Web sites like MySpace and Facebook are mostly hearsay but that does not make everything invalid, he said.

“We don’t scan it on a daily basis, but we do see where the parties are at,” Kayes said.

Every weekend, word of parties in DeKalb is spread through these online mediums.

The parties police are most concerned with are the ones soliciting the sale of beer with no liquor license, Kayes said.

There is a certain threshold that needs to be crossed in order for the police to start an investigation based off a MySpace or Facebook, he said.

But the line drawn is not up to the police, it’s up to a judge, said Ron Matekaitis, DeKalb County state’s attorney.

“It depends on the content of the pictures,” he said. “What objects and what people are identifiable.”

Police are not inclined to treat information gained through MySpace and Facebook differently than any other kind of evidence, Matekaitis said.

Last week, NIU held an educational seminar for all NIU athletes to inform them about the dangers of MySpace and Facebook.

“We wanted to make sure students are aware of the legal and personal implications of these Web sites,” said Chris Juhl, coordinator for NIU Life Skills and CHAMPS.

Marie Zidek, volleyball player and senior exercise science major, said she benefited from the event.

“I was pleasantly surprised with the faculty response, they didn’t come down on us,” she said. “The faculty was understanding and told us to just be careful of what we do online because as athletes we are targets.”

Potential employers look at these kinds of things when choosing between candidates, Juhl said. An inappropriate profile could cause them to choose a different candidate.

All NIU athletes were invited to the seminar, Juhl said. But the topics covered apply to all students.