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Internet safety advocates have been watching the trend for some time -- now news of MySpace.com leading sexual predators and online criminals to minors has media and law endorcement attention ...
The Internet once was seen as a golden "information superhighway" transporting the next generation to the Promised Land. Now it may feel more like a minefield -- seductive on the surface, but seeded with subterranean hazards.
Internet safety advocates have been watching the trend for some time. In year 2000 UGN Child Web Safety seminars included a segment on youth 'gathering' sites. We took attendees to various sites to find posts by children as young as seven. Parents were urged to key in their own zip codes and see local children clearly accessible to predators. Now, the rest of the media world is just beginning to catch on.
Following the ABC TV special about an online predator sting, we began chasing the MySpace.com story. As we've said all along -- just go to MySpace.com and key in your zip code. You may not like what you see.
Joe Showker, ITRT-Instructional Technology Resource Officer for Rockingham County Schools continues to present "Child safety" and "Internet Safety" seminars throughout the mid-Atlantic. He writes:
[Quote]
I just finished extensive time researching MySpace.com. I hope you saw the NBC special on "social networking" web pages and predator activity on the internet.
I created a myspace account (similar to my AOL 19 year old account,) then tried to find my young family member's myspace page. I turned off everything that could possibly lead anyone to a page including disallowing "non-friends" to view page; which would give the user a false sense of security. To my surprise, the search engine for MySpace.com still used information in the sign-up page that was NOT on the profile including our ZIP CODE. "I was able to find the page by using the name and entering "within 5 miles of zip code"!
I also found that the porn business is alive and well on MySpace.com with pages setup specifically to lure underage youth to amateur and commercial pornography pages. (There is no restriction and no filters of any kind at MySpace.com.) "Some of these pages actually load a video clip for the viewer.
All in all, this was a very alarming experience as a "first visitor" to myspace.com. I'll include this episode in my spring presentations. [End Quote]
After all the articles and warnings, the main-stream media is finally waking up -- and now, high-level law enforcement is getting involved.
The threat is serious enough to grab the attention of Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal who says he was "deeply disturbed" by the reports... now investigating whether criminal charges can be brought against the site's operators.
(Consumer Affairs story, first reported by the Easton Courier)
"It is a predator's dream come true, this Web site," said Middletown Police Sgt. Bill McKenna. "Because not only can you see them, but you can see their friends. You can find out where they go to middle school and high school." (CBS/AP News Story) "Police are investigating whether as many as seven teenage girls have been sexually assaulted by men they met through the ultra-popular Web site http://www.myspace.com/."
"The criminals go where the kids are, and kids are on social-networking sites right now," said John A. Grossman, chief of the Massachusetts attorney general's corruption, fraud and computer crimes division.
"The reality is that it's likely a matter of time before some criminal abuses the access they get through these sites to commit a crime," he said.
A search showed that MySpace includes easy access to hundreds of porn sites and links to Web communities that promote drug abuse, teen sex and living the "'ana' lifestyle," a term some use to describe anorexia. (Dan Lamothe, The Republican, MassLive.com Read More)
For most adults, the internet is just a tool. But to kids...the web is their life. The Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation says the common age of some of the users is as young as eleven and kids who lie about their age to gain access to the site and then post extremely personal information. It took very little time to find profiles of teens from Wisconsin, in suggestive poses, barely dress, engaged in adult activity.
(Kris Schuller, WFRV, CBS Broadcasting Inc. Read More)
Robert Mayer says "Parents need to be vigilant when it comes to MySpace... Berlin resident Kevin Karbownik, 21, was looking for friends but found more on MySpace.com. Karbownik logged onto the easily accessible and free Web site and found a young girl who was not only interested in him but interested in meeting him for sex. She was just 14-years old."
(Robert is managing editor for the Berlin Citizen
(CT) here's the story.)
Mark Snyder writes about email he gets.
(Herald Media) Here's the e-mail:
"Hi Mark - My wife and I looked over Myspace.com the other night. What we found was stunning. This site is a predator's dream. The site is set up for people 18-year-olds and older. On a simple search, we were able to clearly identify about 40 seventh graders who stated they were students at the O'Donnell Middle School. All of them are very foolish, but some so foolish that they even included their actual first and last names. Most of the kids posted actual photos of themselves. Many 12- and 13 year-olds admit to having been drunk before. Some describe the sexual escapades that they would like to participate in."
Mark Snyder 2/10/06 Read A warning to parents - beware of Myspace.com
Predators looking for teenage girls or boys have a tool that makes it very easy for them to find and groom their victims and millions of teens are playing right into their hands. In the NBC sting operation News Correspondent Chris Hansen reports: "48-year-old Allen, screename 'trying-2b-normal,' promised to teach a girl who said she was 13 different sexual positions and show her what a man really likes."
(Larry Magid CBS News Read More 2/3/06)
Adrienne Stein
(TheJacksonChannel.com) interviews Ed Parmelee an agent on the FBI's Cyber Crime Task Force. Parmelee is working a case in Mississippi where a sexual predator gained access to a child through a Yahoo instant messenger account.
"It's not so easy to say -- go to the mall where you're 45 or 50 and you go up to an 11-year-old. Most 11-year-olds are not going to want to talk to you. But if you present yourself on the Internet as a 12-year-old male and you're trolling for 11-or 12-year-old females, then it's easier to make contact and develop a relationship,"
The statistics are alarming -- one in five children will at some point be solicited for sex through e-mail or chat. One in four children is exposed to "unwanted" sexual material on the Internet.
(Read More)
Diane Stafford in her Kansas City Star article says:
"What many users are forgetting is that Web pages blur the distinction between public and private lives. You may be creating a "personal" site, but it's out there in cyberspace for review by a lot more than your close friends and relatives." There's now a third career-related warning for people who use e-mail or blogs or who create their own profile pages on the Web.
(More)
Virginia Delegate Chris Saxman sends this GOOD news for the STATE of VIRGINIA:
"We had a bill that was drawn to require schools to offer Internet safety instruction. I voted for it on the floor and it passed overwhelmingly."
Hat's off to Delegate Saxman and U.S. Congressman Goodlatte of Virginia for being leaders on the issue of Net safety for families and kids!
* Contact your representation and learn what your state is doing about online crime.
* Report all suspicious online activity. The first place to start is with your local law enforcement officials.
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