Blog Blocker : The Blog

15-year-old teenager Hughstan Schlicker decided to kill his father after his father blocked access to MySpace.

Schlicker said he often spent entire days on MySpace and couldn’t cope when his father cut off his access to the site.

“It felt like I was stabbed with a knife and it went straight through and … no matter how hard I pulled, I couldn’t pull out the knife,” Schlicker said, according to an interview transcript in the police report.

As with any disturbing case, one can only guess as to what exactly was going through this kid’s head.  Was he simply a crazed MySpace addict, or was there more below the surface?  In the article he says he hated his father.  Perhaps there was some form of domestic abuse, and using MySpace was his way of disconnecting himself away from his home life, and when that was shut off, he simply snapped.  Who knows.  Our thoughts are with the Schlicker family during this very difficult time.

Here is the article and video of the teenage killer.

This is from the “lesson learned” file.

Parents who were monitoring their daughter’s MySpace page found out that she was hosting a drinking party while they were out of town.  The parents called the police and 29 underage drinking citations were filed.

(source article)

Talk about an embarrassment.  A 13-year-old girl’s mother was included in a mass emailing that linked to photos of her daughter posing nude on MySpace.

Apparently, the young girl’s ex-boyfriend sent the picture to a friend and this friend “punished her” after a falling out.

(source article)

Sean Lennon of Ravena New York was arrested and charged with rape of a 14 year old girl.

Investigators said that the girl went willinging after the predator went through the grooming process to break down her initial resistance.

State Police Investigator Joe Donohue suggested that parents monitor the MySpace activity by moving the computer from their bedroom to a public spot where they can be watched.

A quick search turns up two profiles that fit the description. Disclaimer: The linked profiles may or may not be the scumbag mentioned in the article.

(source article)

Austin Dunlap and Zach Adair from Maitland Florida were arrested yesterday for threatening two students via MySpace.

The two kids, who attended Orangewood Christian School, threatened beatings, murder, and the rape of one of the victims’ sisters.

Hopefully they’ll be given more than a Juvenile detention center slap on the wrist, but I doubt it…

(source article)

In what may become a series on this blog, today the feature is on 19-year-old Brice Chase of New Hampshire.

Already on probation for a robbery in 2006, Brice thought it might be a good idea to show off his weapon collection on his MySpace profile (a handgun and two swords).  His profile also featured his illegal drug preferences.  A tipster notified the authorities and his probation officer (Officer Charles Wolfort) decided to pay him a little visit.

Upon arrival, they found the weapons and evidence of drug use.  Tada!  Parole violation!

A quick MySpace search turns up one profile that fits the description.  Disclaimer:  This may or may not be the Brice Chase featured in the article (but probably is).

(source article)

According to ComScore, the social networking site Bebo has overtaken MySpace as the most popular social networking website in the UK.

Could this be a sign of things to come in the USA as well?

Melvin Charles Parker Jr., 32, of Richmond, Virginia.

Melvin lured a 16-year-old girl from her home and threatened to hurt her family if she did not prostitute herself. After being charged with pandering, unlawful sex by fraud or fear, soliciting for a prostitute, and sale or transportation of marijuana, he is being held for a mere $30,000 bail.

Bail? This is not the kind of guy that should be out roaming free until his trial date.

Here is the source article.

Remember back in January when MySpace said they had something called “Zephyr” in the works that would allow parents to monitor their child’s MySpace usage?

Well, the public beta has arrived, and they’re calling it ParentCare. Let’s just say that parents hoping for a quality product will be sorely disappointed.

The only thing you’re going to get from ParentCare is your child’s display name, location (which you would already know), and the age that they put in their profiles. That’s about it. Their Profile ID is given, but you better hope they have a public profile, ’cause if they don’t, the ID is useless.

Finally, sorry Mac users, but this software is Windows only.

I’d post a screenshot but the EULA prohibits that. In fact I probably shouldn’t even be talking about it. Brandon at IMSafer handled the Fight Club references that I wanted to make regarding this ridiculous policy.

But since it’s a PUBLIC beta, feel free to check it out for yourself. Here’s the ParentCare FAQ and the direct download link to the software.

… And any other sites their kids might be getting into as well.

This article on Canada.com does a fine job of outlining the need for parents to keep a vigilant eye on what their children do on social networking websites. Some stats from the article:

• 58% of parents know where to download parental control software, but only one-third actually use such programs
• Only 49% of parents know the online aliases their children use
• 26% of parents are unfamiliar with YouTube (Wiki Article)
• 33% of parents are unfamilar with MySpace (Wiki Article)
• 41% of parents are unfamiliar with Facebook (Wiki Article)

Article was originally discovered via JustMySpaceStuff.com