February 6th, 2007
Justice was served today as Bret T. Lepore was sentenced to one to two years for arranging sexual encounters with two 14-year-olds he met on MySpace.com in December 2005.
Beltrami also ordered Lepore to serve five years of probation, maintain full-time employment, perform 70 hours of community service and read the book “Every Man’s Battle: Winning the War on Sexual Temptation One Victory at a Time
.”
Lepore had sex with both girls at his apartment and again with one of the victims in his car while it was parked behind the Schoeneck Moravian Church in Upper Nazareth Township.
(Full article)
Posted in Justice, MySpace, Predators | 1 Comment »
February 1st, 2007
A 12 year old girl with a Bebo profile received numerous graphic photos of men posting on her profile. The girl also had posted her cell phone number on her profile and recieved several text messages from different men.
From the article:
Karen, who has asked not to have her last name used, was called on Wednesday morning by a friend to tell her to check her daughter’s Bebo profile.
One man had sent six photographs of his penis, another had sent a photo of himself with an erection. There were a total of 134 messages from men posted to her account.
But she was concerned there was nothing parents could do to stop men prowling the website for children.
Posted in Bebo, Porn, Underage | 1 Comment »
February 1st, 2007
Once again, Senators with little knowledge of how the Internet works are writing flawed legislation. John McCain (R-AZ) and Charles Schumer (D-NY) are pushing a “feel good” bill to the senate floor that would require sex offenders to submit e-mail addresses, instant-message names, and other identifying Internet information to federal authorities.
Sure, who doesn’t want to protect children online from sexual predators? The problem is that the legislation is difficult to near impossible to enforce, and would require nearly every website that has social interaction to link to a sexual predators database. The blog MyCrimeSpace has a good posting on this as well.
From the article:
As for the bill’s intent to stop age misrepresentation, Internet safety experts say nice try, but hardly enforceable. Parry Aftab, a cyberspace attorney and executive director of the 8-year-old WiredSafety.org, said only “the stupidest” online predators would use their registered online monikers. And “while there’s a lot of stupid sexual predators, it’s easy to get around (the proposal).”
“I love the idea, but who’s going to comply?” Aftab said. “I don’t want to dismiss the efforts of anyone who’s trying to help, but what we’re coming up with is a lot of knee-jerk legislation.”
Posted in Government, Predators, Sex Offenders | 1 Comment »
February 1st, 2007
Monitoring software is an important tool for any parent. Since it is near impossible to keep a constant look over the shoulder, software can be your “digital eye” that allows you to keep an eye on your kids even when you’re not around. One county sheriff is spreading the word, and some free software:
A new computer software offered to parents for free might make it easier to better monitor and possibly prevent sex crimes and cyber-bullying against children, law enforcement officials said.
ComputerCOP, a monitoring software distributed by the Suffolk County Sheriff’s office scours a computer’s hard drive — searching for every photo, e-mail, web activity, Internet chat log and more than 1,000 buzzwords, like “sex,” — every time a child logs onto the computer.
The Sheriff’s office will distribute 43,000 copies of the software, which cost about $127,000 and was paid for using money seized from drug dealers and money launderers, DeMarco said.
“It’s not enough anymore to put computers in high traffic areas,” said Laura Ahearn of Parent’s for Megans Law. “What we’re saying is violate their privacy, look over their shoulders, read their IM’s, check their Web browsers.”
Check out the full article here.
Posted in Education, Software | 1 Comment »
January 29th, 2007
The standard schoolyard bullying that most of us experienced at some point growing up is being replaced by a new form of torment: Cyberbullying.
From the article:
According to statistics, more than a third of American teenagers who use instant messaging and social networking sites such as MySpace, FaceBook, Xanga and Friendster fall victim to electronic insults, often by schoolmates.
The phenomenon has even provoked suicides. In 2005, a 15-year-old boy named Jeff killed himself in the southern state of Florida after being harassed for two years on the Internet by other teenagers.
Another 13-year-old boy from the northeast state of Vermont, Ryan Halligan, committed suicide in 2003. Halligan, who suffered from a slight handicap, had become the butt of jokes on the Internet by several girls.
The article also goes on to mention that while classic schoolyard bullying mainly involved boys, girls are actually slightly bigger perpetrators of cyberbullying than boys.
Fortunately, there are ways for parents to get help in dealing with cyberbullies. Cyberbully.org is a good place to start. They have an excellent guide (PDF) to cyberbullying as well.
Posted in Cyber-Bullying, Education | 1 Comment »
January 29th, 2007
According to a recent Pew Internet survey, social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook are all the rage. A full two thirds of all teens have at the very least created an online profile.
Of those two thirds of all teens, nearly half are between the ages of 12 and 14 years old, which means a large percentage of kids are lying about their age to sign up on these sites, since most require a minimum age of 14 to sign up.
If you’re interested, you can view the press release that summarizes the survey, or you can view the entire survey in PDF format.
FYI, the survey took place between October 23 and November 19th 2006, so you can rest assured the numbers, if taken again today, would be higher than they were just 3 months ago.
Posted in Education, Social Networking, Studies | 1 Comment »
January 26th, 2007
I think most would agree that social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook should take additional steps to protect minors that sign up for their services. But do we really need government to get involved? Georgia State Senator Cecil Staton has proposed a bill that would “make it illegal for the owner or operator of a social networking Web site to allow minors to create or maintain a Web page without parental permission.”
In the wild world of Web 2.0, how do you define a social networking web site? What inherent features flags a site as a “social networking web site” and who makes that decision? And what happens if a social networking website just happens to be based outside of the USA? This kind of legislation raises all sorts of sticky issues that are better left resolved in the private sector.
From the article:
If owners or operators of a company failed to comply with the proposed law, they would be guilty of a misdemeanor on the first offense. A second offense would be a felony and could lead to imprisonment for between one and five years and a fine up to $50,000 or both.
And the real kicker:
Staton said the bill does not tell the companies exactly how to ensure that minors don’t log on without parental permission. The companies can figure that out on their own, he said.
“They can find a way to do this,” Staton said. “That’s my challenge to them.”
Read the rest here.
Posted in Government, Social Networking | 1 Comment »
January 25th, 2007
With the rise in popularity of social networking websites, students are finding it more difficult than ever to manage their time. Parents should keep an eye on how long their teenage children are spending on social networking websites. College students should know better. 
The majority of the students said their online activities were not a distraction. However, when asked what their online activities did distract them from, 60 percent of the students said they were distracted from homework and 24 percent were distracted from studying.
Check out the full article.
Posted in Social Networking, Students | 1 Comment »
January 23rd, 2007
Shaun Brown of Newfield pleaded guilty to threatening a 13-year old Ohio girl over the Internet.
Brown originally met the girl in an online chat room for cheerleaders, court documents said, and pursued her with sexually explicit instant messages.
With threats of harm to her and her family, Brown coerced the girl into exposing her breasts to a Web camera and then posted one of the photographs, along with her name and address, on MySpace.com — an online social network site potentially accessible to millions of people.
The girl didn’t tell her parents about Brown or the threats until he put her image on MySpace.com.
View the full article here.
Posted in MySpace, Online Chat, Underage | 1 Comment »
January 23rd, 2007
Sex offenders preying on a 14 year old girl with a MySpace profile. From the article:
Two Buchanan County sex offenders accused of having sex with a 14-year-old girl they met on the Internet have been charged with third-degree sexual abuse.
Officials say Scott Seehawer and Winston Ramsdale met the girl through the online hangout MySpace. They’re accused of taking the girl from her home in Hiawatha to their home in rural Walker last month. Both men are registered on the state’s sexual offender registry.
Posted in MySpace, Rape, Sex Offenders, Underage | 1 Comment »
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