MySpace Pays Lip Service To Eliminating Internet Predators
from the incognito dept
Along with MySpace's rise in popularity has come an increase in the furor that it's a haven for miscreants, predators and pedophiles, and that it's a threat to the children. Of course, most of this criticism is misplaced, but the continual bad press could put a dent in the site, so it's now announced a plan to weed out sexual offenders and kick them off the site. MySpace says it will work with a company to build a database of sex offenders from government records, and somehow search through all its members profiles to look for matches. The problem is, this really doesn't sound like much more than lip service -- after all, the mere presence of sex offenders on MySpace isn't the problem, and if they're kicked off, it seems like they could simply build another profile and start over. This isn't to mention that it's also possible (likely, even) that predators using MySpace might be clever enough to use a fake name, or other false information to evade detection -- making it sound like these searches will be about as good at filtering out the bad stuff as MySpace's music-filtering technology, which never seems to work. Another story details MySpace's other great idea for catching predators: forcing sex offenders to register their email addresses with the government, so that social-networking sites could keep them out. Yeah, that sounds like a really effective plan, as long as you ban sex offenders from using free email services, too.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Better idea...
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...
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Re: ...Not Letting You Kids Have MySpace Accts.
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lame
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Dateline NBC
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Its not that hard...
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easy fix
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Pathetic
IF A PERSON YOU MEET ONLINE ASKS TO MEET YOU, DON'T SPEAK TO THEM EVER AGAIN.
Of course, this can have some exclusions, such as a friend you do know in real life does in fact know them, and can vouch for them. Meaning, they are who they say they are.
What young kids need to know is that they shouldn't be speaking to people they just meet in a chat room. Online profiles are rediculous. You can easily fake ANY information for anything. The only way to stop the problem would be to ban people from the internet or make kids stop doing stupid things.
I myself have met people online, and I know I can trust them due to time. I have known one person for years, and I met her online and I can trust her. She has trusted me with her money before (online money transfer services), so quite clearly, I can trust her.
If you want your kid safe, ban them from creating online-bitching-journals. Alot of kids that make them just crave attention, and act like whores. I've seen a 12 year old's MySpace where she says she is 18, and she has a poll on it, asking: "What do you think of me?", and one of the choices is "Fuckable". What kind of parent lets their kid do that?
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Re: Pathetic
You uh... forgot to post a link.. please?
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that's the whole thing in a nutshell... if the the kids are stupid enough to strip half naked on their webcam and give out their personal info and agree to meet complete strangers from the internet... well they get what's coming to them. i did all kinds of stupid shit when i was younger online, granted most of it consisted of various forms of "identity theft" as they call it now-a-days... but i survived my online experience as a youth. i was smart enough to know that i should remain anonymous to the other users online... frankly, i think they should continue to let the pervs on myspace to teach these dumb ass kids a lesson: life's harsh and there are fucked up people out there so you can be doing stupid shit that's going to get you into trouble...
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MySpace
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If you build a better mousetrap...
I say, this time, I have to agree with Mr. Physicsguy: If some kids strips half naked, takes pictures, lies about her age, and then plays the attention-whore card, well, you can hardly blame anyone for not knowing she's really 15 or what-not. Not to mention, I'm pretty sure that myspace won't let you make an account if you're less than 16 (my girlfriend tried to make a myspace page for her dog) so any kid under 16 with a myspace has already shown no qualms about lying.
..and #10, we're still waiting for that link. :-D (and I want to know what you voted, and how you knew she was 12-- and if that had any bearing on your vote) Do tell.
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Internet safety
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Need For Federal Law To Mandate Protection of Mino
There should be a federal law mandating that all social networking sites cross reference with the National Sex Offender Registry before allowing users to subscribe to sites where minors socialize. Additionally, these sex offenders should have a flag by their name to indicate who they are. This is not in violation of any rights because a convicted felon has limited rights and is not supposed to be in areas where children congregate. Of course, they can use fake identities however, if caught, it will impact their sentancing. While this may not keep all sex offenders out, this certainly would be a deterrant and would send a clear message that the cyber playground is closed to them... and if they choose to climb over the fence... Well, that may be the last fence they ever climb over again once they're caught.
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Ohgawdnotanotherlaw!
I would like to see some statistics on actual sex offenders at sites like MySpace vs stats on how many offenders and "children" are actually police posing in order to "catch" the offender. It's gotten to the point where anyone stupid enough to believe that really is a child with whom they are chatting, is stupid enough to deserve to get busted.
Before we start passing more laws, we should also decide whether or not the children bear some responsbility, as noted in a prior posting. No, a well-developed 12 year old walking around braless is not asking to be seduced and/or raped. But a 12 year old that is posing as an 18 year old or older on-line, engaging in adult chat language and behaviour should not be surprised when treated as an adult and must bear some of the responsibility
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I can arm you and your kids against Internet crime
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gayyy
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intrenet
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MySpace
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ckls;nkcsmckmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
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