Cop Gets Investigated Because MySpace Friend Links To Porn
from the you-have-to-be-kidding dept
Rich Kulawiec writes in to let us know about a ridiculous situation in Florida, that has some similarities to the ridiculous Julie Amero situation. Basically, a bunch of school officials and local newspaper folks are freaking out about the potential for students to access porn and are blaming the wrong people while displaying stunning levels of ignorance.The basics of the situation are pretty straightforward. A cop who works at a middle school in Florida has a MySpace account, that he set up with the approval of the police department and the school, hoping it would allow him to connect with the kids he's supposed to be protecting. One of his many, many friends on MySpace happened to link to a porn site on their own profile. So, because one friend out of a huge list of friends happens to link to a porn page, the cop is now under investigation with the local paper dramatizing the situation by noting that students could (gasp!) get to porn "in just three clicks." Apparently, they're investigating whether the officer is criminally liable for exposing children to inappropriate content -- yes, because someone on his friend's list linked to porn. Under that definition, an awful lot of people are probably guilty.
Ah, but the story gets better (or worse, actually). You see, after some investigation, people noticed that the school's own website actually linked directly to a porn site itself -- which would seem a lot worse than what the police officer did. In this case, the school had a list of "resources" and one of the links was on a domain that had expired and was taken over by a porn site. Now, using the logic that the school used in having the police officer investigated, shouldn't the school officials also be investigated? Apparently not. Instead, they're angry about the changing domain and are looking at "legal recourse."
So, to summarize: If you happen to work at a school and have a MySpace profile where one friend of many links to a porn site via his own MySpace page: potentially illegal exposure of porn to children. If you work at a school and set up a website that directly links to porn: you're a victim who should be suing the website in question. Very logical.
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Filed Under: porn, school police, social networks, witch hunt
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I can open a web search engine - search for 'porn' and be there in one click!
How inefficient!
Idiots.
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HA!!
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Re: HA!!
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The school should. A co-worker has a son in middle school learning HTML. If they can teach HTML, they should know there is porn out there.
After all, the internet is not a truck.
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what do you expect from a state
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any1 can do better
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I can name that porn in 2 clicks
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here is a link
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Also as a school network administrator you should bar total access to the internet because no matter where you go on the web, porn is 3 clicks or less away
This was probably started by the parent of of kid this cop busted in the first place...though got to ask why does a middle school have a cop assigned to it in the first place? Has the US really reached the sorry stage that schools for 11 to 15 year olds need a cop permanently on site?
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Re: Cops on site
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In the worst neighborhoods, armed school officers patrol the elementary schools. While attending a friend's son's elementary school graduation, we were particularly amused to find that as we were leaving the school after the ceremony, LAPD SWAT officers in full riot gear, holding some pretty damned fearsome looking guns, were standing on the roof, and there were school police and LAPD squad cars everywhere. We didn't stick around to ask any questions.
I would sell my own blood for money or work the street corners of skid row before I would let my child attend one of these schools.
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Won't someone PLEASE think of the children!?!
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Re: Won't someone PLEASE think of the children!?!
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computers can summon porn from the ether
1) there will be dust inside the case
2) the keys will become sticky
3) there will be porn on the hard drive
it's some sort of computing law, regular as gravity.
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Re: computers can summon porn from the ether
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Another case of...
What do we burn besides witches?
MORE WITCHES!
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Re: Another case of...
Wood!
So, why do witches burn?
[pause]
B... 'cause... they're made of wood?
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Regardless, this is just ridiculous that this situation is being looked at with such little logical. Watch as society gets dumbed down to the lowest common denominator, and all common sense is lost.
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Porn at School! ! ! !
WOOT GO KINKY BONDAGE PORN....
Chalk another one up to the belief that the human body isnt a work of art and should never be viewed like the work of art that it is. The Europeans found a way to cope with it, the Japanese found a way to cope with it... But us no... we have to tell our children its bad, and dirty... don't forget every time you see a naked person god kills a kitten.
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My God, a first year law student could get this cased tossed at the first hearing.
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You will be hearing from my lawyers. You too, techdirt. And firefox, since I have the page bookmarked using that client.
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I'm glad that I can turn on the TV and have children listen about war, killings, suicide attacks, outbreaks of disease, and sensationalised stories about comets destroying the earth by some kind of magnetic electrical field or whatever, but am safe in the knowledge that when they log on to the world wide interweb, the government is doing its best to stop them seeing two people going at it like rabbits.
Bravo, Government. Truly we live in a flawless society.
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Tubes
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SSchool officials fired for stupidity reporters se
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God Forbid
That whole allegation is just ludicrous and pointing the finger at the wrong individual. Just because kids MISUSE a websites abilities for things other than what they're meant for, doesn't mean that company should have to change it's policies or procedures. It falls on the USER to make the right choice and on that user's PEERS to make the right choices.
Frickin' amazing. Take some f00king responsibility people!
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What do you expect...
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DARE
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How many?
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cop & porn site
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Can we have the web address of the officials, plea
(But WOW, what an unbelievable story. Only in America!)
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At least he didn't
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Re: Sex vs Violence
It's an inane argument but it's what they believe.
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No surprise here...
Sad part is the jerks who said that will get away with it and continue TEACHING AMERICA'S CHILDREN!
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Either intra-net or inter-net.
Every school I have said the same thing, either you have the internet and everything with it, or you don't -- there are no in-betweens.
It is absurd to "have" the internet and Net-nanny, useful sites get blocked constantly, in my last school anything that had a forum was blocked, anything that mentioned the word "games" was blocked. Looking up anything was a nightmare. It made the net useless.
Ironically the ability of pubescent boys to find porn even under the most draconian net-nanny is a wonder to behold. Some used Japanese words which Net-nanny allowed, but mobile phones where very popular display devices.
I have said and said again, if porn is such a hassle for the schools, spend the money and create a huge intra-net and simply copy sites to it. I am not a great believer in the use of internet in schools by students anyhow, but if they spent more attention on actual education and less time wasted patrolling kids finding porn, I would be a much happier teacher.
Computers could have been a great asset to education, they have turned into the greatest distraction, expensive toys that make it appear that students are learning when they are doing very little - all very sad. Far easier to run around worried sick that little Johnny might be looking at something he has spent some time and ingenuity in finding, than whether he has learnt anything much in school.
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oh c'mon
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Those who can, do
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One click actually
press ctrl-L
type in dirty website
press enter
browse porn
The sad thing is that these people being school administrators don't know a dang thing about their job. The most effective way to deal with in-school porn is to have the network admin setup a website log. That way they can see where everyone's been. No keyloggers, just a good internet monitor. Porn site? Right-click, block, and
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With no clicks
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If yall only knew..........
yall are fucking idiots, porn is everywhere in this time period, your mom can be looking at her self in the mirror and its considered porn, and three whole clicks f that s its easier to just type in porn and search the school officials are to worried about myspace and people actually trying to know the students rather than trying to prevent the shit that is going on at their school, and yeah personally i like porn its easier to get porn at school than under my parents noses
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Sick of the witch hunts
Stop putting computers in your kid's bedrooms. Watch what they watch on the Internet and on the television. Use services like NetNanny that help protect your kids and you from what is disturbing.
Would someone start thinking about the rights of others for a change? I don't look at porn, but I think others have the right to and people have the right to freedom of speech.
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Comment
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