Pandora’s Blog

SO, I was sitting here this morning thinking to myself, “what the heck and I going to blog about today?”

Then I checked the news.

Wow. Well, apparently the Lori Drew conviction was overturned by the judge. Lori Drew, who already got away on state and criminal laws, will now not even suffer the fate of a misdemeanor. She is 100% free. She convinced a troubled young girl to kill herself – and she will lead a free life unscathed… at least until the angry mobs get to her.

There are millions of stories posted on this out there… here are a few headlines:

• New York Times: Judge Throws Out Conviction in Cyberbullying Case
• LA Times: MySpace suicide case tentatively dismissed
• Reuters: MySpace suicide conviction tentatively dismissed
• ComputerWorld (IDG News Service): Judge temporarily dismisses MySpace cyberbully case

I won’t bother to post them because they are all similar and the general idea is thus:

U.S. District Court Judge George Wu granted a defense motion for a directed acquittal of Lori Drew.

In November, a federal jury here convicted a-hole Drew of three misdemeanor charges under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a federal law intended to combat computer crimes. Legal experts followed the case closely, saying it was the first time the statute had been used to prosecute a patron of a social networking site for abuses of the site.

But on Thursday, Judge Wu said the federal statute was too “vague” when applied in this case and that were he to allow Ms. Drew’s conviction to stand, “one could literally prosecute anyone who violates a terms of service agreement” in any way.

So we now wait for the “final” verdict next week… but we have to look at this from two sides

SIDE ONE: Legal
This overturning was legal correct. You can’t deny that. Her violation of terms shouldn’t be a federal legal matter. It should be civil. The problem with that is, these social networking websites are businesses and run by corporations. They are in the game to make money. They will not use their own money to go after their precious users in lawsuits for simply violating an agreement that not even the law cares about. As it is, notice that MySpace didn’t get rid of any of its convicted sex offender members until it was FORCED to by all (but one) state Attorneys General in the US.

The bottom line, violating the terms of service is not a federal matter.

SIDE TWO: Parenting
On the other hand… Knowing that there is no national law to prevent cyberbullying (and I don’t think there will ever be one), if you live in a state where there is no cyberbullying statue (and MOST do not have one), the overturning of this all but confirms to the public that social networking sites are the Wild West. Now, not even the Terms of Service have any meaning. People can do what they want on there, and the federal government – in a way – back up that freedom.

So, parents… what are you going to do?

Remember: the reason behind the overturning was literally because of the “well, if everyone is doing it, it must be okay” theory. Disgusting.

THE OTHER SIDE – what they should do:
Remember when they made credit card companies be more direct with their language and fine print… why not make websites that are home to literally hundreds of millions of users do the same with the ToS. Don’t we think that if we made those ToS easier to read so there were no excuses and then held people accountable to them, a huge chunk of cyberbullying and internet predators would go away?? 

And don’t cry me a river about freedoms. This is about acting nice and not being an a-hole online. If you can’t do it on your own, maybe someone needs to tell you how to do it… (since obviously your parents forgot how to OR you’re too lazy to teach your own kids)…

Personally, this makes me sick, but it also proves a point: parents, no one is watching online. You are the only guardians and safety net there is for your kids, especially against cyberbullies. In the eyes of the federal government, it is okay for someone to bully your child on a social networking website to the point they kill themselves.

But I guess that’s good news for the parents of bullies who are turning their already turning their heads at or oblivious to their child’s horrible behavior. No you have nothing to worry about…

Know what your kids do online!
PC Pandora computer monitoring software

Everything else is just a guess…

Happy Friday!

FYI: This is our sister software, which can be used nicely in conjunction with PC Pandora…

Pandora Corp.’s FREE Data Recovery Tool, Pandora Recovery, surges in popularity and success, passing the half-million download mark. Recovery 2.1.1 is released with an expanded list of recoverable files.

New York, NY (PRWEB) June 30, 2009 — The incidents are numerous, unavoidable and too often when data is lost and not retrieving that data is not an option. PC users around the globe will attest to the fact that an easy-to-use data and file recovery program is essential to have in your arsenal of utilities.

That’s where Pandora Recovery has come in handy for more than half a million people. The free data recovery tool from Pandora Corp. not only recently passed the 500,000 download mark on cNet’s download.com, but it is consistently featured in the weekly Top 10 most downloaded System Utilities list, and recently broke into the Top 25 most downloaded System Utilities of all time!

“Computers are a big part of everyday life. Between business and pleasure, we live an increasingly digital lifestyle,” says Pandora Corp. co-founder, Manuel Coats. “That causes mistakes to be more damaging when they happen… and, as everyone can attest to, they certainly do happen.”

Pandora Recovery is able to recover deleted and/or lost data from both NTFS and FAT formatted drives. It scans the requested drive and builds an index of both existing and deleted files and directories. Users the have full control over which files to recover and what destination to recover them to. In addition, users have the ability to preview deleted files of certain type (images and text files) without performing the full recovery.

A full list of Pandora Recovery 2.1.1 features can be found on PandoraRecovery.com.

“We wanted to create a program that would recover as much as possible for our users,” says Manuel Coats. “At the same time, we wanted the program to be incredibly easy to use for the average non-technical computer users who need a fast and efficient recovery.”

And they have succeeded. A survey of users after initial use found that 86% would definitely continue to use the program and recommend it to others. Coats points out that those numbers, for a free online software product, are staggering.

Pandora Recovery is also available on a removable storage unit (USB jump drive). Pandora Mobile Recovery requires no installation and greatly increases the data recovery success by running the program from and recovering the deleted data to the Pandora Mobile Recovery unit. Utilizing the Mobile version omits the chance of data being further corrupted or written-over during an installation process.

“Ever since the release of Pandora Recovery in 2007, we’ve received rave reviews from users saying how our product has recovered years of data thought lost and gone forever due an accidental delete or drive format,” says Chief Software Evangelist, Chris Graham. “We’ve even had people claim that we saved their jobs.”

Graham says positive feedback like that keeps his team working hard to ensure Pandora Recovery is the strongest tool available to those in need of data recovery. The next step for the team is incorporating the most requested feature: permanent deletion of selected files.

And it certainly won’t end there. Manuel Coats says the program will continue to evolve and grow just as the world’s dependency on electronic data does.

“We’re going to keep working on it and expanding the list of potentially recoverable files and data,” says Coats. “We’d also like to help people recover deleted emails – that’s on the list for sure.”

Most likely, it will not be a program you use daily… but when you need it, you need it – and efficient and effective programs like Pandora Recovery can really save you a lot of stress and headaches in your PC usage. While the basic software is still FREE to everyone, for just a little more than the price of an empty USB flash drive, you can buy the Pandora Mobile Recovery, which also comes with a demo version of the company’s signature monitoring software, PC Pandora (with a $20 coupon to purchase).

System Requirements: Pandora Recovery requires Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003 Server or Windows Vista for installation. Pandora Recovery recovers deleted data from NTFS and FAT formatted drives. There are no plans at this time to create a version compatible with the Mac, Linux, or any other non-Microsoft Operating System.

About Pandora Corp.: Pandora Corporation was formed with one goal – to help our customers monitor, control and protect their families and themselves online. From keeping children safe from predators and shielding them from potentially harmful or mature content, to ensuring the integrity of your relationships, online records, accounts and personal information, Pandora Corporation’s flagship PC Pandora program is an essential tool in the fight against the potentially catastrophic consequences of having your privacy (or that of your family) breached. Pandora Corporation continues to innovate and integrate features our users want and request. Pandora Recovery’s upgrades come as a proof of our commitment.

The big 50th installment of this weekly blog post should show parents that really there are people out there that want to take advantage of your child in a sexual way; many have succeeded, some have been caught and many more continue about their business every day!

Remember, for 50 weeks now (at least) I have given you the stories from around the country that show internet predators being busted. So the next time you hear someone say these threats are blown out o proportion, send them here… I have 50 blog posts full of multiple arrests to show them of threats that are indeed real.

And remember, PC Pandora will let you know if your child is talking to someone who may be a predator. Remember, your kid is a kid. They aren’t going to tell you when they are taking risks. And if you are turning your head, you are letting the predators win.

It’s as simple as that. You may as well open your door and put a sign on your law saying “perverts welcome!”

Here’s a summary of the 6 guys caught this past week. Detailed stories and links follow.

HAPPY 50th!!

• A 23-year-old California man was arrested after he videotaped himself having sex with two teenage girls. Both girls he met online and both girls voluntarily agreed to meet him in real life. One was raped while she was unconscious. Parents please understand: your kids are not perfect angels!!!
• A man from Florida, who is married with three girls, was arrested for using MySpace to prey on teenage girls. He created fake profiles of two teenage girls and used those profiles to befriend other young girls… read the story below to see how elaborate his little predator trap was – but one 13-year-old girl turned to police when she sensed something was not right!
• Four men (ages 25-41) were arrested in Louisiana, as a result of a four-day online predator sting op. All men were charged with soliciting minors for sex.

Read the rest of this entry »

The fourth annual National Teen Summit held by Cox Communications released results of a new study on Cyberbullying and Sexting. The results aren’t all too shocking and pretty much what one would expect – if you are embedded in the issue like we are. But for parents who are clueless, some stuff may come as a shocker.

655 teens, ages 13-18, were polled in April 2009.

I was surprised to learn that only 72% of kids report having a social network profile; and 73% have a cell phone. I thought those numbers would be closer to 90% each.

The most interesting thing in the study is the complete contradiction of what kids say they know and what they do. You can read the official release below and skim the presentation (which is linked below), but the bottom line is that kids know there are dangers and risks to posting pictures of themselves (clothed or not) online, but do so anyway. Why? BECAUSE TEENAGERS DO STUPID TEENAGER THINGS!!

Also interesting, what do parents really know about their children’s activities online? About 2 in 5 teens say they tell their parents very little or nothing about what they do and where they go online. While about three-quarters of teens say their parents have talked to them about online safety, only half of children say they are given some kind of limits or controls when they use the Internet. Among those who have controls, about one in four has figured out some way of getting around them.

That’s why you need PC Pandora computer monitoring software… because A) your kids won’t get around it B) you will see them trying to get around it an can bust them for it and C) they are ADMITTING they do stupid risky things and that D) you (parents) have no clue.

Check out all the info below… There is a press release and a link to the slide presentation. This is great info and every parent should read it and make their own judgments and decisions with the facts in hand.

To view a pdf of the slide presentation, CLICK HERE.

June 24, 2009
Cox Communications’ National Teen Summit on Internet and Wireless Safety Addresses Cyberbullying, Sexting and Other Safety Issues
John Walsh and Teens Discuss Survey Results, Trends and Parental Strategy for Internet Safety at Fourth Annual Summit

WASHINGTON, June 24 — Today, teens from across the country gathered at the Cox National Teen Summit on Internet and Wireless Safety to discuss key topics including cyberbullying, sexting and other current safety issues.

America’s Most Wanted host and children’s advocate John Walsh led the discussion with teens and, for the fourth consecutive year; the summit was held in partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children(R) (NCMEC).

Walsh emphasized to teens and parents that they must be aggressive to protect themselves and loved ones online.

“Cox’s survey results and the conversations with teens today at the National Teen Summit on Internet and Wireless Safety both point to the same essential message — education is key,” said John Walsh. “Parents need to be very vigilant in talking with their kids about online and wireless safety, use parental controls and keep an open dialogue.”

Results of a new survey conducted by Cox in conjunction with NCMEC were presented during the summit and shared via virtual media conference on BlogTalkRadio.

Click Here to listen to the virtual media conference featuring John Walsh, teens and questions from callers.

Of the teens surveyed, seventy-two percent have a social networking profile, seventy-three percent have a cell phone and ninety-one percent use email. As total online and wireless activity increases, teens are exposed to additional potential risks.

“I’m excited to take Cox’s cyber safety messages to Capitol Hill and back to my community,” said Eric, age 18, from New Orleans. “First-hand, I’ve seen kids make simple mistakes that can have big consequences for their reputation and safety.”

According to the survey, one in four teens know someone who has had something bad happen to them because of information posted electronically. Nearly one in five teens have bullied someone via social media, email or text message, and one in ten have been cyberbullied by someone else.

Despite widespread reports of personal photos being maliciously and widely distributed online, three in five teens have posted photos of themselves; one in five have engaged in sexting — sending, receiving or forwarding suggestive text messaging with nude or nearly-nude photos.

Although some parents admitted to sometimes feeling guilty for being overly intrusive and protective about their teen’s wireless use, the survey results indicate that 44 percent of teens are not given any limits or controls when they go online via their cell phones.

Walsh offered the following tips for parents and guardians to protect teens online:

• Always use parental controls like those available with Cox High Speed Internet
• Maintain an ongoing dialogue about what your teen is doing online, who they are talking to and how they are accessing the Internet
• Do your own research about social networking environments and Web sites your children visit

Today and tomorrow, the teens who participated in the summit will head to Capitol Hill where they will meet with senators and representatives from their respective states in an effort to bring awareness to the issue of Internet safety.

The National Teen Summit on Internet and Wireless Safety is an extension of Cox Communications’ ongoing Take Charge! initiative, which helps parents, guardians and kids make smarter media decisions. Click Here for surveys on teen Internet safety from the last four years, online safety tools and tips, and links to NCMEC and other resources.

Cox’s Take Charge program was launched in 2004 to educate parents and guardians about the importance of Internet safety and to help families get the most out of mass media in the home. It provides scores of resources to help parents and guardians manage what their children see, and don’t see, on TV and the Internet–from instructions on setting parental controls, to a guide to the lingo teens use online, to tips for more constructive conversations between parents and kids. Teaching young children and teens how to stay safer online is a major element of the Take Charge program. Thanks in part to Cox’s partnership with NetSmartz.com, an educational program from NCMEC, Cox has donated more than $30 million worth of advertising time to NetSmartz and NCMEC to encourage safer online behavior among children.

About the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Since it was established by Congress in 1984, the organization has operated the toll-free 24-hour national missing children’s hotline which has handled more than 2,377,000 calls. It has assisted law enforcement in the recovery of more than 138,500 children. The organization’s CyberTipline has handled more than 699,500 reports of child sexual exploitation and its Child Victim Identification Program has reviewed and analyzed more than 23,796,800 child pornography images and videos. The organization works in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice’s office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. To learn more about NCMEC, call its toll-free, 24-hour hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST or visit its web site at www.missingkids.com

About Cox Communications
Cox Communications is a multi-service broadband communications and entertainment company with 6.2 million total residential and commercial customers. The third-largest cable television company in the United States, Cox offers an array of advanced digital video, high-speed Internet and telephony services over its own nationwide IP network. Cox Business is a full-service, facilities-based provider of communications solutions for commercial customers, providing high-speed Internet, voice and long distance services, as well as data and video transport services for small to large-sized businesses. Cox Media offers national and local cable advertising in traditional spot and new media formats, along with promotional opportunities and production services. Cox Communications wholly owns and operates the Travel Channel. More information about the services of Cox Communications, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cox Enterprises, is available at www.cox.com, www.coxbusiness.com, and www.coxmedia.com.

So here’s today’s MySpace fun story! The 14-year-old girl that posted nude pics of herself on MySpace has child porn charges dropped and has to instead undergo at least six months of counseling and probation and must stay out of trouble.

The thing that parents have to understand in reading this story is the fact that a 14-year-old girl voluntarily posted nude pictures of herself on a social networking website!!! Do you understand that?! Forget about predators and bullies, be afraid – VERY afraid – of your child’s own stupidity and complete lack of self respect, humility, shame and the ability to think twice. Remember, they are teens! Teens do stupid things. Give them powerful technology – and the stupidity multiplies ten-fold.

That’s why we made PC Pandora computer monitoring software… to help parents get a clue about what their kids are REALLY doing online!

NJ Girl Gets Probation For Posting Nude Pics

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A 14-year-old New Jersey girl who posted nude pictures of herself on MySpace.com will have child pornography counts dropped.

The Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office says the girl must undergo at least six months of counseling and probation and must stay out of trouble. If she does, all charges will be dropped.

The Clifton teen was initially arrested and charged with possession of child pornography and distribution of child pornography. If convicted on those counts, she could have been required to register as a sex offender.

Happy Friday everyone. I found this excellent piece that examines the new term that is sure to spread like wildfire soon: digital puberty. It all makes sense. Since kids today spend so much off their time and adolescent/teen life online, they are really coming of age in a digital medium. They are growing, learning and experiences, all in digital hangouts. Therefore, certain “puberty” is experienced digitally.

Awesome.

Parents: don’t forget that teens going through that puberty make mistakes and do really dumb things. You need to guide them and watch them. Encourage them to make smart decision, but don’t just turn your head and expect them to do so.

Check out our PC Pandora computer monitoring software. It’ll let you know what they do and tell you if they are growing up safely and responsibly… or if something non-kosher is afoot.

Have a great weekend! Enjoy this intriguing and fantastic article…

June 23, 2009
DIGITAL PUBERTY: Growing up fast and furious, pre-teens navigate the new social landscape without a map
By Barbara Mahany, Chicago Tribune

Digital puberty: It might not be in the dictionary yet, but its effects are being discussed by teachers, social psychologists and cultural anthropologists plotting out the pitfalls, mapping the maneuvering, of this bold new world where teens grow up — and strive and stumble.

It’s all being played out on a digital stage these days. It’s this cyberhangout — always on, ever-connected, texting and instant messaging, plugged into one social network or another — where teens and preteens now gossip and flirt. It’s where they break up and make up. Post pictures of where they all hung out the night before.

When things get nasty — when insults are flung wall-to-wall (in Facebook lexicon that means just about anyone can read right along), when embarrassing photos get passed from cell phone to cell phone — the backlash is instant and vast and far beyond anyone’s control.

Only, without the face-to-face encounter, a vital check for bad behavior is stripped from the equation. And that, say the experts, might be a crucial difference.

“These bullies don’t see the face of the victim,” says Kevin Honeycutt, a teacher who crisscrosses the country preaching the gospel of cyber-civility. “When you saw someone start to cry, you realized you crossed the line. Empathy would kick in — even if muted. Or at least one of your buddies would get it, tell you to stop.”

Never in the history of social maneuvering have walls between public and private been so permeable. Nor, given the impulsiveness of teens and the exponential powers of cyberspace, have the risks of emotional and social fallout been so potentially damning.

Compounding it all, the kids are leading the digital way.

Two or three years ago, Internet safety meant slapping on filters to keep kids from prowling for porn, and to keep pedophiles from prowling for kids.

That hardly begins to fill in what experts now say is the critical void: Teens, for the most part, have been left to their own devices to navigate this new social milieu, to emerge intact from what Honeycutt refers to as “digital puberty.”

In so many ways, the cyberhangout is a social landscape built for teens. Indeed, it’s mostly unpatrolled by adults.

“It’s the Wild West. They’re making up the rules as they go,” says the mother of a 14-year-old suspended from school last year after he started a Facebook group, “Ten Things I Hate About (one of his teachers).”

Digital natives — a phrase coined by Harvard University’s John Palfrey — have forged, in many ways, their own civilization, with social codes, norms, mores and rules — even a language — all their own.

And when it goes bad, it can go very bad.

That’s what happened last year when a high school senior, who asked not to be identified, woke up one Saturday morning to phone calls from furious classmates asking why she was sending such hateful messages and why she had such a disgusting Facebook page, one that, besides a blast of vile lies, announced she was pregnant and told who the father was.

It would be five days before the page finally came down — police and school officials claimed that without an explicit physical threat they had no recourse — but by then, says the girl’s mother, the damage was done. Her daughter, now in college, was devastated.

And two months later she found out the fake page was created by one of her best friends, the confidant on whose shoulder she had sobbed for weeks.

“You wake up one morning, and the entire county suddenly knows your most intimate shameful secret,” says the mother of the 17-year-old, who had found out she was pregnant the day before the page appeared and had scheduled an abortion.

The most reliable national statistics suggest about one in three teens, and one in six preteens, have been victims of so-called “cyberbullying.” Another national survey shows, though, that only a third of those who’ve been cyberbullied told their parents about it, and another third never told anyone.

Rosalind Wiseman, an educator and author of the best-selling “Queen Bees & Wannabes,” travels the U.S., probing the ethical pitfalls of the digital natives.

Unless social order and civility are coded into the program, she warns, the backlash is this: kids afraid to go to school, kids who can’t focus, kids in a constant adrenalized state, kids who don’t know who their friends are or who really sent a gut-wrenching message. “It all just dumbs you down,” Wiseman says.

“If you’re walking through the halls and you pull out your cell phone to take a picture of a girl because you want to see if she’s wearing underwear, and then you send it around to all of your friends, that’s not funny. You’re disregarding someone’s right to exist without being used as a tool for your sense of power.

“If you want to check and see whether you’re a decent human being, go look at your text messages for the last two weeks. Do you see these words?” she asks, then reels off a list that begins with “slut” and “whore” and ends with words much more vulgar.

“There are few clear things in life,” Wiseman says, “Here’s one: You treat people with dignity.”

Rules to txt by

• “Don’t make big moves on Facebook,” says Kelly Kovacs, a high school senior. “Don’t fight on Facebook; don’t tell someone you love them for the first time; don’t ask someone for a first date on Facebook or in a text message.”
• Don’t give out your password, not even to your best friend, or your boyfriend or girlfriend. Some of the nastiest scenarios unfold after a romantic breakup.
• Don’t send pictures you wouldn’t want posted on the high school wall. And don’t forward one either.
• It’s a cop-out to say you’re just passing it along. If someone sends a nasty e-mail, don’t fire back. You might want to go ahead and write it, but don’t send it. You’re adding fuel to a fire.
• Pick up the phone and talk about it, one to one. Before you send a message, ask yourself: Would I say this to someone’s face?
• If you feel cyberbullied, save the evidence. And don’t be sure you know who sent it; it’s easy these days to hide the real cyber-trail (which is why you should never give anyone your password).

I feel vindicated.

I am off today butt had to make this post. I came cross this newsbit a couple of days ago. It appears that some experts are saying that the data used was outdated and some who are even part of the group are discouraged with the final report. Below is the full article. I have highlighted in red all the parts that I consider to be red flags.

Also, know that as parents you need to wade through the rhetoric and just look at the facts. Here’s a fact: we’ve never had a parent return our PC Pandora computer monitoring software claiming their child was an angel and did everything safe online.

June 19, 2009
Law officials say Web study glosses over risks
Danger to youth on social sites downplayed in report
By Stephen Gurr

Is the Internet as dangerous a place for children as “To Catch a Predator” would have us believe?

A report issued earlier this year by a task force created by 49 state attorneys general suggests it is not, saying the risk of “cyberbullying” against children is greater than online sexual solicitation of minors.

But the Georgia Attorney General’s office and Hall County Sheriff Steve Cronic agree that the report, “Enhancing Child Safety & Online Technologies,” is flawed.

The 278-page report was issued through Harvard University by a task force created by the attorneys general that included representatives from 29 technology companies, social networking Web sites and advocacy groups.

Among the report’s findings: “Sexual solicitation and predation are serious concerns, but the image presented by the media of an older male deceiving and preying on a young child does not paint an accurate picture of the nature of the majority of sexual solicitations and Internet-initiated offline encounters.”

The study says minors more often are solicited over the Internet by other minors, and the chance of it happening is more dependent on a child’s own risky behaviors than the technological platform.

Bullying and harassment, most often by peers, are the most frequent threats minors face, online and offline, the report claims.

Russ Willard, a spokesman for Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker, said the authors of the report admit that the data they used was outdated. Willard noted that a month after the report’s release, the online social network site MySpace said it identified 90,000 registered sex offenders using its site and was taking steps to remove them.

“At the time they were compiling the report, most of the law enforcement data they were relying on was from before social networking exploded,” Willard said.

Indeed, social networking services on the Internet have grown dramatically since just 2006, when MySpace counted 46 million unique users and Facebook, then restricted mainly to students, had 8 million users.

By 2007, MySpace had added 13 million users and Facebook had an additional 11 million.

As of March 2009, Facebook had overtaken MySpace in unique users with 65.7 million, compared to MySpace’s 54.1 million. Most of the growth came from new members older than 30.

Willard said Baker and other state attorneys general are focusing on the recommendations of the report, which include strengthening the software that identifies underage users, better identifying and removing inappropriate images and implementing changes to make it harder for adults to contact children.

Aristotle International, a technology company that specializes in developing political Web sites and databases, issued a harsh criticism of the work of the task force, of which it was a member.

Aristotle said the task force’s objective of developing online identity authentication tools was not met, and that the report “grossly overstates what research tells us about social networking services.”

Research on social networking sites is in its infancy, and caution should be used in interpreting the small amount of research done on the topic, according to the company.

There are many unknowns that remain about how to combat the risks to children posed by social networking sites that have seen such explosive growth in recent years, officials say.

“This is clearly a new frontier for law enforcement,” Willard said.

Cronic said that the assertion that bullies posed a greater threat to minors than sexual predators didn’t hold true in his jurisdiction.

“We haven’t seen that,” Cronic said.

The sheriff’s office continues to make cases against people trying to solicit children online. An ongoing undercover investigation has resulted in numerous arrests in the past few years. Typically those arrested had propositioned an officer who was posing as a minor child.

In Hall County schools, the sheriff’s Advance program teaches fifth-graders about the dangers of the Internet, warning them never to give out private information or communicate with strangers online.

“Everyone would like to believe that online predators have become less prevalent, but we haven’t seen that in law enforcement,” Cronic said.

Sheriff’s investigators have at times faced roadblocks in acquiring private information from technology companies, and the report seems to reflect the same general reluctance by some companies to cooperate, Cronic said.

“I think a lot of the things that it would take to strengthen the protection of children are kind of counterproductive to their business plans,” Cronic said. “But I think there could be a middle ground. There has to be more done than is being done. I think there can be a higher level of cooperation with law enforcement.”

Willard said the attorney general’s office is encouraged by better cooperation from private companies than when the task force was formed.

“Where we are today is a sea change from where we first started,” Willard said. “Initially we were met with a great deal of resistance, but MySpace, Facebook and Craigslist are all working toward a direction that the attorneys general and law enforcement wants them to be working toward.

“It’s a process, and we are making progress as we go along.”

In a prepared statement, Baker said that “protecting our children from sexual predators, including on social networking sites, remains a critical priority for my office.”

Baker said he was pleased with the work some Web sites have done to implement safeguards, but said more safety tools are needed, “and I will continue to work with these social networking sites to create effective safeguards that protect our minors from online predators.”

Another good week for the Pennsylvania AG, Mr. Corbett. Another bad week for predators.

But in addition to that good news, is the sad news or a predator that actually was able to kidnap a young girl and force her to have sex with him.

I urge parents to read these stories below carefully. Understand that you are the only protection your child has. Why would you let them use a very powerful tool, that literally puts people with bad intentions right in front of your kids, without monitoring their activity. It’s not “spying;” it’s knowing. There is a difference in the 21st century.

And that’s where PC Pandora monitoring software comes in… it’ll let you know everything your child does, so you can spot check and make sure they are surfing safe and not putting themselves into danger… because trust me – they will. They are kids.

Here’s a summary of the scumbags caught; full stories with links to the news organizations follow…

• Three men were arrested in PA for soliciting sex from someone they thought was a 13 or 14-year-old girl. Two of the suspects are accused of sending nude or sexually graphic webcam videos, while another allegedly traveled from Maryland to Pennsylvania in order to have sex with a teenage girl.
• A 37-year-old Marylland man was arrested after driving to Pennsylvania, kidnapping and raping a 14-year-old girl he met on MySpace. Yes! A REAL GIRL WAS KIDNAPPED AND RAPED BY SOMEONE SHE MET ON MYSPACE!

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I am going to be debuting the Part I of our PD Pandora Internet safety Symposium tomorrow night (Wednesday, June 23rd) via live webinar.

Anyone who wants to join, leave a comment here with a REAL email address and I will get in touch with you with the details. We are limiting this first webinar to about 20 participants and you will be asked to fill out a short survey at the end, in lieu of payment.

In short, our PD Pandora Internet Safety Symposium is a totally free, customizable Internet Safety kit that can be used by anyone looking to put on an internet safety meeting for parents in their home town. We invite schools, police departments, child advocacy groups and everyone else to take our kit, make it their own, and educate parents in their local area about internet safety…

But here’s the good part – it’s also a fundraiser!! Anyone who uses the symposium, and we hope a lot of you will, has the opportunity to raise money for their group by helping to promote our PC Pandora computer monitoring software. For every sale you bring us of the software, we’ll give 40% right back to you.

Consider this a Beta release of the project, if you will. Those are the only details I will give right now, but you can listen to the CyberHood Watch radio show I did about PD Pandora here. Leave a comment if you would like to view the webinar tomorrow night, which is Part I of the symposium (Part II will be presented in a couple of weeks during a second webinar).

The Attorney General of Missouri announced last week that 373 state residents have had their profiles removed from MySpace because they appeared to match those of registered sex offenders. While this is great news, don’t breathe a sigh of relief just yet…

Every cop will tell you they have only caught a fraction of the guys looking to have sex with kids online. Therefore, the convicted and registered are far outnumbered by the guys that are still out there and undetected. So while removing 373 known perverts is great; there are still hundreds of thousands out there that we have yet to identify…

That’s where PC Pandora comes in. With out computer monitoring software, you can be fully aware of who your kids talks to on social networks AND how they represent themselves. You can find out who their friends are and do the parental ‘check up’ to make sure they aren’t older scumbags looking for a piece of young pie.

Happy Monday!

June 18, 2009
Koster: 373 from Missouri linked to sex crimes removed from MySpace
By Shane Anthony, ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH

Attorney General Chris Koster said today that another 373 Missourians have been removed from MySpace because their profiles appeared to match those of registered sex offenders.

Their names now have been passed the to the Missouri Highway Patrol for an investigation into potential parole violations for using a computer and trying to contact minors.

“I will continue to aggressively pursue any avenue sex offenders use to threaten the safety of our children,” Koster said in a statement.

MySpace reached an agreement in January 2008 with state attorneys general to take several steps to protect minors who use the popular social networking site.

Nanci Gonder, a spokeswoman for Koster’s office, said MySpace identifies the sex offenders, removes their profiles from its site and sends the information to Koster’s office. She said the attorney general requests the information every two to three months.

Gonder said Koster’s office is working with Facebook, another popular social networking site, to reach a similar agreement.

Since January of last year, 1,822 MySpace profiles have been removed in Missouri, Gonder said. She said the number of those profiles that were from the St. Louis area was not readily available.

Koster’s office declined to release the names of the banned users, saying they were closed records because of the ongoing investigation.

Gonder said the Highway Patrol compares the names and locations from MySpace with the Sex Offenders Registry list and then passes their information on to local police. Local prosecutors then can decide whether to seek charges.