Pandora’s Blog

Here are two stories that show just how great MySpace is for the ill-intending. All I have to say is, parents, you gotta monitor your child’s PC activity… If these parents were involved, neither case would have happened. These are two more reasons why monitoring software like PC Pandora is essential.

Bus driver accused of using MySpace to lure teen

The Hearald Leader in Kentucky reports that a Rowan County school bus driver was arrested and charged Tuesday with unlawful transaction with a minor in an alleged incident involving a teenage boy.

State police said Gary L. Clark, 46, of Elk Lick Road, Morehead, had been in contact with the boy through a MySpace.com profile.

Police said he solicited the boy to meet him Saturday and allegedly coerced him into getting into his vehicle. There, “inappropriate actions” occurred, but police declined to elaborate.

Police seized computer equipment from Clark’s home. The boy is a Rowan County student but was not on Clark’s bus route.

Rape victim, 16, identifies suspects via MySpace.com

The Seattle PI reports that a man and three teenagers are facing rape charges after a 16-year-old girl identified her attackers through a page at MySpace.com.

Sergey Davniy, 18, and three 17-year-olds were charged last week in King County Juvenile Court with second-degree rape in the Nov. 18 attack of the girl.

According to police, the girl and a female friend used the Internet to arrange to meet the youths Nov. 18. They did, but the girl’s friend went home, leaving her alone with the young men in a car.

After giving her a large amount of alcohol, prosecutors say, the young men stopped the car in a dark stretch of road in the Eastgate area of Bellevue and took turns raping her in the back seat of the car. The young men then took the girl to her home, where the girl’s mother learned that her daughter had been assaulted.

Returning to the MySpace page where she’d met the young men, the girl was able to identify two of her attackers. Detectives then used a search warrant to get copies of messages exchanged by the youths about the rape.

OK, I will give props here for the ability to catch your attackers using MySpace – that is cool and good for the girl. But it’s also just sheer stupidity on the boys’ part; it is evidence of the overflowingidiocracy that takes place on social networks…

Now for some legitimate news on MySpace: Their follow-up to the legendary “agreement” is creating the Internet Safety Technical Task Force, which will convene a yearlong task force to explore how children can avoid unwanted contact and content when using MySpace and other popular online hangouts.

I am not knocking this at all. In fact, I can’t wait to hear their findings and recommendations. Hopefully, the message will sink in then with parents. But that still doesn’t cure the rampant stupidity and unparalleled dependency of teens on social networking websites.

You can read the AP article here: Harvard Scholars to Explore Net Safety

Here are some highlights and the short facts you should know:

• MySpace created the task force, named its members and chose Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society to run it, but the group will operate independently, according to the center. They say their recommendations will be non-binding.
• Although the task force grew out of concerns that attorneys general have about Internet sexual predators who target children on social-networking sites, it will also explore how to keep children safe from online bullies and pornography.
• Procedures for verifying users’ ages are expected to be among the topics of discussion.
• The Berkman Center has long been exploring the intersection of technology, policy and culture and recently organized a Federal Communications Commission hearing on allegations of Internet traffic discrimination by Comcast Corp.
• Tools identified by the task force would be available industry-wide, including MySpace’s rivals.

• Besides MySpace and Berkman, task force members include social-networking sites Facebook and Bebo; Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc. and Time Warner Inc.’s AOL; Internet service providers Comcast, AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. and child-safety groups such as the missing children’s center, WiredSafety.org and Enough is Enough.

• Quarterly reports will be sent to the attorneys general, with a final, public report expected in about a year.

 Have a great weekend!

This entry was posted on Friday, February 29th, 2008 at 2:42 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.