Pandora’s Blog

James Leasure, Co-founder of Pandora Corp, makers of PC Pandora monitoring software, looks at the issue that affects one-third of our children: cyberbullying; discusses what parents can do to stop the problem.

New York, NY (PRWEB) July 16, 2008 — While reports and stories in the media focusing on Internet predators have become all too frequent, the closer-to-home threat to our children may really be cyberbullying, also known as electronic or online bullying. A recent survey of 395 students (11 to 19 years old) found that 28% of students have been cyberbullied, and more than 1 in 7 admitted to acting as the bully.

“Cyberbullying could be the biggest online threat facing teens today,” says James Leasure, co-founder of Pandora Corp. “Of course Internet predators do still exist, but statistically, kids have a much greater chance of being involved in some way with electronic bullying.”

Most cases of cyberbullying go undocumented because, fortunately, many kids are able to shrug off the ‘unkind words’ and look the other way. But there are some cases that make national headlines when they turn into tragedies, such as the Megan Meier case in 2006. Larger cases like this have prompted several states to adopt legislation that makes online bullying illegal.

“Cyberbullying is an on-going thing,” says Leasure. “Because it often continues after school and during the summer months, it’s not something that schools can easily govern. That’s why states are now getting involved and are trying to give more power to local law enforcement to deal with the problem. However, the anonymity offered by the Internet makes it hard to track down the bullies.”

Cyberbullying comes in many forms. It can be as simple as unkind words via instant messenger or through a social networking page, and as serious as vicious life threats. Some bullies may even create a webpage or social network page, pretending to be the victim, and construct a false profile that depicts the victim in an unfavorable way. False profiles and webpages can also be used to carryout Internet smear campaigns against victims.

Leasure notes, “There are so many ways that cyberbullying can take place. But the bottom line is that kids don’t realize the damage it causes - not only for victims and their families, but for the bullies too. Once you put something on the Internet, it’s there for good. If you are involved in or associated with something that many would look unfavorably upon, you can face consequences for it later in life, like being rejected from college or turned down for a job.”

So what can parents do to help curb this social malady affecting our society’s youth?

“Parents are the key to this whole issue,” explains Leasure. “They need to be involved and monitoring the computer and Internet activity of their kids. If they see something that isn’t right, they need to act as parents and correct the issue.”

Leasure believes that all parents should be using computer monitoring software like Pandora Corp’s PC Pandora 5.0. The program works like a DVR for the PC, taking sequential snapshots of everything that happens on the computer, so parents can play back and watch all activity.

“Monitoring computer activity is made pretty easy when you have a detailed visual record of everything your child did on the computer,” says Leasure. “There’s no way a parent should be able to play the ‘I didn’t know’ card when powerful tools like his are available.”

PC Pandora captures further details of user activity in text-based files. Instant messenger chats, emails, websites, keystrokes, peer-2-peer files traded, and programs accessed are all recorded and documented for parental review. PC Pandora lets parents set up Internet filters and program blocks to make sure their kids aren’t accessing programs or content that parents find objectionable. There is also the invaluable IRIS feature that will email a busy parent at work with updates on child activity.

Finally, Leasure emphatically states that “parental awareness is truly the key to fixing this problem. If your child is the victim - or worse, the bully - it’s time to step in. it’s not being over-protective; it’s trying to stop the current generation from ‘virtually’ destroying themselves emotionally. Monitoring software like our PC Pandora plays a vital role in 21st century parenting by providing information needed to be an effective Net-generation parent. With the insight our software provides into a child’s daily struggles, parents can begin to put a stop to Internet threats like cyberbullying.”

A 2-hour trial of PC Pandora 5.0 monitoring software is available at the PC Pandora website.

Cyberbullying Statistics:
A recent survey of 395 students, ages 11 to 19, was conducted by the Kids/Teen Division of the Maine-based online safety organization Working To Halt Online Abuse. The study found that:

• 28% of students have been cyberbullied, but…
• Just over half tell their parents or another adult about it; of the students who did not report the cyberbullying, 25% felt it wasn’t a big problem or didn’t want to make a big deal out of it
• 65% reported the cyberbullying was via IM, followed by email, MySpace, chat rooms and online games
• 43% were cyberbullied by someone their age or in the same grade
• 30% blocked or deleted the cyberbully, while 16% ignored them
• 54 students admitted they had bullied somebody online themselves

About PC Pandora: Pandora Corporation was formed with one goal - to help our customers monitor, control and protect their families and themselves online. First released in mid 2005, PC Pandora has been constantly upgraded to industry-leading specifications and has received accolades from users, reviewers and even school districts and law enforcement agencies, who use the program to help in the day-to-day supervision of the children and citizens they are charged with protecting. The company website devotes space to helping parents with 18 Tips to Safe Surfing and Pandora’s Blog, where current news in the world of online safety is discussed regularly. PC Pandora has vaulted into a leadership position by boasting a combination of features that unparalleled in the monitoring industry. In February 2008, Version 5.0 was released, again widening the spectrum of coverage and protection offered by the program. In addition, through the company’s SAFE SCHOOLS program, schools and school districts can receive up to $100,000 worth of software to aid in protecting their students and their PCs. PC Pandora is also now available through the Pandora Corp. store at Amazon.com.

Reporters and Producers: Looking to cover this topic? We are your technology solution and experts. Software is available for review and testing. Staff members are always available for interviews. Let us help you show your audience how easy it can be to keep their kids safe online.

Even though the research data is from 3-8 years ago, it shows a huge problem here in the states and emphasizes the use and impact of the Internet on the current youth population.

Cyberbullying is a huge threat to our kids and our society. This isn’t just a schoolyard bully throwing a few punches and calling someone a “gaylord.” This is kids emotionally destroying (or trying to) their peers, cowardly behind a computer screen, in front of the school, town, state and world… There is no more hometown bully that you can leave behind when you graduate or if you move; actions of cyberbullying follow victims and their families forever.

This is a situation that needs to be dealt with. Parents need to buck up and stop this from happening by teaching kids the proper way to live and behave in a society. You can forget about he environment, the economy and all your religion… if parents don’t want to teach the current young generation how to act like a responsible and respectful citizen, none of the other stuff will matter.

Technology is a tool. It shouldn’t be used as a weapon. PC Pandora monitoring software can be used to make sure your kids aren’t being hurt online or worse – hurting others.

Enough ranting… Here’s the story:

Online Cyber-Bullying Attacks Increased 50 Percent From 2000 To 2005
Vittorio Hernandez, AHN News Writer, July 15, 2008

Concord, NH (AHN) - Cyber-bullying is rising as “netizens” find it easier-and-easier to post photos and videos on social-networking websites and harass victims.

A report by the University of New Hampshire’s Crimes Against Children Research Center says the number of young Americans between the ages 10 to 17 who experienced online harassment increased 50 percent from 2000 to 2005.

The same report said the number of youth who admitted they made rude or nasty remarks to another person using the Internet rose from 14 to 28 percent for the same five-year period.

Corinne David-Ferdon, a health scientist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, lamented the lack of sufficient cyber-bullying research data. Cyber-bullying recently gained national attention after someone posted a video clip on YouTube of five Florida high school girls beating another girl, who previously posted nasty comments about the five girls on MySpace.

Cyber-bullying is worse than face-to-face bullying because “you get a sense that the whole world is being exposed to what is being said to you,” explained Bill Bond of the National Association of Secondary School Principals in USA Today.

Victims of cyber-bullying have been driven to so much shame that some have committed suicide.

To address the abuse of social networking sites, Facebook joined 49 states and the District of Colombia in crafting a new safety deal that agreed on 11-point safety features. The agreement includes removal of Facebook Groups dedicated to incest, pedophilia, cyber-bullying and other topics that violate the portal’s terms of service.

Here’s a headline from over the weekend… The Canadian Teachers’ Federation has voted unanimously to ratify their policy on cyberbullying, saying that the issue is seriously out of control.

It kind of is here in the states as well. In fact, it is the new epidemic – by far. While lots of it can be considered youthful hazing, and many kids are smart enough to just ignore it (realizing that unless you are a total loser, nothing and no one in your first 18 years of life will matter when you graduate)… but there are those extreme cases where serious emotional damage is done to victims and families.

So how would you know I your child was engaged in cyberbullying? And I don’t mean just being a victim… how would you know if they were an instigator?

As parents, one of our duties is to make sure our children know how to contribute to and participate in society, respectfully and cooperatively in a way that will move the human race forward. Picking on people, viciously and cowardly behind a screen name, does not fit into the overall plan. It’s ridiculous and unnecessary… “Treat others as you want to be treated.”

That’s why parents need to be monitoring Internet activity of their kids. Software like PC Pandora can help. If your child is a victim and not telling you, you will find out and be able to talk to them – plus you’ll have all the evidence. If your child happens to be one of the cowardly spineless bullies, you need to put a stop to it.

Here are two stories that I thought were the best (from the onslaught of coverage of the story). I pasted them below. Check ‘em out and give me your thoughts on this issue…

Cyberbullying has become so serious in schools, the teachers federation wants to make it criminal offence
Mike Cooke, 680news, July 12, 2008

The Canadian Teachers’ Federation is pushing for Ottawa to make cyberbullying an offence under the Criminal Code because of its harmful and serious effects.

Text-messaging, chat rooms, email and social networking groups like Facebook are all being used by these bullies to target teachers and students.

Chris Collins, a retired super-intendent of schools, told 680News the biggest problem with cyber-bullying is the fact that it allows bullies to remain anonymous.

“They don’t have to face the person and [...] when you can hide behind anonymity it gives you a far greater scope to do things that are far more serious and far more harmful and it gives the bully protection that they don’t have when they do it face-to-face.”

One of the most high-profile incidents of online bullying happened in 2006 after a 13-year-old Missouri girl hanged herself. She was taunted by a 16-year-old boy on MySpace. The boy later turned out to be a neighbourhood mother in disguise.

Collins explained a lot of people take online bullying to heart. “It’s in black and white, [which] gives it a legitimacy [...] because it’s out there in print. People consider it to be reliable and many people will believe it.”

According to the teacher’s federation, current laws do not provide police the tools they need to investigate online harassment.

The federation is considering a draft policy that provides “explicit protection” for teachers and students against such behaviour.

This police has already been approved by the group’s board of directors and is expected to be supported by delegates at the group’s annual general meeting in Moncton Saturday.

Teachers’ federation adopts policy to criminalize cyberbullying
Helen Morris, Canwest News Service, July 12, 2008

Cyberbullying should be made a separate Criminal Code offence the Canadian Teachers’ Federation said on Saturday as they voted unanimously to ratify their policy on the issue.

“Because it’s (cyberbullying) so new . . . we haven’t caught up and we’re trying to catch up,” said Emily Noble president of the federation.

“Kids go on, say Facebook, and make harassing comments about someone . . . If I_had written you a letter I would be up before the courts for harassment,” said Noble. “People do it online and it’s anonymous.”

The CTF, which represents 220,000 teachers, held a special session on cyberbullying at its annual meeting in Moncton, N.B. The new policy aims to reflect the changing environment for today’s kids.

“It’s (cyberspace) the new playground. We’ve taught the kids in terms of the face-to-face and the physical bullying but this is in fact the new space.”

But Noble said while bullying has always gone on, it is this anonymity that differentiates the cyberbully from the traditional playground thug.

“This use of computers is a new tool . . .We are finding it is much more pervasive because there is an anonymity to it,” she said. “Kids can go online and they can pretend to be somebody else.”

A draft version of the policy said that it should be a punishable offence to use “information and communication technology to convey a message which threatens death or bodily harm or perpetuates fear and intimidation.”

The policy indicates a serious recognition of how common it is now for bullying to be carried out by text messaging, in online chat rooms, on blogs or social networking websites such as Facebook. The idea goes far beyond the expulsions and suspensions that some students have been punished with for bullying fellow students or targeting teachers.

“We will be lobbying the federal government to strengthen any gaps in the criminal code regarding misuse of the Internet,” said Noble.

A spokesperson for Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said it’s too early to comment on the CTF’s Criminal Code proposal, but Noble said the federation has already started to talk to members of Parliament and have so far found a receptive audience.

“It is an issue that will resonate, we believe, with the policy-makers and the legislative makers,” she said.

But she said that it could be a challenge to get across to policy-makers the seriousness of the issue.

“One of the major difficulties in terms of the Criminal Code is that we tend to think these are just people on the Internet and it’s fun to play games,” said Noble. “We need to work with the policy-makers to say ‘”this is more than just kids playing video games.”

Shaheen Shariff, an associate professor in the faculty of education at McGill University and an author on cyberbullying, is pleased the organization has finally developed a policy on the matter, but doesn’t think making it a crime will help eliminate it.

“I understand completely their need to come up with a policy,” said Shariff. “I would advise them to please emphasize an educational response; make sure their membership understands that criminalizing this issue ought to be the very, very last resort.”

Giving credit where credit’s due… this story is left over from last week. Kansas Attorney General Stephen Six has unveiled www.NetSafeKansas.com, a new Internet safety Web site that hopes to educate children, teens, parents and others about threats they face online. Each section is age appropriate.

Obviously it’s a work in progress, as the site is pretty bare bones right now – however, it’s a great step and we applaud our Kansas brethren for keeping families safe online in the Sunflower State.

Though we’re not listed on the website, you should know that you can use monitoring software programs like PC Pandora to keep your kids safe online. In addition to all the tip sand educating yourself, know that technology is here to help monitoring your child’s Internet activity – and we are the technology. Check out our PC Pandora 5.0 and see for your self!

Hey, they may not be completely forward thinking in enforcing the teaching of “creationism” and “intelligent design” over actual hard fact and scientific proof, but at least they care about kids on the Internet!

Here’s just one of many stories on this bit of news:

Kansas attorney general visits KCK to unveil new Internet safety site
By Robert A. Cronkleton, The Kansas City Star

Kansas Attorney General Stephen Six unveiled a new Internet safety Web site this afternoon aimed at educating children, teens, parents and others about threats they face online.

“This is a Web site that is going to give Kansas kids and their families tools to use and learn and teach them how to be safe on the Internet,” Six said during a press conference at the Breidenthal Community Center for Youth & Families in Kansas City, Kan.

Earlier Thursday, Six made a similar stop at a Boys & Girls Club in Topeka.

The new Internet site, www.NetSafeKansas.com, has sections for kids, teens, parents and consumers.

“Each of the areas will take you to information that is appropriate for your age group or for whatever your interest is,” Six said.

He said the kids and teens sections provide information that focuses on threats of cyber bullying, cyber stalking and social networking Web sites. Included are tips on how children can protect themselves online and how to report improper or illegal activity on the Internet.

The parents section contains ideas about what to watch for with their children, while the consumer section will have current information on new scams and frauds as well as tips on how consumers can protect themselves, Six said.

“As we have increased convenience from the Internet, unfortunately criminals are using these same avenues to try to inappropriately contact kids and to scam Kansas families and seniors out of their hard-earned money,” Six said.

Six said he plans to renew his efforts to get additional funding to expand his office’s cyber crime unit. He had sought additional funds in late February, however, the Kansas Legislature did not appropriate the funding.

“Prosecution is a challenge because sometimes the perpetrators are in other states or other countries,” Six said. “But if we could get the Legislature to fund a prosecution side of this, I’m confident we could prosecute some people and make it known you can’t do these types of things in Kansas.”

Normally, I’d save these till Wednesday to go with the predator round-up, but I wanted to give this story a special page to illustrate to parents that if you think you know what your teens are doing – trust me, you don’t.

It’s not the 30-something-year-old predators you need to be worried of, it’s your own young teenage kids whop are willing to engage is promiscuous activity. In this case, a 17-year-old boy made friends with and tried to have sex with a 14-year-old boy.

It’s one thing if you condone the behavior (I’m not making a judgment call – either way is fine with me – it’s your kid; and for the record the boy-on-boy thing is not an issue either), but not knowing is, well, just irresponsible and stupid on your part. As parents, it’s your duty to know what your kids are doing – or at least have an idea. Every time some kid is picked up for something illegal, parents always say the same thing: “I had no idea.”

Well, that needs to stop. And believe it or not, we have the answer – it’s called PC Pandora monitoring software. With PC Pandora you can see everything your child does, not only via detailed screen captures, but also by detailed logs of emails, chat conversations, websites visited, keystrokes logged and more. It’s a one-stop program for obtaining the complete knowledge of what your child is doing online. It’ll take the guesswork out of parenting and make you a more efficient and effective 21st century parent. Without it – you are lost.

Check out PC Pandora and read the short news rip below. Happy Friday!!

Teen nabbed in Internet sting
Traveled to Keene to have sex with 14-year-old, police allege
By PHILLIP BANTZ, Sentinel Staff, July 10, 2008

A Massachusetts teenager was arrested Monday when he showed up outside a fast-food restaurant in Keene to have sex with a 14-year-old boy, police said.

Erik J. Leblanc, 17, of Leominster, Mass., was charged with soliciting sex from an underage child via a computer, a felony, and attempted statutory rape, a misdemeanor.

Keene police detective James F. McLaughlin posed as the underage boy during online conversations with Leblanc, eventually luring him to the Wendy’s restaurant parking lot off Winchester Street, according to police.

Leblanc thought he was meeting the boy for sex, but was greeted instead by McLaughlin, who specializes in busting Internet predators, and his fellow police officers, Keene police Lt. Peter S. Thomas said.

After a brief conversation with McLaughlin, Leblanc was arrested and eventually taken to the Cheshire County jail in Westmoreland.

He was later released on $1,000 cash bail and $4,000 personal recognizance after an arraignment in Keene District Court.

This is no doubt the new epidemic. Unfortunately, the participants don’t know just how serious their crimes are. They are too young to understand a world outside of the Internet, and how the virtual world can have damaging results in the real one.

It’s important that parents monitor child Internet use not just for the scary predators – but more so for the CyberBullying. Whether your child is a victim and not telling you or they are – worse yet – the bully and acting innocent, this is a problem that parents MUST step in and correct NOW.

Monitoring software like our PC Pandora can play a vital role in monitoring Internet activity of your kids. With detailed snapshots of screen content, you’ll be able to see if they are involved in cyberbullying (on either side of the fence).

Below is a story from ABC in Boston that takes a look at this rising problem. I’d also like to give you this link here, Character makes the person…Has yours been tested?, where you can listen to a podcast from the CyberHoodWatch guys. Their guest, Amy, has a son who was a victim of cyberbullying… hear how it basically destroyed their lives.

Expert: Cyberbullying On Rise Among Teens
Most Bullying Done Through Instant Messaging, E-Mail
By Jonathan Berk, Contributing Writer

BOSTON — Like their verbal counterparts, cyber names are not sticks and stones, but they are hurting many young Internet users, according to a 2007 survey of middle school and high school students.

In an Online Bullying and Predators Survey, 28 percent of teens and pre-teens, ages 11 to 19, said that they have been the victim of online bullying, or cyberbullying.

The National Crime Prevention Council describes cyberbullying as teens using the “Internet, cell phones, or other devices to send or post text or images to hurt or embarrass another person.”

The 2007 survey was conducted by the Kids/Teen Division of the Maine-based online safety organization Working To Halt Online Abuse. Founded in 2005, the division focuses on the needs of young people who have been victimized or taken advantage of on the Internet.

Jayne Hitchcock, president of WHOA, said cyberbullying is a major issue for young Internet users. Online communication — either through e-mail, chatting, text-messaging or other means — has become indispensable to the social lives of so many teens and pre-teens, she said.

“The Internet’s not going away,” Hitchcock said. “[Cyberbullying] has to be dealt with.”

Hitchcock said a recent rise in cyberbullying can be attributed to the increasing ease in which teens and preteens can connect to the Internet.

“I think cyberbullying is definitely on the rise due to the fact that a lot more kids and teens are not only online via their computers, but also via their cell phones,” Hitchcock said.

The WHOA survey did not look at how participants connected, but some did say they were bullied via text message.

The participants — 202 females and 193 males from three schools in Maine — were asked a number of questions about their experiences with online bullying, including how they were bullied (via e-mail, chatroom, instant message or others), how they reacted and why, who did the bullying and whether the students themselves had ever bullied someone.

The survey did not report how many of each sex were victimized, but over half of the reported bullying was done by males.

Of those bullied, 65 percent said it was done through instant messaging, followed by e-mail, the Web site MySpace.com, chat rooms and online games.

Less than half of those bullied reported the abuse to authorities because bullying “wasn’t a big problem” or they “didn’t want to make a big deal of it.”

Still, some teens said they didn’t report the bullying because they were scared, they didn’t think anyone would believe them or they didn’t know how to report it.

More than half of all participants, whether bullied or not, said they had been contacted online by a stranger. Most replied to the stranger, and almost a third of them didn’t tell anyone about the contact.

The survey results show a need to educate teens and pre-teens about online safety, Hitchcock said.

“You have to learn how to take care of these cases before the situation escalates to a serious problem,” she said. “Police and schools don’t know how to deal with it.”

WHOA conducted the survey to help identify the areas of online-safety education that most need improvement. The responses suggest educators need to be “proactive, rather than reactive,” Hitchcock said, in teaching online safety.

Regardless of what the survey showed about cyberbullying, Hitchcock said she was “very pleased” with the net savvy displayed by the almost 400 young participants.

A double-shot today!!

More reasons for parents to use software like PC Pandora to monitor their child’s Internet activity. It will take the guesswork out of 21st century parenting and allow you to be a more efficient and proactive parent.

Here are the 2 stories with links:

Police identify man charged in Internet sex sting
By Eric Connor, STAFF WRITER, July 9, 2008

A 27-year-old Anderson man has been arrested and charged with trying to solicit sex with a child over the internet.

Anderson Police arrested Matthew Wrenn Althaus, 107 Woodland Drive Apt. A, last week on two counts of criminal solicitation of a minor after a sting involving the police department and the state attorney general’s task force on internet predators, according to arrest warrants and a release from the attorney general’s office.

Beginning in December 2006, Althaus communicated with whom he believed to be a 13-year-old but was in reality an Anderson police officer, according to the release.

Althaus is charged in warrants with communicating with fictitious child via instant messaging twice in late May “to engage in sexual activity.”

Search warrants executed at the Althaus’ residence resulted in the seizure of a laptop computer and computer-related equipment, according to the release.

Althaus is being held in the Anderson County jail.

Allegheny Co. Man Accused Of Using Internet To Proposition Girls
Morgan Arrested By Pa. Attorney General’s Office
July 8, 2008

PITTSBURGH — Authorities said an Allegheny County man allegedly used Internet chat rooms to approach what he believed were 13- or 14-year-old girls — but the girls were really undercover members of the Attorney General’s office using the online profiles of children.

Attorney General Tom Corbett announced Tuesday that agents from the Attorney General’s Child Predator Unit arrested Theodore E. Morgan, 55, of White Oak.

Corbett said the Morgan, who was 55 years old at the time, repeatedly posed as a teenager online - at one point declaring that he had to end an online chat because his mother had returned home. Morgan also allegedly instructed the girl to masturbate and sent her additional nude webcam videos.

Corbett said that Morgan, using the screen name “dongkong14,” allegedly approached an undercover agent in an Internet chat room - initially identifying himself as a 17-year-old boy from the Pittsburgh area.

According to the criminal complaint, Morgan quickly requested a photograph of the child and then began questioning her about her sexual experience - asking her is she had ever masturbated or engaged in oral sex. Morgan also allegedly sent the girl a webcam video that allegedly showed him partially nude and masturbating in front of his computer.

Corbett said the Morgan repeatedly posed as a teenager online - at one point declaring that he had to end an online chat because his mother had returned home. Morgan also allegedly instructed the girl to masturbate.

Morgan was arrested at his home on July 3rd by agents from the Attorney General’s Child Predator Unit, assisted by the White Oak Police Department. Agents also executed a search warrant at Morgan’s home, seizing a computer, two webcams and various data storage devices. Those items will be analyzed by the Attorney General’s Computer Forensics Unit as part of an ongoing investigation.

Morgan waived his preliminarily hearing on July 7th, in Allegheny County Central Court. Morgan was ordered to undergo a behavioral analysis and is prohibited from using the Internet or having any unsupervised contact with minors. He is currently being held in the Allegheny County Prison in lieu of $30,000 bail, awaiting a trial date.

Corbett said that Morgan will be prosecuted in Allegheny County by Deputy Attorney General William Caye II of the Attorney General’s Child Predator Unit.

Corbett thanked the White Oak Police Department for their cooperation and assistance with this investigation.

The Attorney General’s Child Predator Unit has arrested 149 Internet predators since it was created in January 2005, including 33 arrests since the beginning of this year.

Here’s another week’s worth of arrests and sentencings.

• In Honolulu, a 38-year old perv gets 10 years in prison for trying to solicit a 13-year-old girl online.
• In Puerto Rico, – our Latin cousins – a 43-year old scumbag was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for trying to solicit a 13-year-old girl online.
• In Oregon, a 28-year old dirtbag is accused of raping a 13-year-old he met on – are you ready for this shocker - MySpace.

Parents: please be active in your child’s online activity. Monitor their Internet activity. Know where they are going and whom they are talking to. If they are involved in social networking – watch it like a hawk. Out of 3 cases here, 1 does involve a 13-year-old girl. The others are all-too-common attempts by dirty older men trying to get to your kids.

Use monitoring software like PC Pandora to monitor computer activity of your kids. You can see everything they do and have records of activity, should something unfortunate happen. At the very least, it will take the guesswork out of 21st century parenting and allow you to be a more efficient and proactive parent.

Here are the 3 stories with links:

Internet predator from Honolulu gets 10 years in prison

A 38-year-old Honolulu man who pleaded guilty in January to soliciting a law enforcement officer, posing as a 13-year-old girl online, was sentenced today to 10 years in prison.

Ronald Young, a self-employed carpenter also known as “kustom_builderz_86,” will also be required by law to register as a sex offender.

Young, who was arrested at Kahala Mall in August 2007, was sentenced by Circuit Judge Steven S. Alm.

A new state law passed in May makes first-degree electronic enticement of a child punishable by a 10-year sentence but since Young’s case predated passage of the law, Alm had the option to sentence him to probation with one year in prison or a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

State Attorney General Mark Bennett was pleased with the judge’s sentencing.

“Internet predators misuse technology to reach young people in their homes and lure, trick, shame or pressure them into meeting for sex,” Bennett said. “They target children who are too young or inexperienced to recognize the danger of meeting a stranger alone.”

Today’s sentence, Bennett said, “sends a clear message to Internet predators: Law enforcement agents are looking for you, and if you are convicted, you will receive a 10-year prison sentence.”

ICE nabs Puerto Rican for sexually enticing a minor

BAYAMON, Puerto Rico - A 43-year-old man from Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, was arrested here today after a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigation revealed that he was sexually enticing a girl who he thought was 13-years-old.

Angel Cosme-Martinez was arrested by ICE agents in the parking lot of Plaza Rio Hondo after he arranged the meeting during the sexually explicit conversations.

Cosme-Martinez is being charged with Title 18 United States Code (USC), Section 2422(b).

“This arrest is a stern reminder of the consequences awaiting those who use the Internet to sexually exploit innocent children,” said Manuel Oyola Torres, special agent in charge of ICE’s office of investigations in Puerto Rico. “Some predators mistakenly believe the anonymity of cyberspace shields them from scrutiny, when in fact, their use of computers and the Internet have given us new tools in our enforcement efforts to protect children from online predators.”

Cosme-Martinez had his initial appearance before U.S magistrate judge Camille Velez Rive today. He was transferred to the Guaynabo, Puerto Rico Metropolitan Detention Center where he remains awaiting the outcome of his case.

The arrest of Angel Cosme-Martinez was part of Operation Predator, a comprehensive ICE initiative aimed at those who prey on children, including human traffickers, international sex tourists, Internet pornographers, and foreign national predators whose crimes make them deportable. Since the initiative was launched in July of 2003, there have been more than 11,300 predators arrested nationwide.

This case will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jenifer Hernandez.

Man accused of raping 13-year-old he met on MySpace

AURORA, Ore. — An Aurora man faced a judge in court Tuesday for allegedly raping a 13-year-old girl he met on MySpace.

Scott Knight, 28, of Aurora was arrested and booked into the Marion County Jail on Sunday.

Outside the courtroom Tuesday, Knight’s mother told KGW that her son didn’t know the girl was only 13 and that she had identified herself as an 18-year-old. However police said it was very clear she was not 18.

“That’s not Scott, Scott may do things, but this is not Scott. He met this girl on a Web site, it happened to be a Web site that only 18-year-olds can go on, He doesn’t understand and I don’t understand. He doesn’t do that,” said Knight’s mother, Janice Abraham.

“She set him up and it’s not right. She should be under house arrest or something, she should be stopped,” added Knight’s sister, Angelica White.

Police said they learned about the abuse after someone living with the girl noticed she was using their cell phone to send text messages to Knight after the two met on the popular Web site MySpace. That sparked a six-month police investigation.

Police said Knight chatted with the girl a few times online and then the two met, which was when the alleged abuse occurred.

He faces several charges, including sex abuse, kidnapping, rape and sodomy, all in connection with the abuse of a child. Police said they were also investigating a possible second suspect in the case.

Knight lives in the 13500 block of Wisteria Court NE in Aurora. He was also facing a felony theft warrant out of Multnomah County on unrelated charges.

There is an awesome story from the Telegraph in London that focuses on one psychiatrist’s notion that the current Internet generation of teens is in danger of not being able to form real life relationships and are at an increased risk of behaving impulsively.

It goes back to a joke I’ve made several times about new college roommates. Back in the day, you meet your roommate on the first day, and as you’re setting up your room you sit and eat and chat and get to know each other. Everyone has to do it (well, most everyone). But it’s only a matter of time now before kids can have their rooms pre-made up and then when they get to school, they don’t even need to talk face to face – or don’t know how – to their new roommate. Instead, they each sit in a corner of the room, IMing each other, as each is at a loss for physical words and even more so, clueless on how to physically introduce themselves to one another and have a dialogue with a stranger, without the aid of a keyboard or LCD screen. Ridiculous? I guess time will tell.

Anyway, this really has nothing to do with online safety, it’s just a small theory that I have about the current generation, the complete overuse of the Internet and the allowance of adults to let social manner and real people skills fall to the wayside in place of what is nothing more than an electronic poster about yourself on a popular wall. I guess someone else has come up with the idea as well…

Then again, I guess you could use monitoring software like PC Pandora to double-check that your kids are behaving responsible and not abusing the Internet. But that’s just one part of this larger problem…

Enjoy the Monday afternoon read after this long holiday… what are your thoughts and opinions?

Facebook and MySpace generation ‘cannot form relationships’

A generation growing up with social networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace are unable to form lasting relationships and are at increased risk of behaving impulsively, an expert has warned.

Teenagers who were born in 1990 or later have never known a world where you can’t surf online and could have a distorted view of the world and their own identity because of that, the Annual Meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists heard.

Dr Himanshu Tyagi, a psychiatrist at West London Mental Health Trust, said social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace have fostered the idea that relationships and friendships can be formed and destroyed quickly and easily.

He said: “This is the age group involved with the Bridgend suicides and what many of these young people had in common was their use of internet to communicate. It’s a world where everything moves fast and changes all the time, where relationships are quickly disposed at the click of a mouse, where you can delete your profile if you don’t like it and swap an unacceptable identity in the blink of an eye for one that is more acceptable.

“People used to the quick pace of online social networking may soon find the real world boring and unstimulating, potentially leading to more extreme behavior to get that sense.”

He said teenagers who socialize online put less value on their “real world” selves, which puts them at risk of impulsive and even suicidal behavior. They may be less able to form relationships, as they do not learn the physical clues involved with communication including body language, tone of voice and facial expressions.

“If you can’t see the person’s expression or body language or hear the subtle changes in their voice, it shapes your perceptions of the interaction differently,” Dr Tyagi said.

“The new generation raised alongside Internet is attaching an entirely different meaning to friendship and relations, something we are largely failing to notice.

“This is definitely a line of reasoning that warrants more investigation and research, ” he said. But there are also benefits including lack of discrimination where wealth, race and gender were less meaningful and a loss of geographical boundaries.

He said: “No one is a pariah on the net, it works great in flattening the hierarchies of the real world.” He warned the meeting that there was a massive generation gap amongst current psychiatrists and young patients around the Internet related issues.

A survey of International psychiatrists conducted by him at a recent psychiatric conference in US showed that the vast majority of psychiatrists worldwide were unaware of the full magnitude of impact of online world on the younger generation.

Co-Founder of PC Pandora monitoring software looks at the bad stigma associated with monitoring computer activity and why it is an essential part of parenting in the Internet age.

New York, NY (PRWEB) July 3, 2008 — Online safety is a top family priority and concern today. And although parents seem to get the message that monitoring Internet activity of their children is essential, few seem to put it into physical practice. Manuel Coats, Co-Founder of Pandora Corp. says there’s a bad stigma associated with parents playing big brother.

“Unfortunately, parents have a fear of invading their child’s privacy,” explains Coats. “I consider this to be irrational, and a poorly associated stigma. Parent job number one is to protect your child. How can you do that if you don’t know what they are doing, where they are going or who they associate with?”

Many critics liken the use of monitoring software to reading a personal diary, or listening to a phone conversation, or even reading mail.

“Checking online activity of your kids couldn’t be more different than any of those,” says Coats. “The diary of generations past was a secret document, kept under lock-and-key, that usually no one but the author read. There is nothing with that level of privacy on the Internet, certainly not a social networking page.”

And the elongated phone calls made by teens of the 1980s and ’90s?

“The idea that checking emails and chats of your kids is like eavesdropping on phone conversations or reading mail, well, my parents always knew who was on the other end of the phone and where the letters came from. So did I. Do you know for sure who is on the other end of an IM chat with your kids?”

A lot of skeptics are quick to assume that the incredible knowledge parents can obtain from monitoring software, like Pandora Corp’s flagship title PC Pandora, is a power that can quickly and easily be misused by parents. Some fear that innocent checking and monitoring will quickly turn to snooping and spying. But Coats quickly points out that it’s up to the parent to be able to walk that line of being a parent and being intrusive.

“Parents are supposed to be the responsible caretakers of the house,” explains Manuel Coats. “They need to set and enforce rules, but also use personal rules and keep themselves in check. You don’t need to know who has a crush on whom in class or other random sordid teenage details. But you do need to know if your child is being bullied or talking to someone online with a suspicious screen name.”

Coats recommends that all parents use monitoring software like PC Pandora 5.0, which works like a DVR for your computer. The program takes sequential snapshots of what is on the computer screen, providing parents with a detailed visual record of everything their children saw and did on and offline. In addition, further details of user activity, such as websites visited, emails sent and received, instant messenger chats, keystrokes logged, peer-2-peer files traded, programs accessed and more, can be seen in text-based files. It will even email a busy parent at work with updates on activity.

Though the threat of Internet predators seems to be the most publicized and talked about, chances are it’s not the threat your kids will encounter first.

“Statistics show that kids are going to be involved - in some way - with cyberbullying before they are talking to strangers online. What’s more, young Internet users aren’t fully aware of the consequences of illegal file sharing or posting too much personal and private information online. Their own eagerness to participate and average youthful naiveté can cause them to fall easily into those traps.”

So while some may feel monitoring computer activity of kids is “too much” and more like “spying”, Manuel Coats asks parents to consider the idea thoroughly before dismissing it.

“We like to think of it more as ‘appropriate’ and ‘necessary 21st century parenting.’”

A 2-hour trial of PC Pandora is available at the PC Pandora website.

About PC Pandora: Pandora Corporation was formed with one goal - to help our customers monitor, control and protect their families and themselves online. First released in mid 2005, PC Pandora has been constantly upgraded to industry-leading specifications and has received accolades from users, reviewers and even school districts and law enforcement agencies, who use the program to help in the day-to-day supervision of the children and citizens they are charged with protecting. The company website devotes space to helping parents with 18 Tips to Safe Surfing and Pandora’s Blog, where current news in the world of online safety is discussed regularly. PC Pandora has vaulted into a leadership position by boasting a combination of features that unparalleled in the monitoring industry. In February 2008, Version 5.0 was released, again widening the spectrum of coverage and protection offered by the program. In addition, through the company’s SAFE SCHOOLS program, schools and school districts can receive up to $100,000 worth of software to aid in protecting their students and their PCs. PC Pandora is also now available through the Pandora Corp. store at Amazon.com.

Reporters and Producers: Looking to cover this topic? We are your technology solution and experts. Software is available for review and testing. Staff members are always available for interviews. Let us help you show your audience how easy it can be to keep their kids safe online.

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