MySpace Monday Mania 9
My favorite thing about this weekly column is that is illustrates just pure and simple, the fact that people do stupid things online. In many cases, they do it on MySpace, YouTube and other networks, thinking that no one will notice.
Let me remind you all of something: the Internet is NOT private!! Digital communication and the digital world in general are both a blessing and a curse. Never before have we been able to share information (or useless facts about ourselves) and communicate at such a speed… and never before has there been such a clear record of all of our private lives.
This is something that you need to understand first, and then teach your children about. When your kids become members of a social network, it is important to teach them the proper do’s and don’ts: i.e. do have fun and communicate with people you already know (from school, cousins, etc.), don’t harass or bully others; don’t post pictures of yourself doing illegal things; don’t use the internet as a means to show off your brilliant artwork, and then apply that same artwork to buildings and other public places where it is considered vandalism.
As a parent, you also need to understand that these networks are open to anyone and everyone. They are companies – companies that make money, earn notoriety and stay popular largely based on the number of members they have. So it’s an open door. That means your child is effectively in the same “space” as criminals, sex offenders, and other not-so-nice people.
Check out these 4 stories below. They are all quite short, but nonetheless good reminders of the importance of knowing who your kids are talking to online (read: use our PC Pandora monitoring software if you are missing the “KNOW” part)
August 10, 2009
Winter Haven man accused of using MySpace to lure, sexually assault 2 womenWINTER HAVEN – A Winter Haven man has been arrested after being accused of using the MySpace social networking site on the Internet to lure and then sexually assault two women, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office reported.
Sheriff’s Office detectives arrested 20-year-old Travis Lane Bragg, of 2213 Ninth St., S.E., over the weekend and charged him with two counts of sexual battery.
The alleged assaults occurred more than a year apart, the Sheriff’s Office reported.
According to a Sheriff’s Office report, detectives went to Winter Haven Hospital at approximately 12:50 a.m. Saturday to interview a 19-year-old woman who told them she had been sexually battered. The victim told detectives she had met Bragg via MySpace and developed a friendship. She said Bragg came to her Winter Haven residence at approximately 11 p.m. Friday and that she had invited him inside.
Once inside the residence, the suspect and the victim sat together on a couch to watch television, and after a short time, the suspect moved closer to the victim and began kissing her, according to the report. He then forced the victim to engage in sex over her verbal protests for him to stop, the Sheriff’s Office reported.
The victim told detectives that immediately following the incident, she ordered Bragg from her home and that he left.
After speaking with the Winter Haven victim, detectives determined that a similar incident had occurred with a different victim in May 2008. Neither victim had any knowledge of the other, accordiing to the Sheriff’s Office.
In the previous incident, Bragg again met the victim on MySpace, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The suspect began a friendship with the Lake Alfred woman, who was 19 years old at the time, and drove her to a shopping center in Lakeland on May 17, 2008. At approximately noon and on the way back to Lake Alfred, according to the report, the suspect drove the victim to an isolated area and allegedly engaged in sex with her despite her protests for him to stop.
Because the victim was uncooperative in the 2008 case, detectives had nothing further to investigate and the case was closed, according to the Sheriff’s Office. However, after learning that the Bragg might had a second victim, the Lake Alfred victim has since cooperated fully and has provided a sworn statement about the 2008 incident.
“With two victims coming forward, we’ve learned the Bragg has used a social media site to lure his victims,” Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement. “And now we need the public’s help. There may be other victims and we want to hear from them.”
Anyone with additional information in these cases is urged to call Sheriff’s Office Detective Diane Kent at 863-534-6379 or 863-534-6200.
August 14, 2009
Brothers sentenced in MySpace case
By Katie Fretland, WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITERTwo Douglas County brothers who were pictured on a MySpace page showing off guns were each sentenced Friday to two-and-a-half years in prison.
Leonel Plesent, 22, who called himself “Diablo” on his social-networking page, was convicted of being a drug user in possession of 21 firearms. His brother, Luis Plesent, 33, was convicted of being a felon in possession of four firearms.
A Council Bluffs police officer alerted the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to the MySpace page. A subsequent investigation led to a search warrant being served at the Plesents’ residence, 24808 East Highway 275, in Waterloo, Neb., where the guns, including a fully automatic AK-47, were found.
Leonel Plesent said he bought some of the weapons at Guns Unlimited in Omaha and from various unknown people, including gang members, on the streets of Omaha.
August 14, 2009
Spanish Fort woman arrested for MySpace communications
By CORINNE ALCAZARMONTGOMERY-Attorney General Troy King announced the arrest today of a Spanish Fort woman for making terrorist threats and harassing communications over the MySpace network. Angela Michelle Grill, 20, was arrested by agents of the Attorney General’s Office and taken to the Baldwin County Jail.
Grill was arrested on warrants which were based on evidence presented by an investigator of the Attorney General’s Office. The first warrant charges that Grill committed terrorist threats by threatening to commit any crime, violence or property damage by intentionally or recklessly terrorizing a 15-year-old girl. The second warrant charges that Grill intentionally harassed and alarmed the young teenage girl, threatening to kill the victim in a MySpace message that included vulgar profanity.
“The internet is a valuable tool that can be abused to cause serious emotional harm to innocent children and other victims,” said Attorney General King. “Terrorist threats and harassing communications are crimes that have serious consequences.”
No further information about the investigation or about Grill’s alleged crimes other than that stated in the warrant may be released at this time.
If convicted, Grill faces a maximum penalty of 10 years of imprisonment and $15,000 fine for the crime of terroristic threats, which is a class C felony. The charge of harassing communications is a class C misdemeanor, punishable by 90 days in the county jail and a $500 fine.
The case is being prosecuted by the Assistant Attorney General Laura Irby Cuthbert of the Attorney General’s Public Corruption and White Collar Crime Division, and investigated by Special Agent Donna Cayton of the Attorney General’s Investigations Division.
*A warrant is merely an accusation. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
August 15, 2009
MySpace page helps police nab Wenatchee vandal
THE ASSOCIATED PRESSWENATCHEE, Wash. — A 17-year-old teenage has pleaded guilty to tagging several homes with graffiti in crimes that police solved by searching the social-networking site MySpace.
The Wenatchee World reports Erick Sanchez, of Wenatchee, was sentenced to two months in jail Wednesday in Chelan County Superior Court after pleading guilty to second-degree malicious mischief. He was charged as an adult.
Police received numerous graffiti complaints in June and suspected that a local street gang was responsible. Court records show investigators used MySpace to search for nicknames that were included in the graffiti.
Documents show Sanchez’s MySpace page included pictures of some of the graffiti.
