MySpace predators exposed
Posted on: August 20th, 2007 by Tony DesimasMySpace predators exposed
MORE than 140 sex offenders convicted in New Jersey had profiles on the networking web site MySpace, the state’s attorney general has revealed.
New Jersey is among several states leading the way in working with MySpace to curb online sexual predators.
Of the 141 sex offenders identified as having been active on MySpace, 80 were found to be on parole or probation, and officials are working to determine if those individuals violated the terms of their sentences, said David Wald, a spokesman for New Jersey Attorney General Anne Milgram.
The identified individuals may now be subject to tougher prohibitions against using the internet, Mr Wald said.
Gurtie
there are 100 million myspace accounts, and of those just 7,000 were found to be registered sex offenders “whose names were deleted and handed over by Fox Interactive Media, the owner of MySpace, to law enforcement authorities in all 50 states”
There are ~ 282 million people in the US, so if you assume that 50% of people on myspace are US citizens then around 17% of the population are on myspace. 17% of the number of registered sex offenders in the US (602,189) is ~ 102,000 so either myspace has a very low incidence of sex offenders and should be congratulated or someone somewhere is missing the story of at least 95,000 unidentified sex offenders on myspace, even assuming its not targetted by them.
I’m rounding the figures I know, but deleting the accounts of people using their real name or whatever contact details they registered with the offenders list doesn’t sound like its going to do much to stop grooming to me…..
perkiset
As Draconian as it sounds, I’ve installed “Spector” for my 3 kids’ Macs - it is a keystroke and screen shot recorder. I have ot set to take shots at 15 second intervals whenever there is activity.
Unfortunately, I found that against our wishes (very explicit ones at that) 2 of 3 had been visiting and 1 had a private profile.
The appropriate punishements were meted out (sodium pentothal truth extraction followed by sand-filled hose beatings. Hey - if it’s good enough for my government…) (JK FERCRISSAKES!!!) and I think we;ve got it nailed down. But the problem is the incredible attraction of these sorts of communities… and the lack of understanding about this sort of attack vector. I printed the article and will have it for a family meeting tonight…
Thanks Tony! (heh)
Justin Goldberg
So a person can never be rehabilitated? Sex offenders can’t socialize with anyone but must die alone? Something is really rotten about all these ‘to catch a predator’ type news items, I just can’t put my finger on it.
Considering that there is 100 million myspace accounts, is it outside the realm of reason that some of them would have friends in real life, or should they just stick with being loners and only
stalking meeting people online?I should download all the S.O. databases and create a bunch of fake myspace accounts (all anon and proxied of course) just to thwart this.
nop_90
“MySpace predators exposed”
Hmmm if they are exposed have them put on pants.