once again..blame technology for everything wrong with the world...


Teens putting themselves at risk online
By Matt Apuzzo, AP Writer
NEW HAVEN, Connecticut — On websites such as MySpace.com, teenagers can find people around the world who share their love of sports, their passion for photography or their crush on the latest Hollywood star. But authorities say teens are increasingly finding trouble in an online environment where millions of people can, in seconds, find out where they go to school, learn their interests, download their pictures and instantly send them messages.

Carole Song, 15, uses a computer at Net2Net, a cyber cafe in Garden Grove, Calif.
By Bob Riha, Jr., USA TODAY

Police in the central Connecticut city of Middletown suspect that as many as seven girls were recently assaulted by men they met on MySpace. The FBI says it regularly receives calls from police trying to figure out how to stay ahead of popular technology that puts children a mouse click away from millions of strangers.

MySpace, one of several popular social networking sites, is a free service that allows people to create websites that can be personalized with information, pictures and movies. Searching for someone is as easy as typing the name of a high school and the photographic results are instantaneous.

"They're licking their lips and arching their back for the camera because they can, and they have no idea of the consequences," said Parry Aftab, an attorney and child advocate who runs WiredSafety.org, a site that helps inform parents and site managers about online predators.

MySpace said in a statement that it includes safety tips and prohibits children under 14 from using the site. Aftab said MySpace, a subsidiary of News Corp., has a great reputation for trying to keep the site safe.

Some teens keep their personal profiles scant, aimed only at their friends. Others describe their likes and dislikes, from the mundane to the profane, and encourage people to send them messages.

"That is a perpetrator's dream come true," said Middletown Police Sgt. Bill McKenna.

McKenna said several Middletown girls, between 12 and 16, told police they met men on the MySpace who claimed to be teenagers. When they met in person, he said, the girls were fondled or had consensual sex with men who turned out to be older than they claimed.

In at least one case, McKenna believes the assault happened at the girl's home while her parents were there.

Last month, 14-year-old Judy Cajuste was found strangled and naked in a Newark, New Jersey, garbage bin and 15-year-old Kayla Reed was found dead in a canal not far from her Livermore, California, home.

Both deaths remain unsolved and the use of MySpace.com has surfaced in both investigations.

As recently as a few years ago, Aftab said the profile of an online victim was a young woman who felt alone, didn't have many friends and craved attention.

Then, in 2002, 13-year-old Christina Long of Danbury was strangled in a Danbury mall parking lot by a 26-year-old man she met on the Internet. Long was a popular cheerleader, a good student and an altar girl. The profile went out the window.

Now, Aftab said, it's no surprise that a wealthy state such as Connecticut is seeing a spate of problems.

"This is a rich and upper-middle-class problem," Aftab said. "They have too much time, too much technology and their parents aren't around to keep an eye on them."

Connecticut's FBI office was the first in New England to launch an online, undercover program to catch sexual predators. Timothy Egan, the squad's supervisor, said parents often don't know their children are using these websites or what information is being released. The FBI hopes to train more local officers about these sites in coming months.

Chief State's Attorney Christopher Morano, who has strictly limited the information his 10- and 12-year-old children put on the Internet, said he was surprised to learn that they had been contacted by strangers they believed were pedophiles. His kids ignored it, Morano said, but parents need to closely monitor Internet activity.

"You wouldn't leave your kid on the side of the highway without supervision," Morano said. "You shouldn't put them on the Internet highway without the same type of supervision."


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Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

damn

wtf....you know what....I think this is all so stupid. These little whoreanus girls say they are 20 then go into their room with their digital cameras and takes pics of their ass their coochie their flat chested boobs and then post them on myspace...and then...the rapist is blammed for attacking them. Do not tell me that those girls who got killed profiles said "13 yrs old" " I like lip gloss and to hang out with my gfs." or did it say "I LIKE HOT GUYS I LOVE TO GO OUT AND DRINK AND GET HIGH!!" so...seriously as much as the sick perverts out there have to be blammed so do these OUT OF CONTROL TEENY BOPPERS omg...and not only that that whole line "you wouldnt let ur kids on the side of the highway unsupervised blah blah" ARE YOU FOR REAL?! I bet 2 out of every ten people are sick bastards.....BUT DO WE HIDE OURSELVES FROM THE WORLD?!....I think that myspace should really just get higher security and make the site strictly to 16years old and plus like its suppose to be know but everyone lies about their age. Anyway...it just pisses me off cause I'm a big myspace user and you see all these little whores...ok cause you can't even give them a better name they are little sluts in training and they are worse than cats in heat seeking out any male penis they can get their hands on.....UGH.....

such a touchy subject....



as you were

BucketOfBouncyBalls said:

BucketOfBouncyBalls said:

Yes Bucket that is all true...however they may not know the danger of doing such things. They're young and dumb. Most think it's for some horny teenage boy on the other end not a 40 yr old stalker.

BucketOfBouncyBalls said:

I hear you. But don't you think the article makes a strong point when it says:

"They're licking their lips and arching their back for the camera because they can, and they have no idea of the consequences"

...i.e. it's hard to hold the girls responsible since they are not mature or experienced enough to fully realize what they're doing (and are actually victims of a sexualized society that pushes them into this kind of behaviour). The sexual predators most definitely are mature and experienced enough though, and should therefore be held entirely responsible for what happens between them and these young girls, don't you agree?


Edit: superspaceboy posted his similar response while I was still writing mine.
[Edited 2/6/06 14:49pm]

superspaceboy said:

OK THEN WTF DO THESE MOM TEACH THESE GIRLS HONESTLY....CAUSE BY THE AGE OF FIVE I KNEW THAT NO ONE PUT THEIR HANDS ON MY PRIVATES AND I DONT SHOW THEM OFF AND AND AND!!! NEVER TALK TO STRANGERS....OK...SO SERIOUSLY.....WHERE ARE THE PARENTS

AND OMG WHEN I WAS 13 OMG!!!!! WHEN I WAS 13 AND I GOT MY COMPUTER.....OK SERIOUSLY.....SERIOUSLY....WHO GOES INTO CHAT ROOOMS....WTF IS BURGERKING AND MCDONALDS PUTTING INTO THE FOODS CAUSE I SWAER GIRLS THAT ARE LIKE 8 ARE LIKE HORNY AS HELL.....AND WHEN I WAS 14 I DIDNT EVEN KNOW WHAT ORAL SEX MEANT.....I THOUGHT IT WAS KISSING.....AND OMG....UGH THIS MAKES ME OUTRAGED!!!!!


ARRRRRGH

BucketOfBouncyBalls said:

thats just it. the parents don't pay attention to wtf their children are doing until its too late-and thats fucked up.

brownsugar said:

YES OMG....IT AGGRAVATES ME CAUSE INSTEAD OF BLAMMING THE COMPUTER AND THE WEBSITES....BLAME UR SELF HHOW ARE YOU GONNA LET YOUR PRE TEEN POST PERVERS PICTURES OF HER ASS AND BE OK WITH IT.....AND THATS WHY YOU HAVE TO CHECK UR KIDS COMPUTER AND THATS WHY IT SHOULD HAVE CHILD SAFETY LOCK AND CRAP

BucketOfBouncyBalls said:

Does your mother know you're posting here again?

althom said:

SHUT UP YOU ROBOT!!!!! I'm not an internet whore like you.

BucketOfBouncyBalls said:

I'm telling your mother young lady!!!!

althom said:

i'm a young woman you fool
[Edited 2/6/06 14:57pm]

BucketOfBouncyBalls said:

Pift!

althom said:

DONT GO THERE


and you mr. YOU SHOULD BE EDUCATING YOUR CHILDREN AS OPPOSED TO POSTING YOUR WEE WEE ON PRINCE.ORG

BucketOfBouncyBalls said:

yes by 5 you know that no one should touch you ...down there. But by like 13 half the advertising/video games/tv to teens is telling them just the opposite.

BucketOfBouncyBalls said:

I have children?

superspaceboy said:

BASTARDS .....ALL OF THEM


SUPA my favorite orger

BucketOfBouncyBalls said:

I think technology has gone a bit too far in that kids have access to way to much of it. 10 years ago kids did not have cell phones nor computer or even a camera, let alone a digital one.

superspaceboy said:

I only had dirt to play with.

BucketOfBouncyBalls said:

ALthom posted his wee wee on the org? Did I miss that?

superspaceboy said:

so i have heard....hes like....a predator on the org

althom said:

I can see you eating dirt as a child. Were you also the kid that liked to eat paste?

BucketOfBouncyBalls said:

superspaceboy said:

he was the kid with the mirror on the shoe looking up girls skirt

althom said:

you know those things you keep in the closet and take them out at least once a day for some bread, water, a little sun and a beating...and then back in they go.

BucketOfBouncyBalls said:

I doubt he was that clever.

This is the thing.

One of the reasons why I'm scared to raise a child is that, I believe, you can educate your child until you're blue in the face and have a Doctorate in child rearing, but that child is going to do what ever the heck he/she wants. Hopefully that child will use some kind of common sense. I was young and did stupid things and yes, I was informed.

Scary.

M

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

Yes, but see how you turned out. I think that's what's most important. Yes you can tell kids whatever and they'll do whatever. Can't stop them from doing stupid things. But I think the "stupid thing" factor is ratcheted up when there is not a good parenting base to begin with.

I'd love to raise a kid. To actually bring about a being that would not be like all the stupid people out there. We need more reinforcements in the "non-stupid" arena.