Man who used MySpace to meet underage girl sentenced to 14 years:
One of the first MySpace cases I ever posted about was the arrest of Sonny Szeto.
He traveled from Jersey City to Connecticut and assaulted an 11-year-old girl he met on MySpace in her playroom while her parents were asleep.
Yesterday, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Nowhere near long enough if you ask me.
Mr. Safety Keeps Watch on MySpace Security:
This is an excellent article by Sarah D. Scalet for CSO Online about MySpace’s CSO Hemanshu Nigam and the job he’s been doing since he was hired.
Yours truly happened to be interviewed for the article as well. I think that Mr. Nigam is doing the best job possible, but his hands are tied with the nature of the internet…
Still, the reports of unsavory characters on the site continue, as attested by a quick visit to the crowded MyCrimeSpace.com, which tracks crimes related to MySpace and other social networking sites. “I don’t think whatever security measures [Nigam] put in place are being all that effective,” says Trench Reynolds, the nom de blog of the North Carolina dad and “9 to 5-er” who runs the site in his spare time. “MySpace can only do so much on their end of things. Parents need to do a better job monitoring their kids’ activities.”
Thanks again to Ms. Scalet for taking the time out to interview me.
Man arrested after MySpace exchanges with girl:
25-year-old Patrick Lee Kenney of Portland, Oregon was arrested for trying to meet a 12-year-old from Klamath Falls for sex. The girl’s mother found explicit messages and photos from Kenney.
She then called the police, who posed as the girl and continued to talk to Kenney. Turns out Kenney has family in Klamath Falls and asked to meet the girl. You know what happens next.
Police were waiting for him and arrested him. He tried the “she said she was 15” defense. Oregon age of consent is 18.
I found a couple of MySpaces that fit the bill, one is set to private and one is by an obvious horndog. However, without a pic or mugshot, I can’t narrow them down. Hell, they both might be his but without a pic to compare with I can’t post either.
Thanks to Pilar for the link.
UPDATE: One of the commenters below says that this is Kenney’s MySpace.
Just another local news article, this time from Philly, about the dangers of Stickam.
For two months, CBS 3 has been monitoring the website stickam.com – the latest in chat room websites that allow users to communicate using a webcam.
It’s as simple as hooking up your camera, logging onto the site, and then anyone can log on and watch you, live.
One local girl, who used the words “fondle me” in her on-screen name, went so far as to list her hometown.
One girl, who claims to be 16, calls herself the fallen angel.
We watched as she flashed her chest for the camera when someone in the chat room asks “can’t we see what’s under the blue top?”
Other comments to her were “I bet you look so sexy naked” and “you should come to my bedroom sometime.”
And another teen, whose screen name is Toni, also made sexual gestures for the camera at the prodding of strangers, “we’re not asking for a lot” one person writes.
“They lose entirely that sense of modesty that you would otherwise have in polite conversation, and the problem with that is that those images then end up on the internet,” said Green.
And possibly into the hands of child predators.
It’s important to note, and we’re glad to report, that most of teens we encountered online were not participating in sexual behavior. Many of them use the cameras simply to communicate with friends.
But the bottom line is if you allow your teen to have a webcam, supervise their use, and make sure their computer is in a public area of your home.
Why some parents still don’t do that is beyond me.
FBI calls popular new Web site for kids ‘evil’:
It seems that the FBI has the same opinion of Stickam that I do.
“I describe this as an evil page,” said FBI Special Agent Jane Brillhart, “The total webcam thing out there is just evil waiting to happen.”
According to law enforcement agents, webcam chats between strangers can lead to unwanted sexually graphic images being shown live to children or adults.
Special Agent Brillhart goes undercover looking for sexual predators. She expects future prosecutions to come from webcam complaints.
“I think this is something we’re going to start getting information on and tips from people who say there’s things happening on this page that are inappropriate,” said Brillhart.
Sadly, it’s only a matter of time.
Live, Streaming Website Poses Online Dangers:
Back when I first posted about Stickam I had the feeling that its unmonitored webcam chats would make MySpace look like an ice cream social. Unfortunately, it seems I was right…
If you haven’t heard of Stickam, chances are, your kids have. It’s another social networking site, much like MySpace, Friendster or Xanga, but this site goes further.
Users stream their webcameras live and connect with other people’s webcameras. You could see and hear everything in real time. What happens here should concern every parent. We want to warn you, some of the material in this story may be inappropriate for young kids.
One recent afternoon, the News 4 WOAI Trouble Shooters logged onto Stickam curious about what we would find there.
Stationed halfway across the world, we found men who say they are army soldiers. They were apparently looking to make some new friends online.
They had just connected with a young woman on her Stickman webpage. We won’t reveal her face or screen name, because according to what she wrote in her chats with other Stickam users, she is only 12-years-old.
The guys are having a good time. They are dancing, singing, and chatting with that 12-year-old girl they don’t know.
Through their live webcam, they show her a bottle of what looks to be alcohol and a pill.
Just a few minutes into their online chat, they asked her to expose herself. They also said they have something to show her. Things were about to get worse.
Stickam has posted a warning on its site, saying sexually explicit content is “prohibited.” That didn’t seem to matter to the soldiers chatting with the 12-year-old girl. Just minutes into their live webcamera chat, one of the men exposed himself to the girl and to all the other users looking in on her chat room.
She seemed to laugh it off and the men continue to say lewd things to her, while other people logged into the chatroom try to shield the young girl.
One user wrote: “she’s a child.”
Another wrote: “are u (sic) aware (the girl’s) parents are cops?”
A third person claimed to be videotaping the whole thing. That person later backed off and admitted he didn’t videotape it. But we did. An Army spokeswoman has asked for all of our findings to send to the Criminal Investigation Division.
You should really watch the video attached to the article to get the full effect.
I can’t stress this enough that if you have underage kids, please monitor their online activity. Place the computer in the living room or another common area. Don’t rely on a website to babysit your kids.
Stickam has already banned 4500 users for inappropriate use of their site. Just imagine how many more they’re not catching since they don’t police their site.
Suit against Myspace dismissed by judge in Texas:
Hallelujah. For once, common sense has prevailed. The $30M lawsuit filed against MySpace by the parents of children who were molested by MySpace users has been dismissed.
U.S. district judge Sam Sparks ruled that MySpace, owned by media giant News Corp., should not be held responsible for what happened. “If anyone had a duty to protect Julie Doe, it was her parents, not MySpace,” he wrote in his decision.
“Ding ding ding ding, we have a winner”. Of course, the lawyers for the families are going to appeal.
An attorney for the four families said they plan to appeal the ruling. “The judge’s ruling is flat wrong,” said Jason Itkin, the attorney representing the families. “As the Internet grows and companies like MySpace are aware of the dangers, they need to do things to protect their users, especially young children.”
“This is allowing sites like MySpace to avoid the responsibility to make the Internet safe for children,” Jason Itkin said. “MySpace knows its Web site is a playground for sexual predators. Because of that, MySpace should be doing some very basic safety precautions.”
Sorry, buddy, but MySpace can’t make parents be responsible.
Personal responsibility wins a rare victory.
But the war just may be beginning…
On Wednesday, MySpace announced victory in a Texas lawsuit in which the social networking Web site was accused of failing to protect its underage members from sexual abuse. However, the company’s legal issues are just beginning, according to plaintiff’s lawyer Adam Loewy of Austin, Texas-based Barry & Loewy.
“We’re at the onset of this sort of litigation,” says Loewy. “We are prepared for a very long battle.”
The plaintiffs plan to appeal to the Fifth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. They also plan to refile some of their claims in Los Angeles Superior Court, adding to similar suits brought against MySpace and its parent company, News Corp.
More frivolous suits to clog up our already backed up courts.
Attorney General Pushes For Internet Safeguards:
I thought that my state of residence would have a little more sense, but that’s what I get for thinking. Add North Carolina to the list of states who are jumping on the blame MySpace Boogeyman bandwagon. Attorney General Roy Cooper has called on sites like MySpace to install age verification or parental notification systems.
“They lure children onto the site with ads, lull parents into thinking its safe when in reality these children are a mouse click away from porn and predators,” Cooper said.
That may just be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard come out of a politician’s mouth since “It depends on your definition of ‘is’.”
He makes it sound like MySpace goes around in a virtual van from computer to computer, offering kids candy. And how do they lull parents into thinking it’s safe? Maybe they lulled you, Mr. Cooper, but not me. Parents shouldn’t be letting their kids have unfettered access to the internet anyway.
Cooper admits it’s not a perfect system.
“We know ways kids can get around system, but you can protect most of the kids,” Cooper said.
You know how you can protect all the kids, Mr. Cooper? By having responsible parents. As usual, I don’t hear you suggesting any laws for that.
Senator to propose surveillance of illegal images:
Senators McCain and Schumer are at it again. Not being happy with trying to legislate MySpace, they’re now trying to force ISP’s and websites that have any kind of user base to notify the authorities of any illegal images of real or “cartoon” minors.
It’s called the Securing Adolescents from Exploitation-Online Act, otherwise known as the 2007 SAFE Act. Because as I’ve mentioned before, no legislation works unless it has a catchy acronym.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I am in no way defending child pornographers. However, I think this proposed law would do more harm than good and will be almost impossible to enforce. Not only that, but the bill only offers suggestions and doesn’t offer any solutions about how the ISP’s should handle these issues…
Details on how the system would work are missing from McCain’s legislation and are left to the center and ISPs. But one method would include ISPs automatically scanning e-mail and instant messaging attachments and flagging any matches.
Wow, that doesn’t sound like government intrusion, does it? Not only that, but the cost passed on to ISP’s would be astronomical and would more than likely be passed on to the consumer.
Existing laws regarding child pornography are sufficient. Extra legislation is not going to make them go away overnight, and will only get innocent people in trouble. We’ve already heard stories of people being arrested for taking innocent pictures of their own children. If this law is passed, there will be more of that.
Thanks to Aaron for the link.