TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Category: Social Media Crime

  • MySpace caves to pressure for new security measures

    MySpace caves to pressure for new security measures

    MySpace Agrees to New Safety Measures:

    First, let me hit you with just the first paragraph from the AP article that’s making the rounds about MySpace’s proposed new safety measures.

    Under mounting pressure from law enforcement and parents, MySpace agreed Monday to take steps to protect youngsters from online sexual predators and bullies, including searching for ways to better verify users’ ages.

    The fact that parents are pressuring MySpace is a joke. If parents were actually parenting, I would say more than half the stories on this site wouldn’t have happened.

    Here are some of the things MySpace said they will do for lax parents. Ok, I made up the lax parents part.

    Under the agreement, profiles for users under age 16 will be set to private so no strangers can get information from their profile; users can block anyone over 18 from contacting them; and people over 18 cannot add anyone under 16 as a friend in their network unless they have their last name or their e-mail address.

    All of these can be circumvented by the underage user if the parents aren’t paying attention.

    Another new feature will be the following…

    MySpace said it is in the process of creating a database where parents can submit children’s e-mail addresses to prevent their children from setting up profiles.

    And it only takes your kid about a minute to set up another e-mail address that you don’t know about.

    In my opinion, age verification won’t work either, even if you need a credit card to sign up with MySpace. First of all, MySpace will never do that because their userbase will plummet. Secondly, it wouldn’t take much for a kid to slide the credit card out of mom or dad’s wallet, use it to sign up on MySpace, then slide back unnoticed.

    There is no greater security measure than good parenting.

    Thanks to Bay for the link.

  • Way to stay current

    Way to stay current

    More Details Emerge In Myspace Suicide Case:

    Sometimes the media cracks me up. Take for instance this article by the local Fox affiliate in Kansas City about the Megan Meier case dated 1/10/08.

    The Washington Post reports that someone established a Web site a few weeks ago to degrade Megan Meier’s character. The site has since been taken down, and no one knows who set it up.

    Wrong.

    First of all, the website, the infamous Megan Had it Coming, is still up and secondly, Encyclopedia Dramatica already admitted to the hoax. I posted about it here over a month ago, as did a lot of other bloggers.

    Get with the program.

  • 37-year-old arrested for meeting to have sex with 12-year-old

    37-year-old arrested for meeting to have sex with 12-year-old

    Edward Oberwise

    Hillsborough County man met girls on MySpace in order to have sex:

    Mr. Clean, over there, is 37-year-old Edward Oberwise of Hillsborough County, Florida. He’s been arrested for allegedly having sex with a 12-year-old girl he met on MySpace.

    Police were tipped off by the girl’s 14-year-old friend, who told her parents.

    So let’s hear it, sex offender defenders. Please tell me how you think that this man who was 25 years older than his victim was not at fault.

  • Indiana doesn’t get it either

    Indiana doesn’t get it either

    Law could ban sex offenders from Myspace:

    Just like his cohorts from other states, Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter just doesn’t get it. Like his other counterparts, he is proposing legislation that is supposed to keep registered sex offenders off of MySpace and other social networking sites.

    Carter says convicted sex offenders will be required to give police their usernames and emails at the same time they register with their basic information like where they live.

    As usual, Attorney General Carter doesn’t address the issues of registered sex offenders using different e-mails and usernames that they gave police or sex offenders who haven’t been caught yet. Not to mention clueless parents who let their children roam the internet unchecked. Oh, that’s right. I forgot. Those clueless parents are also voters.

  • Sean Lennon pleads guilty

    Sean Lennon pleads guilty

    Again, no, not John Lennon’s son.

    Ravena man pleads guilty to raping teen he met on MySpace:

    I originally posted about Sean Lennon here. He was arrested over the summer for having sex with a 14-year-old girl he met on MySpace. The 21-year-old from Ravena, New York pleaded guilty to one count of Use of a Child in a Sexual Performance and one count of Rape in the Third Degree, both felonies.

    Under the terms of the plea bargain, Lennon will serve seven years in prison and ten years post release supervision. He also must to register as a sex offender and have no contact with the victim.

  • Federal subpoenas issued in Megan Meier case

    Federal subpoenas issued in Megan Meier case

    L.A. grand jury issues subpoenas in Web suicide case:

    A federal grand jury in Los Angeles has issued subpoenas in the suicide death of Megan Meier from Missouri. For those of you living under a rock, Megan Meier, at the age of 13-committed suicide when a boy she met on MySpace rejected her and demeaned her. Except the MySpace boy wasn’t a boy at all but adult neighbor Lori Drew. Drew wanted to see if Megan was talking about Drew’s daughter behind her back.

    Authorities in Missouri could not find anything to charge Lori Drew with, but the U.S. prosecutors in L.A. have taken a different approach. They’re thinking of charging Lori Drew with fraud for creating the fake MySpace. And why is this happening in L.A. you ask.

    The prosecutors believe they have jurisdiction because MySpace — the would-be victim — is based in Beverly Hills, the sources said.

    The subpoenas were issued to MySpace and what the article says are “witnesses in the case.”

    Here’s hoping that there can be some modicum of justice for Megan Meier.

  • Douglas Brian Wall

    Douglas Brian Wall

    Douglas Brian Wall

    Police: Man Lured Minor From MySpace:

    The surprised looking dude over there is 26-year-old Douglas Brian Wall of Ferndale, Michigan. He’s in jail for having sex with a 15-year-old girl that he lured to his house via MySpace. He’s also accused of supplying drugs and alcohol to minors. A regular pillar of the community, this guy is.

    A parent tipped off police shortly before midnight on New Year’s Eve. The parent said he discovered his minor children had been at Wall’s home.

    A search of his home turned up marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

    The investigation also revealed that Wall had sex with a 15-year-old girl from “a nearby city” several times over a two-month period. Police said other juveniles, some as young as 14, were in the house during the encounters, drinking and using drugs.

    I wonder how many parents were totally unaware of their kid’s behavior. All it takes is a little check-up on their computer.

    Mr. Hall here, however, just may possibly be the absolute least productive member of society and deserves to be thrown in a hole for an awfully long time.

  • Canadian Facebook Vigilantes always out their man

    Canadian Facebook Vigilantes always out their man

    Facebook vigilantes identify alleged cat killers:

    The Royal Canadian Kilted Facebook Vigilantes have struck once more. I made that name up, by the way, with heavy influence from Ren and Stimpy.

    Anyway, this time they’ve published the names of four teenage animal abusers…

    In a case of vigilante justice, the identities of four teenage boys accused of killing a cat by putting it in a microwave oven in Camrose, Alta., were posted on a Facebook page on Sunday.

    The names of the boys, who were charged with animal cruelty and other offences after allegedly breaking into a home on Dec. 29 and killing the cat, were quickly pulled from the website by police because the accused cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The names had been posted on one of several group pages condemning the boys’ actions and threatening violence, said Sgt. Tony Thomsen.

    Now while I think these scumbag animal abusers should be hung by a certain body part, the Canadian Facebook Vigilantes have to understand that by posting the offenders’ names, not only are they possibly impeding the investigation, but they could be getting themselves in trouble as well.

    Now, if I was some kind of unscrupulous person, I would remind the Canadian Facebook Vigilantes that the Youth Criminal Justice Act doesn’t affect Americans.

  • Sex master Adam

    Sex master Adam

    How a sinister MySpace predator targeted teen girls:

    Recently, Buffalo, NY police arrested 48-year-old cafeteria worker David W. Evans. On MySpace, he said he was a muscular 20-year-old called “Sex Master Adam”. He’s been charged with coercing a minor to produce child pornography, which is a federal felony.

    Apparently, he either coerced or convinced underage girls to send him nude pictures of themselves. Police believe there may have been as many as 100 victims.

    The police are also left asking themselves some questions that parents should be asking too.

    As police continue their investigation and more girls are located, questions are being raised about the victims, too:

    • Regardless of how old she thought Adam was, why would any teenage girl send naked pictures of herself to a man she had never met?

    • How could the girls’ parents be unaware of what was going on?

    • How common is this kind of conduct in the Internet age?

    I’ll take those questions on.

    Usually in these cases, children are coerced and threatened into sending these types of pictures to predators.

    Some parents still refuse to monitor their kids’ internet activities.

    Unfortunately, it’s all too common.

    I can’t stress this enough to parents. Keep the computer in a common area where it can be monitored easily. Learn how to check the internet history of your child’s browsing. Those two simple things will go a long way in keeping your child safe online.

  • Facebook vigilantes ride again

    Facebook vigilantes ride again

    Suspect identified, threatened on Facebook:

    Facebook may not be a hotbed of criminal activity like MySpace is, but it sure does have its share of dumbasses.

    16-year-old Mike Woloshyn was fatally stabbed at a house party in Selkirk, Manitoba.

    A memorial Facebook group was started so friends and family can post their thoughts and feelings on his tragic death.

    Of course, the internet being what it is, someone had to go and ruin it.

    The 17-year-old suspect in the stabbing was named on the Facebook group, which is a major taboo in Canada.

    On a linked message board, the 17-year-old accused of killing him is named and users are told the accused “should get stabbed in prison” and anally raped.

    The accused “deserves a kick in the balls and a shot in the face,” one user wrote on that message board, which has been shut down.

    A photo alleged to be of the accused after a fist fight was also posted.

    Thanks to posts like those, the Facebook group was shut down.

    And here’s why you shouldn’t do things like that on Facebook in Canada…

    A youth accused being named online raises issues of contempt of court and interfering with the administration of justice, said lawyer Jay Prober. Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, young offenders cannot be identified in the media, except under rare circumstances.

    This isn’t the first case of Facebook vigilantism that I’ve posted about.

    Let the law do their job, people. I want to see this scumbag put away as much as the next person, but don’t screw things up by pulling stunts like this.