TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Category: Social Media Crime

  • The 29,000

    29,000 sex offenders found on MySpace:

    It has been confirmed by MySpace that there are in fact 29,000 registered sex offenders on MySpace. My apologies to AG Roy Cooper of North Carolina for saying that he pulled that number out of thin air. Mr. Cooper’s New England counterpart, Connecticut AG Richard Blumenthal, is stating that the number was provided to him by top MySpace officials. MySpace is still declining to comment.

    If there are 29,000 registered sex offenders on MySpace that are stupid enough to use their real names I can only imagine how many are on there that are flying below the radar. Not to mention the predators that are on there that have never been caught.

    However, I still don’t think that more legislation is the answer. What is needed is more vigilant parenting. Parents need more education on how to navigate MySpace and how to check up on their kids’ MySpaces.

    We can’t allow the government to raise our children.

  • AG Cooper strikes again

    Cooper cracks down on predators:

    North Carolina Attorney General is up to his old tricks again. Putting unreal expectations on MySpace and allowing parents to continue to shirk their responsibility.

    The rules on how children use social networking sites like MySpace.com could soon be changing.

    State lawmakers are working on a bill that would require parents to give permission before their children use those type of Web sites. North Carolina attorney general Roy Cooper will testify before a House committee Tuesday about the need for tougher laws.

    Cooper says online sites are a playground for predators, citing that as of this July, more than 29,000 registered sex offenders have been found using MySpace.com and that’s jut those who are using their real names.

    I think he got that number from the Department of Pulling Things out of Your Ass. That’s the first I’ve heard the 29K figure. According to this article 29,000 is what Cooper is claiming that MySpace has told him. MySpace has yet to confirm.

    MySpace.com is currently open only to users age 14 or older, but the company doesn’t perform any kind of verification. Cooper wants social networking sites to require parents’ permission before children can join, including procedures to verify the parents’ identity and age.

    Again he doesn’t tell us how he expects MySpace to do that.

    “It wont’ be a perfect system. Just like any other kind of age verification system, you’ve got kids who fake driver’s licenses, you’ve got kids who fake their age to get into an R-rated movie,” Cooper said. “Those kinds of things are going to happen on the Internet as well, but the key is to put a barrier up to better protect kids on the Internet and we think this will be important.”

    Except it’s not against the law to sneak into an R rated movie. And isn’t that up to the parents to make sure their underage kids don’t see R rated movies?

    If passed, Senate Bill 132 would also ban North Carolina sex offenders from social networking sites, enhance the criminal penalty for soliciting minors for sex over the Internet and expand the law regarding child pornography to include indecent exposure.

    I’d like to see how they’re going to keep SOs off of sites like MySpace. Enhancing the penalty for child solicitation isn’t going to stop pedophiles from approaching kids. It may even put kids more at danger.

    On the next election day, Attorney General Cooper’s slogan should be “Long on ideas. Short on solutions.”

  • LiveJournal takes a step forward

    Livejournal Bans Underage Adult Fanfiction:

    It seems that LiveJournal/SixApart has finally taken a step closer to reality by banning fanfiction that has underage characters (i.e. children) engaging in sexual situations. In other words, they’re banning child porn erotica.

    Six Apart has been firming up its policies on legal and illegal content, and this time mature-themed stories with underaged characters are in the spotlight. Livejournal personnel posted today that there is a “zero-tolerance policy” in effect for specific categories of posts and behaviors. Alongside material that “encourages or advocates hate crimes, rape, or child abuse or pedophilia,” and ” material that asks for assistance in committing illegal activities that cause serious physical/economic harm,” certain types of fiction are also banned as (allegedly) illegal under U.S. law.

    Specifically Livejournal has stated: “This includes threats of physical harm against the President or other executive officers, child pornography (photos or videos), or other material — including drawings and text — that explicitly depicts minors under the age of 18 (real or not) in a graphic sexual context. Or, in other words: Romeo and Juliet is okay. Teens talking about their experiences with sex is okay. Smut focused on a twelve year old is not okay.”

    You can see more information about it at LJ Biz.

    So far no mass revolt from LJ users. Just a lot of questions.

    And on a personal note to the people who write sexually charged Harry Potter fanfic, get help. Seriously, you need help.

  • Werribee teens plead guilty

    Werribee DVD youths plead guilty, avoid jail:

    Seven of the teens from Werribee, Australia who filmed themselves sexually assaulting a mildly developmentally challenged girl have pleaded guilty. If you remember the suspects also sold the DVD, entitled C*nt: The Movie to their classmates over MySpace. Let me refresh your memory…

    The DVD was shot in June last year when the 17-year-old girl, who has mild developmental delay, was taken by the youths to the edge of the Werribee River.

    It includes footage of the sexual act, of men urinating on the girl and throwing a cup of urine on her. It also shows them setting her hair alight three times.

    They throw her top and jacket into the river and tell her: “You’re walking home topless.”

    You would think the judge would throw the book at them. Not so. Since they have pleaded guilty they will avoid any jail time and will be sent to an “adolescent sexual rehabilitation program”.

    Let’s hear from the judge…

    The judge said the youths’ guilty plea was a strong indication of their remorse.

    “The idea is that the defendants now have some rehabilitation and education in how not to treat women,” the judge said.

    Personally, I think the judge let them off way too easy. I think the only thing they’re remorseful about is that they got caught.

    However, I want to hear from my Aussie readers to see what they feel about the sentence. Is it enough?

    Thanks to Alan for the tip.

  • Shefelbine trial moved

    Shefelbine Cases Moved To Rockville:

    Everyone’s favorite repeat arrestee and all around creepy guy, Scott Shefelbine, is having two of his cases moved from Hartford to Rockville, CT. However, it’s not because of any change of venue requests.

    Judge Thomas P. Miano said that he was transferring the cases for administrative purposes to Rockville, where seven other cases are pending against Shefelbine. Miano said that the move did not preclude the defense from filing a change of venue motion.

    So Judge Miano is basically saying “Look here Slapnuts. Since you have seven other cases pending against you in Rockville we’re going to let them have these two as well”. So basically Shefelbine only has to make one stop before he heads to the joint.

    Rockville may not be his last stop though. His defense attorney may file a change of venue request due to all the pre-trial publicity. Maybe if her client’s father didn’t punch out a reporter there wouldn’t be so much publicity.

  • 7 arrested in MySpace sting

    Seven men arrested in Twiggs County child Internet sting:

    Seven men from Twiggs County, Georgia have been arrested in an internet child predator sting.

    Deputies teamed up with a group called Perverted Justice, whose workers posed as 13- and 14-year-old girls on Web sites such as Yahoo.com and Myspace.com. The men, ages 24 to 64, live in various parts of the state and are charged with a variety of charges such as computer child exploitation online and obscene Internet contact with a child. One man was a former high school coach, and another was a youth mentor at a church, investigators said.

    Here is a link to their names and mugshots. For historical purpose, their names are Jeffrey Pansino, Shaharyar Rashid, James Ronald Cosby, Daniel Eric Bowman, Robert Elton Hill, Casey Dykes, and Kenneth Mack Smith.

    If there are that many predators in such a small area I shudder to think how many must be in a big city.

  • American Teens Gone Wild

    Voyeurs ‘R Us: What parents need to know about Stickam:

    This is a great article from Amy Tiemann at Wired about every parent’s worst nightmare on the internet, Stickam.

    Common sense tells most parents that the whole idea of live video chats involving minors is a ridiculously risky business to start out with. As Stickam’s corporate relationships are being untangled in the press, a parent’s visit to the site reveals that there is already plenty to be worried about.

    My first question is where did the “age 14 and older” guideline come from? What possible reason could there be for anyone under age 18 to interact in live, unfiltered audio/video chat with online strangers or “friends?” No matter where the age restriction is set, it is blatantly unenforced. Stickam’s FAQ says, “While Stickam has established rules keeping children under the age of 14 from becoming a member, it is easy for children to lie about their age and thus gain access to content which may be inappropriate and unintended for them. It is up to parents to properly supervise their children’s online activities.”

    A close reading of Stickam’s privacy policy suggests that the video content that users post to the site can be recorded, repurposed, and commercialized by anyone. To quote the policy, which spells out the agreement between the user and Advanced Video Communications:

    “Any Personal Information (including video content) that you disclose on the Website (for example, on message boards or chat rooms, or within your personal profile page) becomes publicly available and can be collected and used by others. Your account name and other profile information (but not your email address) is displayed to other internet users when you upload videos or send messages through the Website, and you can be contacted by other users who send you comments. Any videos or other content that you submit to the Website (including any Personal Information contained therein) may be distributed through the internet and other media.”

    Does this mean that a 14-year-old’s Webcast make-out session (or worse) can be incorporated into an “American Teens Gone Wild” video sold worldwide? Could Stickam channels be fed to paying customers on DXLive or other adult sites? Think of all the stupid things each of us did as teens that thankfully faded into the past. Now in a highly sexualized environment, young teens are giving up their personal privacy to create online videos that will live on indefinitely to be used by anyone, for any purpose.

    As far as protection goes, it seems that families are on their own.

    I agree wholeheartedly with everything she says concerning Stickam. My wife and I never allowed our kids to have webcams and I always looked funny at the parents that did. And now with Stickam’s alleged ties to porn if they were still underage would be even more reason for them not to have one.

    And like I’m fond of saying, where are the attorneys general now regarding Stickam? It’s always better to stop a problem before it happens.

  • A Shefelbine strikes back

    Defendant’s Father Punches Reporter:

    The saga of alleged serial predator Scott Shefelbine took a bizarre twist today. After his bail was revoked his father, David Shefelbine, punched out a reporter…a female reporter.

    VERNON – After his son was jailed today, David Shefelbine punched a television reporter in the face outside Superior Court in Rockville.

    Erin Cox, from WTNH Channel 8, was asking him for a comment on the judge’s decision involving Scott Shefelbine, 32, when David Shefelbine, 67, swung his right arm and punched her.

    Vernon police were called, interviewed witnesses and viewed footage of the alleged assault taken by photographers for Channel 8 and WVIT Channel 30. Cox went to Rockville General Hospital at 2:35 p.m. to be evaluated.

    Police went to Shefelbine’s Tolland home after the incident to question him, but he refused to answer the door, police said. He later turned himself in at Vernon police headquarters, accompanied by his lawyer. He was charged with second-degree breach of peace and released without having to post bail.

    I’m not surprised he didn’t have to post bail. He should have a $1.5M credit.

    It also seems that a lack of respect for women runs in the family.

  • Marshals, please take Mr. Shefelbine into custody

    That’s the quote from Judge Stanley T. Fuger Jr. when he ordered the bail of Scott Shefelbine revoked.

    In his ruling, which came at noon, Fuger said he found the parents’ testimony not believable. The judge said he believed Shefelbine and his parents fabricated evidence and conspired to lie in order to keep him out of jail.

    Shefelbine’s mother sobbed. He showed no emotion, stood and faced the marshals and held out his hands.

    I’ve seen mothers in denial about their kids before but Mrs. Shefelbine takes the cake.

    Since Shefelbine’s bail was revoked doesn’t that mean that his family loses that $1.5M that they posted? If I was on the verge of losing $1.5M because of an ungrateful son maybe I would fabricate evidence too.

    But let’s not lose sight of something. Shefelbine should have had his bail revoked a long time ago. He was arrested multiple times for pretty much the exact same thing. His bail should have been revoked after his second arrest. The first arrest of his that I posted about was back in October 2006. Why in God’s name did it take 9 months to finally get him off the streets? And why is no one asking these questions to Conn. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal? You know him, he’s the guy who started all the MySpace hysteria. He likes to brag about how much he does to keep Connecticut’s children safe yet a serial pedophile like Shefelbine is allowed to walk free.

    Maybe I’ll have to ask him that question myself.

    Thanks to A Mom for the link.

  • As the Shefelbines turn

    This story gets more bizarre with each passing day.

    Yesterday the mother of Scott Shefelbine testified in her son’s bail revocation hearing. Her alibi for her son was that he was at church and not trying to molest a 14-year-old girl. Was church really the best thing she could come up with?

    Scott D. Shefelbine was not in West Hartford on the evening of April 19 trying to hook up with a 14-year-old girl, but at Victory Tabernacle Church in Middlefield praying for the Virginia Tech massacre victims, his mother told a Rockville Superior Court judge Wednesday.

    Gail Shefelbine’s offer of an alibi for her 32-year-old son, accused of sexually assaulting several teenage girls, came during the second day of a hearing on the state’s effort to send Shefelbine to jail until his trial.

    The defense offered a dated church bulletin as evidence of the April 19 visit to Victory Tabernacle.

    Gail Shefelbine also said that on May 13 and May 20 she was at church with her son – at St. Thomas the Apostle Roman Catholic Church in West Hartford. Under cross-examination, she acknowledged that she unsuccessfully sought after the fact to obtain a dated church bulletin to offer as proof of the May 13 visit.

    The defense Wednesday presented a May 20 church bulletin from St. Thomas and date-stamped photographs of Gail and Scott Shefelbine in front of the church. Gail Shefelbine testified they posed for the shots as further proof they were there May 20.

    Shefelbine’s mother also said an elderly nun at the church wrote on the bulletin “Gail and Scott were here.”

    The electronic monitor shows that Shefelbine was out of his house from 4:45 to 5:53 p.m. May 20. Gail Shefelbine and Cooney testified that they arrived at the church late and stayed only about a half hour, leaving before communion because as non-Catholics they could not partake.

    Leaming wasn’t buying it. “You arrived late, left early and you drove all the way to West Hartford to attend Mass?” Leaming asked. Yes, Gail Shefelbine responded.

    Leaming also asked whether “anything on [the May 20 church bulletin] proves you were at that church on that date?” Shefelbine responded that she did not know. When Leaming asked her whether date stamps on a digital photo, such as those of her and her son at the church, could be manipulated, she replied: “I have no idea.”

    For those of you who aren’t Catholic, this is an old Catholic trick that most of us did when we were kids. Back in the day when you could send your kids to church alone, my parents would always make me bring back a church bulletin to prove that I was there. So I would go to church, grab a bulletin, and then run off to the mall. It worked on Mom but not Dad and I sure as hell wouldn’t use it as a defense in criminal proceedings.

    His sister’s explanation wasn’t much better.

    The girl and her sister have identified Shefelbine in court, but said he looked different in May. They said he didn’t have a beard as he does now.

    Cindy Shefelbine, the suspect’s sister, testified on Wednesday that her brother has had a beard for nearly a year. Photos taken in May, just a day or two before the victim said she saw Scott Shefelbine, were shown in court on Wednesday. The pictures depict that he did have a beard.

    Channel 3 Eyewitness News reporter Susan Raff reported Cindy Shefelbine appeared agitated when asked about her brother’s whereabouts.

    Cindy Shefelbine said her brother was with her at church the day that one of the victims said Scott Shefelbine came to her home. Prosecutors asked whether Cindy Shefelbine felt her brother was being unfairly prosecuted and she said she didn’t know what that meant.

    So there best explanations for Shefelbine’s whereabouts are church and a beard. Are you sure it wasn’t the one-armed man? Or maybe Shefelbine was saving babies from burning buildings at the time? Good luck with that.

    Proceedings are scheduled for today as well.