TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

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  • More Stickam antics

    Potential Dangers Of Webcams:

    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.

  • Werribee suspects may receive light sentences

    I got a tip from a reader Alan in Australia who says that two of the Werribee rape DVD suspects will be receiving light sentences. This is the e-mail he sent me verbatim.

    Something finally appears to be stirring from the Victoria Police.

    It appears only two of them will face charges of sexual assault.

    This is from a myspace page that has gone from private to public.

    ah not really, they just wanted me to describe the night and how i made
    the bomb n shit, and they asked if i feel guilty and if i understand wat i
    did was wrong lol

    yer man, made me do sum interview thing, and they showd dad the dvd. the
    f**khead hit the roof. Strted clipping me n shit infrnt of tht copper and
    was like giving them permission to take me prints n shit.

    Yer well they said i got sum caution of behaviour bond thing, so no
    biggie”

    A good behavior bond *shakes head*

    I’ll bring you confirmation as soon as I get it.

  • Seized computers can’t be used in Castillo trial

    Judge: Prosecutors in school shooting case can’t use computers:

    A judge has ruled that the computers in the home of Alvaro Castillo cannot be used as evidence by prosecutors because the computers were improperly seized. Castillo is the Hillsborough, North Carolina teen who killed his father, Rafael Huezo Castillo, before taking shots at his former high school, Orange High. The prosecutors shouldn’t worry too much since Castillo did send what was basically a videotaped confession to a local newspaper.

  • FBI on Stickam

    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.

  • Charges filed in Newington plot

    Student charged with manufacturing bombs:

    16-year-old Frank Fechteler has been officially charged in a plot to kill more than 20 students at Newington High School in Connecticut. Again a search of his house uncovered guns, bombs, and a hit list. Still no motive in the plot.

  • James Lewerke sentenced

    Valpo school slasher avoids prison time:

    James Lewerke, the Indiana teen who was arrested for a 2004 slashing attack against his classmates, will receive no prison time. Instead for his guilty but insane plea, he’ll be housed in a mental facility in Iowa until he’s 21. James is 17 at present. Then at the time of his release, he’ll be on 9 years probation where he’ll be required to undergo psychiatric treatment. This is one of the few times I agree with a mental health sentence. From what I’ve read James had legitimate mental health issues that need to be addressed and luckily he’s going to get the help he needs.

  • Lee Alexander Webb

    MySpace friendship leads to charges:

    Another short and vague article…

    STURGIS — A 21-year-old Sturgis man who befriended a teen through an online social networking Web site faces multiple criminal sexual conduct charges, the Sturgis Police Department reported.

    Authorities arrested Lee Alexander Webb on Tuesday as part of an ongoing investigating an allegation that a friendship that began through the MySpace.com site turned into criminal activity, a news release said.

    The St. Joseph County (Mich.) Prosecutors Office authorized three counts of felony criminal sexual conduct in the third degree (person 13-15) and one count of misdemeanor criminal sexual conduct in the fourth degree (person 13-16) on Thursday, the release said.

    If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

    I wasn’t able to find a MySpace for Webb.

  • Stickam Strikes

    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.

  • What Craig said today

    Prostitutes Using Craigslist To Solicit For Sex:

    This is just another local news article about prostitutes using craigslist to advertise. Once again Craig himself deflects the blame.

    CBS13 went straight to the source in San Francisco to find out why you can find sex for sale, right next to an easy bake oven in Sacramento.

    Pallas: Clearly prostitution is illegal, you know prostitutes are selling sex on your website.
    Craig: There are prostitution ads on our site and people who care flag them and they do get removed but the message from our community overwhelmingly is live and let live message, people’s priorities are elsewhere.

    Craig Newmark makes it clear the user driven, open forum, free speech philosophy behind/foundation of Craigslist puts what the customer wants first and he argues very few are complaining.

    “People tell us to prioritize scammers and we’ve had very few complaints about prostitution…it’s something like one out of every one hundred thousand users or one out of a million,” says Newmark, “I want ’em off our site.”

    So why not shut it down? He sites two major reasons.

    “We wanted to draw away suspect ads from more on conventional sections like women seeking men, another is we wanted to offer legitimate erotic services to people who want them to give people a break,” says Newmark.

    Again, users flag what they suspect is illegal.

    “Right now we have overwhelming feedback from our community. They don’t want us to monitor the site, not in that way. People are happy with the flagging mechanism,” says Newmark.

    Newmark says his company won’t police the site because he might be held legally liable for what people post and he doesn’t want to get sued.

    That’s the bottom line right there. He doesn’t want to get sued. So rather than worrying about his user base getting robbed, assaulted, or killed he’s more worried about lining his own pocket. So since Craig makes money off of craigslist which provides prostitutes with a place to advertise doesn’t that make him the world’s largest pimp?

  • More on the Newington High Plot

    Arrest made in school shooting, explosives plot:

    We have a slew of new details in the alleged plot to bomb Newington High School in Connecticut. The suspect is one 16-year-old Frank Fechteler of Newington. People who know him describe him as quiet and reserved but scatterbrained. He is being charged with two counts of manufacturing bombs and being held on $500K bond. He’s looking at 40 years behind bars. He is also believed to be the only participant in the alleged plot. Students who appeared in the YouTube video were interviewed by police and stated that Fechteler carried around a hit list of 30 names with the races of his targets next to their names. So this may have been a racially motivated plot. Some students said he planned to carry out his plot on, you guessed it, April 20th. I don’t know how reliable that information is just yet.