Man Arrested Again For MySpace Sex Crimes:
Joseph Polk, aka Boomalicious, has been arrested once again for sex-related crimes involving a 14-year-old girl he met on MySpace after another victim came forward. Polk was arrested back in January for Having sex with a 14-year-old girl. Polk is 36. Police believe there still may be other victims.
Eight charged over Werribee DVD:
The suspects in the Werribee DVD assault case have finally been charged. They’re facing charges of procuring sexual penetration by intimidation, manufacturing child pornography, and assault.
The Australian teens recorded themselves sexually assaulting a mildly mentally disabled girl, then sold the DVD to classmates.
Thanks to Alan for the link.
Blumenthal, lawmakers want age verification rules for MySpace.com:
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has unveiled some proposed legislation in regard to age verification on MySpace.
Under the proposal, any networking site that fails to verify ages and obtain parental permission from parents to post profiles of users under 18 would face civil fines up to $5,000 per violation. Sites would have to check information about parents to make sure it is legitimate. Parents would be contacted directly when necessary.
It would probably just be cheaper for the sites to take the $5K fine, then have to verify the parental information for every user under 18. And what about parents who don’t want their personal information online?
Speaking of parents, there’s still no proposed legislation in Conn. for lax parenting.
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.
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.