TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: parenting

  • Predator sentenced, parent acts responsible

    Internet predator receives 17½ years:

    Now, this is a story about how responsible parents act.

    After a Naperville father noticed his daughter spending more time than usual on the Internet, he installed parental monitoring software to keep a closer eye on her.

    His action last summer may have kept the 13-year-old girl out of a convicted sex offender’s clutches.

    A Salt Lake City man was sentenced Tuesday to 17¨ years in federal prison in Utah for persuading the girl to send him sexually explicit photos of herself during three months of cyberspace chats and phone calls.

    Gerald Lee Wheeler, 41, was arrested last year in Utah after a multi-agency investigation. He pleaded guilty March 26 to one count of production of child pornography, which carries a mandatory 15-year minimum sentence.

    Prosecutors said Wheeler was trying to get the teen to meet him in New York for sex in exchange for a modeling contract. Fortunately, her father intervened before the girl was physically harmed.

    Of course, Wheeler is a registered sex offender in Utah.

    Anyway, do you see how easy it is to protect your kids? If not you shouldn’t be operating a computer in the first place.

  • More Stickam antics

    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.

  • Stickam Strikes

    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.

  • Parenting, what a concept

    Parenting, what a concept

    The Return of the School Shooting:

    This is an opinion piece from Blogger News Network about school shootings, which also comes to the most logical conclusion about them…

    However, I think it’s important to note that kids getting picked on doesn’t explain the totality of the issue. Something had to make school shootings start in the first place in the mid-to-late ’90s — bullying has been going on for ages — and analyses of Columbine showed the shooters did not concentrate on those who’d picked on them, opting instead for “Doom”-style random violence.

    My preferred explanation — one that ruffles feathers — is parenting. Many of these kids had plenty of time alone in their houses (Harris and Klebold made pipe bombs), and in most cases I can recall, the parents could easily have afforded quitting one job or working fewer hours. It’s also a parent’s job to monitor his/her children’s mental health issues, and keep guns away from the offspring if need be.

    I think it’s the only explanation that stands up to scrutiny, as it’s one of the few explanations that changed markedly between my parents attending high school in the ’70s (much bullying, lots of access to guns, no shootings) and now. Other factors can make it wax and wane, but as long as parents let a violent media raise their kids, the shootings won’t disappear.

    I’m glad to see that I’m not going crazy by having the same opinion.

  • Teens’ secret MySpace lives

    Teens’ secret MySpace lives

    Mom finds her teen’s secret life on MySpace:

    Another parent with no clue, waking up to the harsh reality of their kids and the internet…

    Q: My 15-year-old daughter has a MySpace website (I overheard her talking about it on the phone with a girlfriend), and I was able to check it out last week. I was astonished with what I found a group picture with a bunch of her best friends, apparently at a party, most with a can of beer in their hand. She wasn’t holding a beer, but she was surrounded by kids who were. I also read some (but not all) of the notes on the site from her friends, and many were OK, but some were suggestive of other parties and some skipping of school. This is all news to me, and I don’t know how to approach her. I’m furious, but I’m also concerned and want to let her know that this behavior is not fine with me. But will she think that I was snooping? How is the best way to handle this?

    Who cares if she thinks you were snooping? You’re the parent. If your kids do not practice common sense or good judgment online, then it’s your job as a parent to watch out for them.

    Or you can click the article link for the lengthy answer by a professional.

  • Congressman wants FTC to do parents’ job

    Congressman wants FTC to do parents’ job

    Suburban congressman wants FTC to warn parents about MySpace:

    So, Congressman Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) wants the Federal Trade Commission to issue a national consumer alert warning for parents to look at the web pages their children are posting on MySpace. Isn’t that basically wasting taxpayers’ money on something that used to be known as common sense?

  • Is MySpace finally getting serious?

    Is MySpace finally getting serious?

    MySpace.com hires child safety czar from Microsoft:

    News Corp. is set on Tuesday to name a security czar to oversee child safety measures on MySpace.com, the popular teen dating and music site that has provoked an outcry among parents who fear they have not done enough to thwart sexual predators.

    Hemanshu (Hemu) Nigam, now director of Consumer Security Outreach & Child Safe Computing at Microsoft Corp., will head up safety, education, privacy and law enforcement oversight programs for MySpace and other Fox Web properties.

    The appointment is effective May 1, News Corp.’s Fox Interactive Media, the parent of MySpace, said in a statement.

    The move is one of several responses MySpace and its owners have taken in recent months to respond to harsh criticism by parent groups, legal authorities and politicians.

    Nigam brings strong credentials to his new role. He has more than 15 years of experience in online safety, including serving as a Federal prosecutor against Internet child exploitation for the U.S. Department of Justice.

    He was also an advisor to a Congressional commission on online child safety, and an advisor to the White House on cyberstalking.

    Prior to Microsoft, Nigam was vice president of worldwide Internet enforcement at the Motion Picture Association of America, where he oversaw the global strategy to combat online video piracy for seven major Hollywood studios.

    Impressive credentials outside of that stint with the MPAA.

    MySpace reaching out to parents:

    MySpace has also hired more employees to handle security and customer care–roughly 100 people, or one-third of its workforce, scout out inappropriate content or underage members.

    Again, that is rather impressive, but will it be enough? Only time will tell.

  • Ask Amy

    Ask Amy

    Mom finds MySpace a harmful disgrace:

    Check out this letter to an advice column called “Ask Amy”…

    DEAR AMY: I didn’t realize the harmful nature of MySpace.com until I received an anonymous copy of my 16-year-old daughter’s MySpace page. She thought it was “just fun and games” when she posted provocative pictures on her home page. I was shocked when I read her Web space, which was tame by comparison to other kids from our community who have posted lewd pictures with profane comments for the world to see! I’ll be monitoring my daughter’s activity, if not deleting it altogether, but what about the parents who are unaware of this Web site? What has our culture degenerated to when photos of girls imitating sexual acts and wearing bras in the midst of boys are posted online for anyone to see? No wonder we are so concerned about predators. Our children are making themselves targets for anyone to exploit.

    Saddened by Complacency

    Rather than give the whole answer away, I’ll just post the best part that should be common sense…

    DEAR SADDENED: If your daughter is demonstrating such poor online judgment, then it’s time to take the “car keys” away until she figures out that those photos could affect her life now and haunt her well into the future.

    Is that so hard for parents?

  • What would we do without experts?

    What would we do without experts?

    A Parent’s Guide To Checking MySpace:

    Another local news article on what parents can do to protect their kids online. I only have one bone to pick with the article…

    Remember, experts have said you should warn your child that you are going to look at their Web site, and be prepared to talk reasonably about how they present themselves on the Web.

    Screw what the experts say.

    If you really want to protect your kids, don’t tell them you’ll be checking it out. This way they won’t have time to change anything, and you can really see what they’re doing online, which in turn will let you know how you need to protect your kids.

    When it comes to protecting your kids, be a parent first and their friend second.

  • Wake Up Call

    Wake Up Call

    MySpace Dangers:

    Yet another local news expose on the evils of MySpace. That seems to be the in thing with local newscasts right now…

    MySpace.com is a growing phenomenon among teens and also an easy way for people to find you if you’re not careful. Many people think, ‘It couldn’t happen to me.’

    Only on KXAN, Jenny Hoff set out to prove those people wrong with a wake-up call at their front doors.

    Jenny admits MySpace is a great resource for journalists. She logs on every time there is breaking news to get information.

    It’s also a great resource for predators, pedophiles and stalkers, and as I’m about to show you, for anybody who wants to know where you live.

    You may call it an ambush. We prefer wake-up call.

    This article is actually much better than most of the local newscasts about MySpace. I love the fact that the reporter actually took it to the parents of MySpace users and their children.

    This is a great read for any parent whose kids have a MySpace account.