TheTrenchcoat Chronicles

Tag: roy-cooper

  • Facebook caves

    Facebook settles New York child safety probe:

    Not too long ago I posted about New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo setting his sights on Facebook because of pervs approaching his office’s fake underage Facebook profile.

    Well, Facebook has caved in to him…

    The settlement involves no financial penalties.

    Under the terms of the settlement, Facebook has agreed to begin addressing any complaint within 24 hours of being told of inappropriate content — involving such things as nudity, profanity or harassment — by a user or e-mail correspondent.

    The company will tell the complaining party the steps it has taken within 72 hours when the complaint has been submitted via an independent e-mail.

    In addition, the Palo Alto, California-based company has agreed to allow an independent examiner to oversee how Facebook handles such complaints. The attorney general will have a say in who gets hired as examiner. The examiner will report to the New York attorney general every six months over a two-year period on Facebook’s compliance.

    If I was Facebook I would have told them to shove it. The amount of crime that happens on Facebook compared to MySpace is almost negligible.

    Oh and look, our friend AG Roy Cooper from North Carolina has to sick his two cents in…

    “This agreement is another step toward protecting children on social networking sites but we still have a long way to go,” North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper said in a separate statement. “Our group of attorneys general will keep pushing MySpace, Facebook and other sites to do more.”

    Yet Cuomo and Cooper aren’t pushing parents to do more because as I’ve said parents vote and the AG’s don’t want to risk not being re-elected.

  • Give it up already Roy

    Cooper still pushing for parental consent to use MySpace:

    Seriously, Roy, it’s time to hang it up.

    Even after being crushed in the North Carolina House Attorney General Roy Cooper is still touting his master plan for MySpace.

    Attorney General Roy Cooper vowed Monday to keep pressuring lawmakers to approve legislation that will require minors to get parental permission before using MySpace.com and other social networking Web sites.

    North Carolina legislators failed to pass a bill this year targeting such sites, as some House members and Internet commerce groups said a broad restriction would be unworkable and unconstitutional.

    “One thing we pride ourselves in doing is being ahead of the curve with ideas,” Cooper said during a news conference. “Sometimes it just takes the slow-moving Legislature a period of time to see the light.”

    Or how about a slow Attorney General who doesn’t realize the technology doesn’t exist yet?

    Cooper said age verification technology is already being used on adult oriented sites that advertise tobacco and alcohol. He said social networking sites just don’t want to lose the revenue generated from advertising to young people, an accusation MySpace denies.

    What? You mean that stupid drop-down menu that asks you your age? Yeah, nobody lies on that. The other form of verification is called a credit card. While a parent’s credit card may be helpful with parental consent it doesn’t prevent kids from just lifting the numbers and using it themselves. Plus it opens a whole other issue of identity theft.

    And my favorite part…

    Officials in two states have said MySpace recently identified more than 29,000 registered sex offenders with profiles. The company will not confirm the reports but said it is working to locate and remove profiles posted by sexual offenders.

    Cooper threatened Monday to take action against MySpace if it fails to require parental consent voluntarily, but he declined to discuss specifics.

    That’s Roy Cooper for you. He hasn’t been specific since he started this whole ordeal. From now on I’m going to refer to him as Mr. Vague.

  • NC MySpace bill fails

    Energy bill advances; MySpace rules fail:

    North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper’s proposed legislation to make teens get parental permission before signing up for MySpace has failed in the State House.

    But the second bill lost its headlining clause, a requirement that parents give permission for their younger teenagers to sign up for online social-networking sites. Rep. Jennifer Weiss, D-Wake, said that legal and technical experts raised too many unanswered questions about whether the proposal was feasible and constitutional.

    It is expected that the Senate will reject the changes and the bill will end up in a conference committee.

    So there still are some sensible politicians left in the world.

  • 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.”

  • NC legislation on parental consent passes committee

    Bill on parental consent for MySpace advances:

    North Carolina is slowly starting to turn into New Jersey as far as over-regulation is concerned.

    RALEIGH – Children under 18 would have to get parental consent to join MySpace.com and other social networking Web sites under a bill approved today by a state Senate appropriations committee.

    N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper has been pushing for the legislation, saying it would protect children from sexual predators who target victims online. Cooper is co-chairman of a group of 50 state attorneys general trying to negotiate with MySpace.com on the issue.

    I have yet to hear not only how they plan on implementing this but also how they plan on enforcing it. what do they propose happens to a child that gets on without parental permission? Will the child be prosecuted or the parent? Will it result in jail time or fines? Will there be a special task force that will be in charge of making sure that all NC kids on MySpace have parental permission? Will this law discourage predators and pedophiles from trolling MySpace?

    Again I say this is nothing more than feel-good legislation preying on the fears of those that are not tech savvy in order to gain re-election. None of it actually keeps our kids any safer.

  • AGs pressure MySpace for info

    8 States Seek Sex Offender Data From MySpace:

    Attorneys General from eight states, including North Carolina’s Roy Cooper and Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal, sent what I’m sure is a strongly worded letter to MySpace demanding they turn over sex offender information.

    In a letter, the attorneys general asked MySpace to provide information on how many registered sex offenders are using the site, and where they live. North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper signed the letter, along with attorneys general from Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

    In a statement, Cooper’s office said media outlets in 2006 “reported almost 100 criminal incidents across the country involving adults who used MySpace to prey or attempt to prey on children.”

    In December, MySpace announced it was partnering with Sentinel Tech Holding Corp. to build a database with information on sex offenders in the United States. Software to identify and remove sex offenders from the site was launched in early May, MySpace officials said Monday in a statement.

    “It is our understanding that the data from Sentinel reveals that thousands of known sex offenders have been confirmed as MySpace members,” the letter said.

    In an interview, Cooper said the information was provided by “absolutely credible” sources, whom he declined to identify.

    This is how I imagine the press conference in Raleigh went…

    AG Cooper: It is our understanding that the data from Sentinel reveals that thousands of known sex offenders have been confirmed as MySpace members.

    Reporter: Who provided you that information?

    AG Cooper: Um…a guy.

    Here’s a thought. Rather than having MySpace do your work for you why don’t you keep better track of your sex offenders? Especially you Mr. Blumenthal. Connecticut seems to have a serious problem with SO’s if this site is any indication.

    While you’re at it why don’t you keep them behind bars longer?

  • NC Attorney General brings the MySpace hate

    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 the 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.