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MySpace throws out 29,000 sex offenders
By Stevie Smith Jul 25, 2007, 15:25 GMT
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Sex offenders cannot have a web page but a murder can? Talk about discrimination... What's next, parking ticket offenders?
Friday, June 09, 2006, AdBlog www.myopenkimono.com
Has anything really changed in over a year?!
CONFESSIONS OF A MYSPACE USER
Turn to any of the trades and there is no doubt that there will be some article written about News Corp's MySpace.com site. The trades just can't stop chatting it up as the fastest growing social networking site on the net.
I couldn't help but wonder what all the hype was about and became a MySpace 'user' (I use the term in an non-addictive sense) about 2 months ago.
Having created a profile, albeit under a false name, I ventured into the twilight zone of MySpace.
I was immediately bombarded by users who wanted to 'be my friend'. People I did not know nor wanted to know. People who, laughably, had upwards of several thousand 'friends' on their profile. Useless banter with no redeeming social value other than curiosity and, dangerously, entrapment. In many cases I found the users to be trumped up imaginary persons often cloaked in the skin of others whose photos were 'borrowed'. Nothing on the site seemed real to the observing eye.
Browsing through the profiles I was not surprised to find sexually explicit and sometimes disturbing photos. I often worried about the kids who ran into these randomly accessible photos. I worried even more about kids that were underage and easily drawn into conversations with would-be predators.
Shocked at open profiles that suggested 'I love kids and often go to playgrounds to just watch them' I decided to abandon the generally unhealthy site.
News Corp has a tiger by the tail .... and if it doesn't do something very quickly to turn this site into a more controlled environment, they run the risk of government scrutiny and intervention.
Frankly, I don't care how profitable this site is. Supporting it with advertising will eventually backfire with enraged parents, schools and communities demanding action.
This is not about free speech or rights under the constitution. It's about social consciousness....not social networking.
Sex-offenders all too often prey on children. They don't DESERVE to not be discriminated against. They're the worst SCUM alive. Bottom line. It's the way it works, kill hundreds of people but hurt children, and even the worst murderer in prison will hate you for that. And that's OK by me, cuz you hurt a child, you are scum. Period.
And what happens when they start falsifying their information to join sites like this. Then what? Does the government have a record of their IP addresses to block them from sites like this?
You equate sex offenders with traffic citations? What were YOU arrested for?
way to go tom.
Good move... but booting murderers would be a little more difficult... seeing as though you'd have to boot military personel, extremist religious people, politicians, investors in the oil industry, and cops. So Since these people run the world... murder is now an American Family value and is supposed to be smiled upon.... or you're a terrorist.
This is just silly... how in heaven's name can you keep anyone off MySpace??? I just hope MySpace keeps
'co-operating' at least it will keep the anti-internet gov agents out of the mix a little longer.
I commend My Space on the action taken to expel sex offenders. However, as anyone familiar with stats on sex offenders will tell you, most crimes are overwhelmingly perpetrated on children by people that they know. Usually family members or people in their community. You can never be to careful.
Let's see here... You can become a registered sex offender for all sorts of reasons, even stuff that you'll see no jail time for.
Public urination.
Streaking.
Mooning.
Skinny dipping.
Technically, adultery and consensual oral or anal sex are crimes in many states that could land you in the registry, though most prosecutors wouldn't dare. The laws are on the books, though.
I feel really bad for anyone who committed admittedly minor offenses prior to the rise of the internet. Skinny dipping in 1994, maybe when you were a teenager, just got you banned from MySpace. Think of the kids!
Anyone can falsify information and join the site. Any child molester that really intends to use the site for such activities would just create another account...
Does anyone here really think my name is Tori? I never use my real name, or information when I'm online. I do it to keep weirdos and predators from figuring out who I am, and where I am. It's what my parents taught me. Who's to say how many child molesters, murderers, drug dealers, etc. are actually still on myspace. It should be up to the parents to police their children, and teach them not to give out their information or talk to strangers. It's not myspace's responsibility to protect them. When will people step up and start taking care of their kids like they did 10 years ago? This whole thing is getting ridiculous. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR KIDS PARENTS! These monsters preying on them can't get to them if you teach them how to stay out of their reach.
Too bad myspace is going down the tubes. Now every one is shifting their attention to Facebook. I'm a happy facebook user simply because when I go to someones page I know that their wont be junk all over the place.
Well said, 'Tori'! Exactly what I wanted to say. Lack of personal responsibilty is the single biggest problem with our society right now. Every religion, politcal affiliation, race, gender and income bracket suffers from it at this time. There is always a way to blame or put responsibility on others and it has become sickening.
PARENTS NEED TO LEARN HOW TO BE PARENTS!!
I was raised by a single mother who had to work more than one job. Remember 'latch key kids'? What a retarded phrase. We were safe, knew what to say/not say on the phone, how to answer/not answer the door and take care of ourselves enough while still feeling like kids not fake grown ups. If there had been internet yet when I was a kid she would have taught us how to be responsible and safe there also. GOOD PARENTING, PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ONE'S ACTIONS AND COMMON SENSE ARE SORELY NEEDED!.
By the way, I hate child molesters and sex offenders as much as anyone, and actually support MySpace's decision but had to comment on the lack of parental responsibilty, which is the REAL problem.
hang all the sex offenders, they're worthless pieces of garbage.
People can be sex offenders because they streaked in college or peed on a wall drunk. Not everyone on the list is some evil people waiting to have sex with a child. Not to mention not all offenses are even felonies. Why limit the rights of someone who streaked? Why focus on this particular group when there are 1000's of other people who present a much greater threat. Only morons let fear and ignorace influence their decisions
I've got one question... Where are the parents of these children? Instead of expecting myspace to raise peoples children why can't the parent? If the parents would know what the child is getting into and pay attention to them they'd know that they shouldn't be there and they'd tell the child not to or block the website or any number of parental controls that are available. Do these parents also let there children play on the highway?
Tori is really Fred Flintstone
Or was that Spiderman
That anyone that calls themselves stevie is a girl
- I dont like sex offenders either. but trying to shut down myspace or juping on the bandwagon in hopes of altering myspace. Is the lazy parents route. Its the parents responsibility. Cant you control your kids? im seeing this more and more with many things out there where parents have no control over thier kids or dont disipline them i see you parents in the mall and in the stores. kick thier ass if they dont listen they are your kids cut the internet off buy a internet control program. very ridiculous subject this is. probably generated by soccer moms and vegan dads who have way to much time on thier hands.
Jack&Fina
This is ridiculous. People can become labelled a 'sex offender' for all sorts of frivolous stuff. The worst sex offenders--the ones who abduct and rape little kids)--are generally in prison, where they do not have MySpace accounts. The remainder, who have served their sentence, are rarely dangerous. Kids under 14 aren't supposed to be on the site anyway. This is just media-driven hysteria that erupts from time to time.
I think MySpace is right in doing what they have done. I think some in here try to trivialize the offenses that get people listed but in my opinion these folks are the lowest of the low. The impact that they have on society as malignant as the so called murderers someone listed above. Their crimes have an incredible way of breeding future offenders in that most offenders were also victims at some point. If there is any little thing that can be done to help break the cycle in anyway (like the MySpace action) then we need to do it. It's certainly a step in the right direction.
My, my. Only 29,000? They must have been using a coarse sieve indeed.
I agree with jack its the parents fault always control your kids!!!!!!!!!!
Sure makes a lot of sense to me. Tv show 'To Catch A Predator ' shows that about 2% of people caught in the stings are Registered Sex Offenders. That leaves about 98% of not yet caught sex offenders to molest children . Sure makes My Space safe.
Murder's aren't going after Kid's Most murders are crimes against people you know not strangers that you meet on the web. Were sex offenders have shown repeatedly that they will go to any lengths to have sex with minor's. which unless you know or have been around the victims of sex crimes you would also realize that the damage done can be as bad if not worse then murder. Also these site's then become playgrounds for sex offender's to hunt and lure there next victim. Further more the number may seem large but it's only about 10% cause now they will just use false names and alternate email addr. so it is almost pointless until ip trackers start keeping track of known sex offenders
Since when (and on what planet ) is molesting children a greater level felony than taking another persons life? ? ?
If people don't want their child on MySpace, there are plenty of free internet filters that allow parents to block certain websites,monitor their child's surfing habits, tracks the amount of time, and require a parental password to enter certain sites. Most internet service providers offer free parental control software. I think parents should take a more proactive approach to their child's internet habits. There are plenty of websties that parents can visit to learn more about how to keep their child safe on the internet and to learn instant message and text acronyms. Parents need to get to know the Internet and any services their child uses. They need to sit down and have their child show them what he or she does online, and become familiar with the sites and services that are available online. They should find out if their child has web-based E-mail accounts or instant messaging accounts, such as those offered by AIM, Google, Hotmail and Yahoo!® , and learn their user names and passwords.
Children would be much safer if their parents would become part of the child's life. Even off the internet that is important. We would not be hearing about Adam Walsh if his mother hadn't left a 6 year old child alone in sears while she was doing something else. Today she would be charged with child neglect.
I couldnt agree with you more.
The fun thing is that News companies, TV stations like FOX that are owned by news corp are advertising MySpace and the fact that registered sex offenders are using the site at least once a week in some news.
seems to me that they are out there to make money and actually don't care who is on the website and who is not, nothing but empty stupid nonsense talk about the issue.
When you build a candy store, people who REALLY like candy are going to show up.
Despite their best efforts, MySpace will never be able to rid the site completely of sexual deviants. It is up to the parents of the users to make sure their children are not being preyed upon online.
Ok, so list every single one. We have a right to know as much as they apparently have rights to exist. Tolerate no more. Accept only what you would tolerate in your own family as if it is one of your own violated. As long as we condone the notion that it always happens to someone else, we are powerless and can really only blame ourselves for not taking a stand. For once, step up to the plate and demand zero tolerance. Take action. It's not rocket science.
I love how everyone on this page commenting somehow equates sex offender with being a pedophile. The two are not synonymous terms.
Margie, as i pointed out earlier regarding 'To Catch A Predator' only 2% of people attempting to meet children for the purpose of sex are registered sex offenders. That leaves 98% of not yet caught sex offenders able to contact children. If the figure is correct that 29,000 registered sex offenders have been banned from my space, then that leaves 1.4 million uncaught offenders still online. If you can figure a way to ban the 1.4 million uncaught offenders, then the internet will be safer.
The problem still comes from the lack of parental interest in what their children are doing.Would you let your children play in the middle of a 4 lane highway? It's time for parents to start realizing that the internet is a super highway. It's child neglect for parents to allow children to travel the super highway alone without some supervision.
yeah, because pedophilia and rape are easily comparable with violating parking restrictions. You're an idiot.
forget about it,that comment made no sense. Do you not believe parents should be part of their child's life. I will not resort to name calling to retaliate for yours.
Okay. Let's play with the numbers a little bit.
There were 29,000 profiles belonging to sex offenders on MySpace, out of some 600,000 in the U.S. population. In other words, assuming one profile per individual, about 5% of registered sex offenders have MySpace profiles—that is, 1 profile per 20 offenders.
From Wikipedia, there are slightly more than 100 million profiles on MySpace. (This article claims 180 million, so Wikipedia's figure may be old or significantly underestimated.) Assume that these mostly belong to individuals from the U.S. and Europe. Again from Wikipedia, there are about 300 million people in the United States, plus 725 million in all of Europe. Thus—again assuming one profile per person—about 10% of that population has a MySpace. Or, there is 1 MySpace profile per 10 individuals.
This is, of course, a very rough estimate which undoubtedly fails to take into account any number of factors. Nevertheless, it looks like registered sex offenders in the U.S. are significantly less likely to have a MySpace profile than the general population. With a little bit of rational thought and calculation, it can be shown that this is far from an 'exploding epidemic of sex offender profiles,' and merely a reflection of the large number of registered sex offenders in the U.S..
And, of course, no evidence is cited that any of these 29,000 profiles were actually being used to victimize 'children.'
But, of course, rational analysis doesn't make the news—only moral panic. As a result, we get utterly irrational policies like the proposal to require parental permission and verification before any minor can create a MySpace—which, more than likely, will do more to prevent children in abusive households from forming the online social connections that will help them recognize their situation and escape it than to stop any children from being victimized online.
nleseul, I honestly don't know the answer to protecting children being abused by family member or friend of family, which accounts for about 90% of cases. It's pretty obvious that Megan's and Jessica's laws didn't prevent the rape and murder of Christopher Barrios. Actually the residency laws put the 6 year old child in harms way.Christopher's father is a registered sex offender as well as Edenfeld and the residency laws in georgia put both of them in same trailer park. As far as the 29,000 banned, they could have monitored their conversations and taken appropriate action if any of them made contact with children. That would take care of the small percentage of RSOs that act out against children. No idea how you handle the other 98%
I don't understand how people can say that all sex offenders have hurt children. That's stupid. I am a sex offender, and it's because I had sex with a 15 year old girl when I was 17, and her parents pressed charges after we got caught. So, if you are in the 12th grade and you sleep with a tenth grader, you will go to jail and be a sex offender, even though you are in a class together at the same school. I didn't even get to finish school, I had to get my GED in jail. Most of the people I went to school with was doing the same thing as me, and I know that there are MILLIONS of people in america that has done this and has been labled a sex offender when they shouldn't have been. If you have ever peed in public, you are lucky you didn't get caught because you too would be a sex offender.
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