MySpace infested with sex offenders.

[jackofallgeeks]

Is anyone really very surprised by This?

Chalk this up as another article I intend to comment on but, due to lack of time and/or interest, probably won't.

Comments

[naughtjennifer.livejournal.com]

Just think this may be missed by some of the people reading the article, but worth note.

It states that, among it's 180 million users, they've found over 29,000.

So 29,000 out of 180,000,000. That's roughly .00016, or .016% of MySpace users. So 16 out of every 100,000. You could quite easily have a larger percentage of registered sex offenders in your neighborhood.

But later, I'll note, it claims to only have 114 million unique users. But, even assuming that all the sex offenders are unique:

29,000 out of 114,000,000 nets us about .000254, or .0254%. Still pathetically low. 25 out of every 100,000.

I dunno. Looking at the numbers, it almost looks like MySpace would be safer than the real world as far as sexual predators are concerned.

Just my initial impression from the article.

[bsgnome.livejournal.com]

But you have to keep in mind that MySpace itself is a sexual predator, what with all the sponsered links to sleazy dating sites ...

[jackofallgeeks.livejournal.com]

Even if your neighborhood has a higher concentration on predators, the nature of MySpace is drastically different. Children on MySpace are easier to find, easier to befriend, and easier to isolate than they would be in real life. Searching and friending are two key functions of MySpace as such, and children are rarely if ever 'accompanied by an adult' while they're on that site. Predators don't wander around the neighborhood knocking on doors asking if Bobby can play; on MySpace, they don't have to.

[naughtjennifer.livejournal.com]

Okay, admitted.

But what of the warnings from way back when when the internet was new? That it was a bad idea to even look at the internet until you were 13, and that free reign should wait until you were 18? Perhaps it was a tad overreacting, but the internet hasn't become any less scary, just more familiar.

Remember the advice? "Never give out your real name." "Don't post pictures of yourself." "Never agree to meet someone you met online in person(, unless it's supervised and in a public area was a later addition)."

Those may seem like overreactions, but, on the other hand, they're common sense precautions to avoid getting hurt. With the resources available to even an average joe with no credentials, even the tiniest bit of personal information can allow him to find quite a bit of information on you.

In essence, the issue here isn't that MySpace is a haven for sexual predators, but rather the internet as a whole is a neighborhood playground where the parents don't even bother to think about their children, much less provide any supervision. Different context, similar idea.


But that aside, let's look at what exactly defines a sex offender. According to New York Law, and most states have similar laws, We have admittedly questionable offenses such as "forcible touching," "Kidnapping,"(with all the sticky issues associated with that, a subject all of its own) "patronizing a prostitute"(While I don't condone prostitution, someone who tries to hire a prostitute isn't necessarily a pedophile or serial rapist), "disseminating indecent material to minors in the first degree"(meaning an 18 year old who buys a playboy and shares it with his 17 year old friend is a sex offender).

While I certainly don't condone any of those practices, event hat sampling should make it clear that "sex offender" doesn't mean a serial rapist or pedophile, but, quite sensibly, it means anyone guilty of any sort of sexual indiscretion.

Now, before you object to me stating "forcible touching" as questionable, let me present this scenario(which, I'm told, actually happened). A 13 year old boy is walking down the hall with his friends at school. A substitute teacher sees him patting female classmates on the bottom as he passes them. This 13 year old is then charged with 5 counts of aggravated sexual assault. I believe the charges were dismissed, but, sexual crimes being so heinous that they aren't limited by statutes of limitation or other safeguards instated to preserve justice, it is still quite possible that he will be forced to register as a sex offender for his "forcible touching" of a minor, an indelible stigma he'll carry to the grave, which, increasingly so, reduces him to a second class citizen.

Of course, it looks like MySpace has already acted with a detached prudence, displaying a reasonable judgment of all factors, and most certainly not a knee-jerk reaction to save face. Now if only those damn Canadians would get with the pogrom...