'Kiss me, touch me, feel me, rape me' (Editorial about MySpace.com)

WorldNetDaily ^ | 2/28/06 | Rebecca Hagelin

[wagglebee]

"Kiss me", "Touch me", "Feel me", "Rape me" – the invitations flashed across the photo of a scantily clad young woman on one of the most popular teen Web hangouts in the world – MySpace.com.

Techno-hussies and innocent children just enjoying the latest method to socialize with their friends are falling victim because they are sharing very personal, often provocative and trashy information on MySpace.com, which is quickly becoming a sexual predator's playground.

So rampant are the reports and allegations linking sex-crimes and even murder to activity on MySpace that producers at "America's Most Wanted" are looking into the connection. But parents shouldn't need any more evidence or excuses – you've got to talk with your kids about online safety, and take measures to protect them. A sampling of the current cases under investigation should be enough to take decisive action today:

• In February, a 14-year-old New Jersey girl was found dead in a dumpster after arranging a meeting with a stranger on MySpace.

• A 15-year-old California girl was abducted in December and found murdered in January. Her MySpace page included personal contact information and lots of activity.

• Hartford, Conn., officials are investigating eight sexual assault cases after teenage girls met men on MySpace.

• In Lafayette, La., four teen girls were sexually assaulted by a local pervert who found them on MySpace.

• In another Louisiana case, a predator lay in wait for a teen girl in the parking lot of her place of employment, which he had found on her profile page.

Kids and adults alike have got to understand that their information on MySpace can viewed around the world by anyone at anytime, but the danger lies in the fact that although the Web is "world wide," it is also very local.

Here's what I mean: I typed in my zip code on MySpace, and in seconds up popped 75 pages, with 40 entries each, of 18 to 30-year-old single women who said they are seeking a relationship – and every one of them lives in my zip code. It's important to note that I only searched for entries with photographs – and boy, did I get photographs – one was just of a girl's breasts; most were provocative; and virtually everyone of them appeared to be between 12 to 25 years old. (MySpace claims only those 14 and older can use the site, but all a user has to do is lie about their age).

I wanted to get a taste of the potential immediate threats, so I clicked on the Justice Department's website, which provides detailed information on registered sex offenders (i.e., those who have already been caught, convicted and released back into the public – in other words, only those we know about) and entered local zip codes. The results were more than disturbing: Up popped the names and faces of 10 convicts who live in my neighborhood, and scores who live in my town. Now you realize how easy it is for perverts, convicted or not, to find your child.

It's high time we adults realize that although the world has changed, many of the tried and true methods of protecting our kids have not. Tips like: Don't talk to strangers (even if they are online) and don't ever give out personal information. But we've got to go much further. It's not enough to remind our kids to watch out for the guy in the dark trench coat lurking on the edge of the school playground, we've got to realize that the guy in trench coat is now in our sons' and daughters' bedrooms – live and personal – through the unfiltered Internet.

The good news is that the pervert and all his ugly friends and addictive pornographic perversions can easily be locked out of your home in just a few minutes by obtaining a reliable Internet filter. There are many great filters, but I use the one from BSafe.com because it's inexpensive (about $50 a year) and constantly updated to keep up with the ever-clever predators who cyber-stalk our kids. It also blocks out sites like MySpace so it doesn't have to become an issue in your home.

But beware: One of the dangers of a site like MySpace is that your kids' friends can post your child's personal photo and information without permission. For more great tips on how to protect your kids online, visit Web Wise Kids, an organization on whose board I'm proud to serve.

If you're familiar with my weekly column, my website – HomeInvasion.org – and my book, "Home Invasion: Protecting Your Family in a Culture That's Gone Stark-Raving Mad," then you know I frequently write about the connection between sloppy parenting, the moral breakdown of our society and how it all leads to shattering the innocence of our children, often placing them in physical danger, too.

These are heavy, difficult issues to talk about, but every time I give a speech about our modern toxic culture, I am inundated with questions from desperate parents who awake from their techno-stupor and realize that active parenting is more important today than perhaps any time in our nation's history.

[wagglebee]

Why any parent would knowingly allows their children to use websites like MySpace is beyond me.

[wagglebee]

MORAL ABSOLUTES PING.

DISCUSSION ABOUT:

'Kiss me, touch me, feel me, rape me' (Editorial about MySpace.com)

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[Millee]

I was listening to a talk show in Denver on my way home yesterday, and they had an undercover cop on who poses as young kids on myspace. He said within minutes of posting a new profile, whether he poses as boy/girl he is contacted by men.

Have these creeps always been around or is our society creating them?

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

The parents are too busy making money to monitor their kid's Internet use.

[Brad’s Gramma]

< bleep > freaks, BTTT

[wagglebee]

Have these creeps always been around or is our society creating them?

I don't really know, but society is certainly making it easier for them to pursue their criminal depravity.

[Millee]

Good point. The internet has a myriad of support groups for all types of perversion.

[Mr. Blonde]

Myspace is interesting on account of the bands on it. You can find bands you wouldn't normally be exposed to. Other than that I don't like it nearly as much as Facebook for meeting people.

[pollyannaish]

Good question. Did you happen to see the Dateline NBC reports on this stuff?

I caught part of two of them in reruns and it made my blood run cold. They caught everything from run of the mill perverts to doctors, rabbis and teachers.

We have a real problem. There is no question about that.

[mysterio]

Why any parent would knowingly allows their children to use websites like MySpace is beyond me.

How about email, a cell phone, or even a land line? All of those allow children to give out information. This current furor over myspace is all brought about by a bunch of local news stations doing dateline style "ban this" stories for worried soccer moms.

Myspace isn't going to get your child killed. The child is more likely to die on a school bus careening over a cliff into a giant ice cream cone.

[Argus]

I think the late Senator Moynihan nailed it years ago when he called it "defining deviancy down". When anything goes, perverts feel empowered and even justified in acting on their "feelings".

[Trillian]

Check out www.pervertedjustice.com

[wagglebee]

This story gives two examples of children who have been killed as a result of MySpace since December -- how many children have died in school bus accidents in that time?

With email and phones, the child has to seek out the predator, they aren't putting their personal information out there for the world to see.

[mysterio]

In an average year, 25 children are killed in school bus accidents. That's a little more than two a month. So since the beginning of December, six children have been killed, statistically. More dangerous than Myspace. We had better ban school buses.

source

[martin_fierro]

Welcome to my space.

Now behave your damn self.

[sit-rep]

I agree with you. If the kid goes lookin for it, they only get what they ask for...

[Jaded]

Liberals and the narcissistic generation have already normalized perversions, there aren't that many left.

My college kid is on myspace. I know some other parents like myself that monitor some of the kid's sites (a specific high school organization that I'm affiliated with). I know it's uncool and a violation of their privacy but so what? If there is a big problem we give the teacher a heads up.

[Capriole]

Why any parent would knowingly allows their children to use websites like MySpace is beyond me.

The operative word here is "knowingly." Even fairly knowledgeable parents can't keep track of everything a teenager does every waking moment of the day, unless they are going to follow her around 24-7. This does not mean that they are too busy, don't care, or are off making money. Even if they ban such sites from their own home, kids can access sites like that at their friends' houses, at the library, or any other place where one can connect to the Internet.

[pollyannaish]

That is exactly the thing.

At some point, we started teaching people, and now children, that every fleeting thought that entered their head is important. To be treasured and obsessed upon. Well, they're not. Most of the fleeting thoughts we have in are head are trash and need to be tossed out as quickly as they dropped in.

What I saw on that show was a lot of men who spent way too much time actually considering and thinking about something that entered there head and should have been kicked to the curb immediately as shameful and immoral. Instead, it was obsessed upon for so long, that without the physical restraints of having to go out looking for it publicly in the streets, they started to feel like none of it was real and there were no real consequences because no one else would know.

It is at once horrifying and terribly sad.

[weegee]

Why would any parents permit their kids to have cellphones, wireless text messaging devices, webcams, or a Yahoo/AOL Instant Messenger account? Or even cable tv in their bedrooms?

Really there is no difference.

There are over 50,000,000 Myspace accounts. Initially all users were over 18 and while some make use it as a pick up joint, the overwhelming majority of people I know DO NOT add people they don't already know socially (and I exclude friends of friends who I'd never want to be associated with). I know married couples, business owners, and countless others who use it for promotion, to share jokes, or network. They aren't swingers.