Posted on 03/02/2006 9:05:04 AM PST by george wythe
NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Two men from Pennsylvania and New Jersey used the popular networking Web site MySpace.com to set up sexual encounters with underage Connecticut girls, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
The two unrelated cases come after weeks in which the potential danger of MySpace has been a topic of discussion for law enforcement, parents and school officials nationwide.
In one case, Sonny Szeto, 22, of Jersey City, N.J., traveled to Connecticut in October and molested an 11-year-old girl in her playroom while her parents slept upstairs, according to an FBI affidavit.
In the other case, Stephen Letavec, 39, molested a 14-year-old Connecticut girl in his car while visiting from of Elrama, Pa., in October, according to another FBI report.
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
A meeting arranged through the online dating service Match.com has led to allegations of rape.Beverly police say a woman called them reporting a sexual assault at an Essex Street residence where she met her date in person for the first time after talking on line.
This must be regulated better. Waiting for the mandatory libertarian to blame it all on the parents...
Not that it's any excuse for bad behavior on the part of the guy, but why the hell did she meet the guy for the fist time alone at a residence? Isn't coffee in a public place de rigeur?
WHAT?????
Let's have government regulate dating sites and other forms of adult behavior?
regulated by government? how?
it takes a parent all of 10 minutes to install web security software on their kids PC, and block myspace.com. instead, we need some massive government regulatory beauracracy to comb through myspace.com?
What additional regulations do you recommend?
The parents should know what their kids are doing online, and where they are going.
And they need to stress to their children how dangerous all this is.
See, you didn't have to wait long.
Duh.
MySpace features hundreds of thousands of teenagers baring their souls in public. After that kid went down to Arkansas and shot up a gay bar, a Freeper posted a link to his MySpace site. It was fascinating, and the appeal for teens is undeniable. But the kids just post messages to their friends about where they want to hang out Friday night, etc... as if there is no-one who might use that info for evil purposes. Plus its a completely parent-free subculture... not a recipe for wisdom.
"This must be regulated better. "
How do you suggest that be done? And by whom?
My thinking is that parents can best do this with their own children, wouldn't you think?
But, if you think the government can do it, I'd be interested in hearing how.
Such a wholesome website too!
/immense sarcasm
How do you think this can be better regulated?
Do we really want to regulate teenager dialouge over the internet?
I'm not a libertarian (I'm a registered Republican), but I also blame the parents. At some point, people are going to have to take responsibility for their own kids. Putting a computer in the kids' room, where they shut the door and do whatever they want is tantamount to letting them run the streets at all hours--they're going to find some of the same people online as they would on the streets.
I regulated this issue in my house. My children cannot use the computer connected to the Internet. Period.
If by any reason they need access to e-mail or the Web, either mommy or daddy can help them.
Is everything on Myspace.com posted in public? I mean, is there a private chat space on it too....Unbeknownst to my step-grand daughter, (and her mother, and her grandmother) I've been monitoring her site, but wondering about a "back" site....other than email, of course.
take the windows CD away so they can't reload it.
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