MySpace.com Subject of Sex Assault Probe
There has been many questions lately as to the goings-on of MySpace.com accounts. The latest craze of individuals, especially teens sharing far to much information has made for many terrible and exploitative situations. Such is the latest scenario out of Connecticut where “police are investigating whether as many as seven teenage girls have been sexually assaulted by men they met through the popular Web site MySpace.com.”
The girls, ages 12 to 16, are from Middletown and say they were fondled or had consensual sex with men who turned out to be older than they claimed. None of the incidents appeared to be violent, said Middletown Police Sgt. Bill McKenna.
He said it was difficult to determine the exact number of victims because some girls have been reluctant to disclose that they met their assailants online.
The social networking Web site allows users to create profiles that can include photos, personal information and even cell phone numbers.
There have just been a continual rash of stories like this where some luckily wind up being a harmless encounter; however, most turn out to be much worse. The concept that teenagers will accept as the truth who they are conversing with on the internet is shocking. The fact that it may not be a 16 year old boy but in fact a 28, 38 or 58 year old man and potential sexual predator just sometimes never comes into their conscious. The following are just some recent internet meetings that went too far with a complete lack of judgment.
Missing St. Paul Teen,Abbi Lee Welch, Reported Found
A 15-year-old girl who was reported missing from St. Paul and who police thought may have left to meet a man she met on the Internet, is home safe, her father said tonight.
Abbi Lee Welch was last seen at about 9 p.m. yesterday in St. Paul’s North End, near Rice Street and Lawson Avenue. She told friends that she met a man on www.myspace.com and he was coming from Kentucky to pick her up, police had said.
Missing Brittany Lynn Lovett, 15, Believed to be with Brian Agnew, 19, who She Met On Internet
The police state that they know the whereabouts of a missing 15-year-old Columbus girl, Brittany Lynn Lovett. She is said to be with Brian Agnew, 19, who she met on the internet.
Police Searching for 27 year old Jason Iannazzi and 14 year old Cheynne DeCicco
Police are searching for 27-year-old Jason Iannazzi of Watertown, MA 14-year-old Cheynne DeCicco of Brea, CA. Her parents reported her missing earlier this month. Where did they meet? The Internet of course.
A missing teenage girl, who ran away with a man she met on the Internet who then took her to the home of a known sex offender, walked into the Opa-locka police station Monday asking to go back home.
Monica Sharp, a 17 year old from Richmond, has been missing since Sept. 18, 2005
A missing Virginia teenager may be in the company of a man (Jeffery Nichols, 57) from Belleville, according to Richmond, Va., Police.
Sharp’s family and police suspect she may be with Jeffery Nichols, 57, of Belleville.
Then of course there is the tragic case of Taylor Behl: Taylor Behl’s internet blog Aides in the Investigation
All too often teenagers are using MySpace.com, Tickle, Xanga, Zorpia, MSN Spaces and providing far too much information for the world to see and having far too open a conversation with individuals they would never have face to face. The worst part is they actually cross the boundary of cyber space to physical meetings.
Teenagers please use common sense and parents beware; however, companies like MySpace do have responsibility in all of this as much as they would like to think they do not. The following statement was provided by MySpace.com:
MySpace.com said it was committed to providing a safe environment for its users. The site, which includes safety tips, also prohibits use by anyone younger than 14, though a disclaimer says the people who run the site can’t always tell if users are lying about their ages.
Funny MySpace.com, what would happen to proprietors that sell liquor if they took the same tact? They say they are 21, therefore I can sell alcohol to them? Hardly. If you know that predatorial practices occur then it is your responsibility to create checks that will create a safe environment. The law of unintended consequences is that sexual predators gravitate to these sights that are dominated by teens and those in their young twenties. Knowing that, it is your obligation to do much more than just ask if someone is 14 and take their word for it.
You have created the social environment, now control it.
[...] There has been many questions lately as to the goings-on of MySpace.com accounts. The latest craze of individuals, especially teens sharing far to much information has made for many terrible and exploitative situations. Such is the latest scenario out of Connecticut where “police are investigating whether as many as seven teenage girls have been sexually assaulted by men they met through the popular Web site MySpace.com.” (Read the rest at Missing & Exploited) [...]
Pingback by MySpace.com Subject of Sex Assault Probe » Scared Monkeys | February 4, 2006
I think a good ting for them to do is require a credit card, not charge for the servise.. if the members used credit card sign up
they would have less kids on My Space..
But As a mother Of 3 girls that have my space I joined my space
and added my kids to mines and i watch them and who they add
to there accounts
Comment by Sue | February 5, 2006
Parents… Beware!!! To those parents who have agreed to permit their children to register at myspace.com… You may feel that they are safe since you monitor what kind of activity they conduct there… you might want to think again about what kind of activity their “friends” conduct their as well because it could very well be that your child is tracked down or located using information that was given not by your children, but rather by their friends.
Comment by Rachael | February 9, 2006
I want to tell u all something i did tell abbi i would meet her only because she said she was going to kill her self i dont even have a car.
She told me her dad and older sis tells her she is stupid and hates her all the time and she didnt want to live there she also said that this other guy i dont know his name she said he was 28 she said if i didnt come pick her up she was going to leave with him and i told her that i would pick her up but i never had plans to pick her up i just didnt want to see her get in the car with someone that would reall hurt her and i didnt want to see her kill her self
To her mom and dad get the gilr some help and iam not a pedo iam just a guy that lives with his dad dont have a car and stays in the house all the time.
See My mom killed her self 3 years ago and i told my self if i can help anyone i dont care what there age is from killing there self i would and i think i bought u some time for u to get ur girl some help miss and mr. welch abbi is a bright young girl and her dad needs to nt tell her she is stupid and stuff and her sis amber needs to stop telling her she hates her and her dad needs to stop telling her that.
You all can call me what u want to but iam not no pedo and never will be i love kids they r the futrue of this world and needs to be looked at as so i hope u all understand y i told her i would meet her it wasnt for sex or nothing like that i wasnt even going to meet her thats the truth.
If anyone wants me to answer any quetions aobut this email me at jasbrke@tvscaqble.com
Comment by Jaosn | February 15, 2006
It’s sad to read how many parents are not willing to take the responsibility for protecting their children. You should know everything about your child every second of the day. If your child engages in sexual behavior with an older man than something is wrong at home. There are so many cases out here whereas these young girls are having sex, doing drugs and etc. and when it’s brought to the attention of the parents they want to blame someone else for THEIR problem they created…….May GOD help you……….
Comment by LaTrease Counsel | May 25, 2006
I not only moniter my sons myspace, I moniter all his friends, especially those at school. Today, I ratted them all out. I reported each one to myspace. I them contacted the school principal and currently working on an email to all parents in regard to myspace accounts, temp inteernet files, cookies, history, cache, windows content advisors, restricting sites and I am proud of myself. If I protect my child I am doing my job as a parent. If I can protect the children at our school then I am doing my job as a member of our home & school association. Hopefully my little guy will never find out it was me, nor will his friends.
How can myspace say they don’t allow under14. If they ran a simple query to look for words like 6th grader, middle school, jr high, JHS, MS, any number in from of the word grade, they would find these kids. Some might think I did alot of damage today to the social structure of the children, I say not what I did was do myspaces job, and I will continue to moniter it, and pull down anything I can that does not belong there.
Comment by Mommy | January 29, 2007