Info Week Article on MySpace

[alexander]

ok, so it has been a little while since you guys have seen a pissed off alex post, not to get you guys to think that i all of a sudden became nicer, i have decided to post on a not-so-new topic that has been brewing in my head for a while....

 

This month's information Week article on MySpace is a perfect chance for me to prove that i am still the same angry kid i used to be before :)

 

Just one question, what in the name of your imaginary man is wrong with MySpace people, and people that criticize MySpace....?

 

Starting with the first sentence:

"Myspace is doing all it can to minimize criticism that its popular social network is a heaven for sexual predators" A WTF right off the back. I dont know who's dumber, MySpace executives or MySpace critics; you have to be so dumb to think that you can have a social networking site for teenagers that will not be inhabited by at least some sexual predators..

It goes on to say "MySpace identified and deleted profiles of 7000 offenders.....however last week....information revealed that MySpace identified an additional 29,000 profiles matching data in its search database of sexual offenders" Ok, great job, first you take 7000 perfectly traceable and identified sexual offenders and render them uncrackable by deleting their profile. Then you take 29,000 more and do the same thing to them ? Besides here is another issue, they are using a database to track sexual offenders, article, nor any research identifies that they are tracking specific offenders, but "sexual offender" is a vague description, it could be a 35 year old rapist who just got out of jail, or a 85 year old man who, while in hist 20s, got caught masturbating in his dorm bathroom or something, and was reported, and now is 85, happily married for 40 years, with kids and grand kids who are about to have kids, and grand kids who can be in iraq and the only way they can keep in touch is through email and myspace.... Am I the only person who thinks that that system is plain stupid?

 

The article then goes: "The politicians weren't mollified. The new figure 'screams for action,' said Blumenthal"

You know, this makes it sound as if the old figure did not? I find 100 sexual offenders on any social networking website, i will be taking action, but apparently a figure of 7000 of 300000000 did not scream enough for Mr. Blumenthal, not until the figure reached almost .1%...?

 

And i dont have time to continue but basically I find that i dont agree with deleting the profiles either (and i may have discussed this before). Why, why would you delete the profiles? I think MySpace could do a better service to the people by tracking the offenders, finding out where they leave and reporting them to the local authorities if they find that something they are doing is wrong. Deleting the profile does not get rid of the issue, it closes your eyes on it, saying we are not going to let you in under your real names, but if you choose to please sign up under a made-up name and solicit, solicit, solicit....

 

And another thing, WTF is wrong with politicians, they wanna make laws to have age verification systems in place for social networking websites? Have parental guidance on them, so before you post, your parent has to read what you are about to post. Do these idiots not see the the whole point to having a social networking account is to not be monitored by anyone? All you want, is to escape the reality of everyday life, so instead of creating an imaginary person, going crazy, or worse yet adopting some religion, isn't it better for you to go and create your own virtual world in the world-wide space, where you can meet people that thinking like you, and you, instead of beig pissed and depressed that nobody supports/sees your opinion/vision; you can share your opinion with others, outside of your everyday world, on a social network to find and finally talk to those who think like you, and not be afraid that your parent will read it and take it all wrong....? Sheeeeesh

[Tormod]

I think MySpace could do a better service to the people by tracking the offenders, finding out where they leave and reporting them to the local authorities if they find that something they are doing is wrong.

 

So, basically, MySpace and sites like it should act like some sort of private FBI and rat on people they suspect of...what exactly? Where do you draw the line between "possible offender", "offender", "known offender" etc? Remember this is all based on data sifting. What if MySpace is wrong about their assumptions about the people in their system?

 

If such things were to happen, then it could be *me* creating a profile on an ex-con in my neighborhood only to cause trouble for him.

 

I would not trust MySpace to play police, and I don't think they want to either.

[alexander]

So, basically, MySpace and sites like it should act like some sort of private FBI and rat on people they suspect of...what exactly?

They would be way better at it then US gov-t. I thought i made it pretty clear that this deals with knowingly soliciting minors, and i think that is a pretty clear definition. You also didn't seem to have any problems with the fact that the legislation is trying to approve laws to have parents monitor their kids communications, that's worse then handing a pyromaniac a match and a stick of dynomite! Besides it would be better to monitor sex offenders communications then blatantly deleting the profiles, because tomorrow they will make a new profile and you wont be able to track them... Besides you sign away your privacy when you sign up for myspace, most of the websites already tell you that your communication may be monitored!

 

Where do you draw the line between "possible offender", "offender", "known offender" etc?

Exactly my point, and myspace does not, they say, if you are within a category that matches any sex offender profile in our list (and its of any sex offense), we are deleting you.

What if MySpace is wrong about their assumptions about the people in their system?

I'm telling you that they already are wrong in assuming that every sex offender in their database is after soliciting minors!

If such things were to happen, then it could be *me* creating a profile on an ex-con in my neighborhood only to cause trouble for him.

No, your physical location differs, and you cant(unless you really know how to) change where you are coming from (IP), therefore you would not cause problems for him, you would cause problems for yourself :) !

[Buffy]

They would be way better at it then US gov-t. I thought i made it pretty clear that this deals with knowingly soliciting minors, and i think that is a pretty clear definition.

My kid likes to play on something called "Club Penguin" which is basically Second Life for the tween set. The company behind it actually does something like this specifically to make it a safe place for kids: a very large chunk of the penguins walking around there are employees of the company specifically looking for and kicking off "undesirables," but all they can do is kick them off. If you accuse someone of being a pedophile without any proof they can sue your pants off!

 

In order for anything legal to be done, the authorities have to *want* to do something, which fortunately they are getting smarter about. But there is a severe limit on what the companies can do themselves.

 

The Internet is not Vegas,

Buffy

[alexander]

buffy, you are correct, you can not convict anyone without evidence, but myspace can present emails, chat logs and pictures as well as snapshots of the pages and so forth to local authorities, now, a local authority will finally decide whether the evidence is enough to convict the person of being a pedophile, but at least myspace tracked the person, warned the authorities and if necessary informed what could potential be a victim about the situation... Anything is better then blatantly closing your eyes on the situation, because if you delete an account today, tomorrow that same person will log in as his new account and pm the kid he was trying to solicit about the new account, so now you have the same problem as before, but finding it, or tracking it becomes virtually impossible... :)