PrayersForMaura
Help Find Maura Murray
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2003
- Messages
- 14,162
- Reaction score
- 138
Parents Urged to Monitor Kids' Personal Web Sites ; Content on a Site Discovered During a Murder Investigation in Fayette Highlights the Problem.
They are inexpensive, easy to set up and proliferating at a dizzying rate.
Personal Web pages at so-called social networking Web sites such as MySpace (edited by PFM to add: my personal pet peeve is myspace.com!) allow users to post profiles of themselves and diaries of their experiences in hopes of meeting others with similar interests.
The publication of millions of teenagers' personal thoughts online has created a dilemma: Every now and then, some of those personal thoughts contain disturbing messages that are available to the public, unlike in the days of discreet paper diaries.
During this week's investigation into the death of a 14-year-old girl from Fayette, investigators uncovered a Web site that may belong to the boy charged with killing her. On the site, the author expressed a fascination with school shootings.
The case underscores the need for parents to watch closely what their children post online, experts said.
It also highlights the need for friends who read each other's sites to help their buddies through tough times, said Gary Vines, guidance director at Deering High School.
"We're talking all the time to kids about their civic responsibility and being part of their community," Vines said. "Who's more a part of your community than your friends?"
Vines is one of many school officials concerned about children whose posts on Web sites could foreshadow violent behavior. As once- private information becomes available to Internet users worldwide, he said parents need to get educated about how to monitor their children's online activity and to talk with kids about what they're writing about themselves and why.
...
In California, a 19-year-old posted threats of a "terror campaign" on an online message board shortly before he killed two neighbors and himself in late October. Web site administrators who monitored the message board made an unsuccessful attempt to contact the man's parents before the killings, but did not alert police.
Internet sites are not required to alert authorities of threatening statements, and typically rely on their users to track abuse and offensive material, said Parry Aftab, a New York attorney who specializes in cyberspace law.
With an estimated 40 million users, many of whom post under pseudonyms, it would be nearly impossible for MySpace to report every inflammatory statement, said Aftab, who runs a volunteer Internet safety organization, WiredSafety.org.
rolleyes: )
"It's not what they should be doing, any more than we expect phone companies to be policing our phone calls," she said.
The Web site already has employees whose only job is to monitor the content of pictures submitted for publication on individual pages, Aftab said.
Her organization supports increased parental monitoring of social networking sites and is preparing a video about MySpace for parents.
In Maine, police are investigating a MySpace page that may belong to Patrick Armstrong, 14, of Fayette. Armstrong is charged with the Nov. 26 murder of his neighbor, Marlee Johnston.
The author of the MySpace page, "Patrick," described himself as a 14-year-old from Fayette and listed Columbine killer Eric Harris as one of his heroes.
The author also listed "offending people" as one of his general interests, and wrote that he found it "hilarious" that some of his peers were bothered by his interest in school shootings and serial killers. The author last logged on to the site Nov. 26, the day Johnston was killed.
...
More: http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/320517/parents_urged_to_monitor_kids_personal_web_sites__disquieting/index.html?source=r_technology
They are inexpensive, easy to set up and proliferating at a dizzying rate.
Personal Web pages at so-called social networking Web sites such as MySpace (edited by PFM to add: my personal pet peeve is myspace.com!) allow users to post profiles of themselves and diaries of their experiences in hopes of meeting others with similar interests.
The publication of millions of teenagers' personal thoughts online has created a dilemma: Every now and then, some of those personal thoughts contain disturbing messages that are available to the public, unlike in the days of discreet paper diaries.
During this week's investigation into the death of a 14-year-old girl from Fayette, investigators uncovered a Web site that may belong to the boy charged with killing her. On the site, the author expressed a fascination with school shootings.
The case underscores the need for parents to watch closely what their children post online, experts said.
It also highlights the need for friends who read each other's sites to help their buddies through tough times, said Gary Vines, guidance director at Deering High School.
"We're talking all the time to kids about their civic responsibility and being part of their community," Vines said. "Who's more a part of your community than your friends?"
Vines is one of many school officials concerned about children whose posts on Web sites could foreshadow violent behavior. As once- private information becomes available to Internet users worldwide, he said parents need to get educated about how to monitor their children's online activity and to talk with kids about what they're writing about themselves and why.
...
In California, a 19-year-old posted threats of a "terror campaign" on an online message board shortly before he killed two neighbors and himself in late October. Web site administrators who monitored the message board made an unsuccessful attempt to contact the man's parents before the killings, but did not alert police.
Internet sites are not required to alert authorities of threatening statements, and typically rely on their users to track abuse and offensive material, said Parry Aftab, a New York attorney who specializes in cyberspace law.
With an estimated 40 million users, many of whom post under pseudonyms, it would be nearly impossible for MySpace to report every inflammatory statement, said Aftab, who runs a volunteer Internet safety organization, WiredSafety.org.
rolleyes: )"It's not what they should be doing, any more than we expect phone companies to be policing our phone calls," she said.
The Web site already has employees whose only job is to monitor the content of pictures submitted for publication on individual pages, Aftab said.
Her organization supports increased parental monitoring of social networking sites and is preparing a video about MySpace for parents.
In Maine, police are investigating a MySpace page that may belong to Patrick Armstrong, 14, of Fayette. Armstrong is charged with the Nov. 26 murder of his neighbor, Marlee Johnston.
The author of the MySpace page, "Patrick," described himself as a 14-year-old from Fayette and listed Columbine killer Eric Harris as one of his heroes.
The author also listed "offending people" as one of his general interests, and wrote that he found it "hilarious" that some of his peers were bothered by his interest in school shootings and serial killers. The author last logged on to the site Nov. 26, the day Johnston was killed.
...
More: http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/320517/parents_urged_to_monitor_kids_personal_web_sites__disquieting/index.html?source=r_technology
