It’s the old pay to play gambit. According to CNet, MySpace announced on Tuesday that it has deleted 90,000 accounts owned by registered sex offenders.
It’s especially good news for Sentinel, the security company that MySpace used to track down the accounts. And now Sentinel appears to be trying to take advantage of its success with MySpace into a PR campaign partly aimed at getting Facebook into signing a contract as well.
John Cardillo, the CEO of Sentinel, gave an interview to TechCrunch in which he said thousands of those who were banned from MySpace can now be found on Facebook–not yet one of Sentinel’s clients.
Not great news for Facebook. “For a company that has a mission to keep kids safe, we find it irresponsible that they wouldn’t share this with us,” representative Barry Schnitt (Senior Manager, Corporate Communications and Public Policy at Facebook) told TechCrunch in an addendum to the tech blog’s original post. “Or, if not with us, how about with law enforcement? This could have been an announcement that Sentinel and Facebook removed 8,000 potential sex offenders. We still don’t have the information on who they are. If you are willing to share that with us, we will investigate immediately.”
Simple answer
Stop anyone under say 17 from signing up with Facebook. I was surprised to read 13 was the minimum age. That does explain some of the postings on the games groups though.
Facebook accounts
I just found out my 12 year old daughter had set up a profile on Facebook. They couldn’t enforce the 17 year minimum age any more than they can the 13. As a parent I am quietly outraged that my children can get these accounts, email accounts, AIM accounts etc. without my knowledge and/or explicit permission. They are still minors and my responsibility. Whereas I do have the ability to decide when they are old enough to handle a cell phone and texting (mostly because I’m paying for it) I don’t have that same ability on the net. It doesn’t seem right.
ya know…
you do have the ability to take away their computer privileges. Just sayin…
Ya Know….
No kidding…. parental control!
It’s the same idea as giving your child a library card, it is up to the parent to monitor what their child borrows to view and read.
yep…. and that’s exactly
yep…. and that’s exactly what we did. blocked access to facebook and similar sites. but i don’t think it’s exactly the same thing as the library card. My children can’t get a library card at our local library without my authorization. First, we don’t live close enough for them to walk and second our library wants my information before they give my children a card.
it’s not the same with online things. ours is not the only computer they have access to. we can block access on our machine but we can’t control their world or their curiosity at that level. I’m not implying that I don’t want the responsibility or the control. I’m just saying I wish Facebook, AIM, yahoo mail, etc had someway for me to authorize my children’s access since I am ultimately responsible for them until they reach their majority.
Talk with your kids
I think you should have a serious sit down talk with your young kids explaining what they shouldn’t be doing on the computer. You said you blocked MySpace and Facebook. Tell your kids why you did that and explain the rules about not using the site. You should also lay-down the consequence of breaking those rules and follow-up if/when they break those rules.
To those who say they should have an age limit for those sites don’t understand how the Internet works. There is not way to verify age or identify.
MySpace activity should be tracked
Of cause, as parents, we have the right, and responsibility, to tell our kids NO when we feel it is in their best interests. In a perfect world, telling your kids NO works. Unfortunately, our world is not quite so perfect. Kids go to friends houses and even to the public library, coffee shops, and so many other places – and can use those computers to sign up on MYSPACE and others. That’s why I don’t restrict MYSPACE accounts, but I have only one rule to follow. My children can use Internet only when I or my husband at home. Additionally, I built internet filter Ez Internet Timer. It allows me schedule all children’s on-line activity and disable the internet connection after a specified amount of time.
I know you’re going to get
I know you’re going to get raked over the coals here most likely for the limited access view and I do sympathize because I’m helping to raise multiple kids 19-2. I have to say though with the internet there’s really nothing on there that wasn’t out in the real world before. There’s just a new level of access at a faster rate. Blog sites like Facebook, Livejournal, MySpace, etc. are pretty much the pen pals/public spaces/open letter concept on steroids. I know some teens use blogs for “hang out” time and even homework help so it’s potentially not all dead space full of yucky people. Also, sure, the kid can’t check out books without your authority. I couldn’t without my mother’s permission when I was younger and as a result I got to be really good at smuggling books in and out of some libraries, finding things in the reference section with the adult content, or finding friends to help me. There’s always going to be a way for a sufficiently bright kid to circumvent what we do. We just don’t have to make it easy on them to get to and we can use “busted” moments as a way to communicate our concerns and explain why we put up those roadblocks to access (including major punishments for going behind your back). The problem with that one is we have to know what scares us, what the dangers are, and then how to communicate them. Even then…Jeez, you can lead a horse to water and so forth.
Good luck. If you do come up with something with your pre-teen that doesn’t end in massive frustration I’d actually love to know how it turns out. The 19 year old is pretty savvy, but the 15 and 12 year olds are very computer literate but not always the wisest people. (Duh, 15 and 12, right?)
Facebook–not yet one of Sentinel’s clients.
That about sums it up…..
“For a Company that has a mission to keep kids safe, we find it irresponsible that they Wouldn’t Share this with us,” representative Barry Schnitt (Senior Manager, Corporate Communications and Public Policy at Facebook)”
It’s a business…it is how they make their money to stay in business……so either Facebook hires them or Facebook comes up with their own security measures.
Sheesh!
“Net threat to minors less than feared”
“Net threat to minors less than feared”
– A long awaited report from the Internet Safety Technical Task Force concludes that children and teens are less vulnerable to sexual predation than many have feared.
The report also questions the efficacy and necessity of some commonly prescribed remedies designed to protect young people.
FULL REPORT pdf:
The task force was formed as a result of a joint agreement between MySpace and 49 state attorneys general.
http://cfcoklahoma.org/New_Site/index.php?option=com_fireboard&Itemid=0&func=view&id=628&catid=21#628