Archive for December, 2007
A Script that searches MySpace for Sex Offenders
by administrator on Dec.31, 2007, under Information, Tips/Hints
MySpace said they couldn’t do it so someone else did and ran it against MySpace user’s sites and found 744 sex offenders on the site. Of course that’s just a small percentage of the millions using MySpace. However, it’s still not 100% effective. Recognition definitely goes where it deserves to the author of the script but it’s simply not enough since it’s extremely easy to hide your real identity on MySpace.
Easy enough, here’s proof from the article that agrees with the fact that MySpace’s security is outdated and ineffective: “Their comment board is innocent; their image gallery contains a wedding photo or two; the underage friends on their list, if they have any, turn out to be relatives, or adults lying about their age to game MySpace’s old security model — in which only 14- and 15-year-olds enjoyed private profiles.” So what really is an effective way to stop sex offenders for exploiting the future of America?
I proposed a solution in this post. The idea is to have MySpace user enter a valid credit card and do a temporary authorization on the card. In other words, it is still a free service but the temporary authorization validates your identity and that should be enough to keep sex offenders off of the site. You might ask well what about credit card fraud? It’s not often that credit card fraud is associated with sex offenders. The two types of criminals are often no correlated and don’t fall in the same categories. You also might ask well, what if I give someone my credit card to a user for verification on MySpace? Let’s say it’s your son or daughter in the first example. Well, then you’d feel a little morally obligated to know why they wanted the card in the first place. It’s too often that parents get caught off-guard because their son or daughter chooses not to tell them of their activities online. Whether the child or teen feels invincible online or like s/he is guarded and anonymous, that is clearly NOT the case. Or it could be that the child or teen doesn’t feel his/her parents’ need to know in which case they feel that they are “adult” enough to know what is right and wrong and to sense danger.
