Chabot Spectator

Issue date: 2/1/07 Section: In Focus

Media Credit: graphic by Alexis Daniels

Today there is a new crave. It is not fashion, not a diet or even a new club opening. It is the social interactive Web sites people use to keep in touch with friends, family, or possibly even to meet new exciting people.

Myspace is only one of these sites but it alone harbors millions of members who can freely search for new friends with just the click of a button.

Though most people use Myspace for good-natured recreation, it and other social interactive web sites are quickly becoming a way for predators and pedophiles to search out their next victims. Rather than kidnapping a child from a park, these sites have made it easier to find a minor whom predators can prey upon.

Now why are social interactive website used? According to Martha Parker, Oakland special agent for child exploitation matters in the FBI, wrote in an e-mail, "It gives pedophiles a sense of privacy and anonymity as well as instant access to literally millions of children." With this in mind, there are endless ways predators are able to search for minors on sites such as these.

So how can we actually protect minors on Myspace or on the net in general? Joseph Schadler, special agent for FBI media services said by phone, "There are task forces created to run online groups or monitor chat rooms posing as young girls, to lure online predators. They are in a sense 'sting operations' where they can separate out the online predators.

Once a predator is found on one of these sites, they are reported and their account is deleted. Every person holding government positions are involved with these operations, from local police departments to the attorney generals and the FBI.

However, not only young girls are preyed on, young men are too. According to the FBI's Parker, "Males are just as vulnerable. Predators looking for male victims often play up being the cool older buddy and may not even bring up sex for a while. However there aren't as many reported cases because there is such a stigma attached to homosexual sex, many boys will not report their victimization."

But the FBI and other security forces cannot find everyone or keep all of these predators off the internet, at some point those who are being victimized need to do something themselves.

Misbah Yehya, a 15-year-old sophomore at Moreau Catholic, is a Myspacer who says that she does not accept adds from people she does not know.

Continued...

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