Acer's Predator PCs Recalled Over Fire Concerns
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Computers, MySpace, Back to School
Congress Considering Ban on MySpace and Facebook in Libraries
First, libraries were forced to start filtering out obscene content in 2000. Then came the Patriot Act, which granted the government the right to examine the books you checked out and the sites you visited on a library's public computers. Now, lawmakers are trying to ban children from accessing MySpace and Facebook on library PCs in order to keep the kids safe from sexual predators.
The heavy-handed legislation -- a bill introduced by Representative Mark Steven Kirk of Illinois -- is, of course, being fought by the American Library Association. The library wants to protect people's privacy saying that it is essential if a community is to utilize the library for intellectual pursuits.
Library officials agree with the goal of the bill, but they say that educating kids and parents about the dangers of such sites is the only comprehensive solution to the problem, which is a more than fair point. Kids are crafty and aren't only signing on to MySpace at the library. Heck, any kid with a Sidekick could spend all day talking to predators and there would be no way to know.
We think a strong education program and some decent parenting can keep kids safe online, regardless of where they sign on from and what sites they use. [Source: USA Today]
Text Messages Lead Police to Kidnapped Girl
Thankfully for a kidnapped 16 year-old girl from Wheatland, Oregon, her captor, 37-year-old David Anthony Faboo, did not take her cell phone.According to the Sacramento Bee, the girl met Faboo via chat-rooms and MySpace. Faboo drove from his home in Hillsboro, Oregon (about an hour away) to meet the girl, then started to take her towards the state line. The girl quickly realized her error and started text-messaging her friend. With the cooperation of the girl's cell phone provider, the authorities were able to track her constant text messages and nabbed Faboo near Grants Pass, Oregon -- about 300 miles north of the girl's home in Wheatland.
We normally would suggest you not judge a book by its cover, but just look at this guy. To steal a joke from Zach Galifianakis -- this guy looks like he walked into a barber shop and asked for an Amber Alert.
From Sacbee.com
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MySpace Asked to Identify Sex Offenders
The attorneys general of North Carolina, Connecticut, Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania have issued a letter to MySpace asking the social networking giant to supply a list of the registered sex offenders who use the site. According to a statement by North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, the demand comes after law enforcement agencies in those states identified 200 cases of kids being "lured out of their home by predators they met on MySpace."Unlike public chat rooms that can be patrolled by the fuzz, MySpace allows direct and private contact between predators and potential victims, making them harder to catch.
Unfortunately, when asked to turn over sex offenders in the past, MySpace has claimed that producing such a list would be impossible until there is national legislation requiring busted pervs to register all of their e-mail addresses. According to a Wired article from last year, however, this claim isn't entirely true. With no assistance from MySpace, Wired's reporter ran a program that compared MySpace members against a list of sex offenders in 46 states. The program was able to identify 744 confirmed sex offenders with profiles on the site.
Hopefully, this letter from the states will convince MySpace to clock a little overtime for the safety of its younger users.
From Newsvine
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