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News & Noteworthy © ---
Spotlight Issue 8-5-07 |
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The media, a politician distorting the facts, and overshadowing the real issue: A teen tragedy!
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8-5-2007 California:
Teen Falls Victim to Online Predator |
.Danielle Helms' 14-year-old daughter Kristen was like so many other teenagers who logged onto social networking sites looking for their friends and looking to make new ones. But now, Danielle Helms says authorities need to sound the alarm she wishes others had sounded for her.
"The Internet is a sly danger," she warns. Child advocates have called Internet social networking sites the Sears Catalog for child predators. Just this week, Facebook came under fire for not doing enough to protect young people. Last week, MySpace, the biggest social networking site on the internet with more than 180 million user profiles, revealed it found 29,000 convicted sex offenders on its Web site.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is fighting to keep predators like Bowers from ever logging onto to a social networking site again. "This kind of site is a predator's dream, truly a parent's nightmare but a ready opportunity -- easy access, easily disguised identity for a predator seeking prey," said Blumenthal."
Prosecutors in his state have made several arrests of convicted sex offenders with profiles online. [[[snip]]] Attorneys general in all 50 states are now calling for effective age and identity verification and parental permission for minors to post profiles on social networking sites.
MySpace says it now uses a computer program that finds sex offenders on its site using a national database. Facebook has also said it is looking at outside technology. Critics of proposed laws say there is no easy to way to screen for sex offenders who masquerade as others. "Right now, this system is a predator's dream," says Blumenthal. "They will try to beat the system but we can improve the system to keep pace with their tricks."
..more..
: by ABC NEWS com
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.Without a doubt this is a tragedy, the suicide of a young girl (Kristin Helms) whose heart was broken over the end of a relationship, one she chose to start, and which her parents chose to end; and so it should have ended due to their ages.
To understand the correct facts of this story folks need to read a different account of what happened, "A Web relationship, a teen suicide, a warning," by Christine Haley, Los Angeles Times.
The point here is the distortion of the facts in the story in the sidebar. Notice, the inference that Kiley Ryan Bowers, who they call a predator, was a former sex offender, he was not! He is not listed in the National Registry. In fact, we can find no report of any prior offenses at all, of any kind. So how does the label of "predator" fit his initial actions?
AG Blumenthal implies, that by keeping registered sex offenders (RSOs) off MySpace type sites, that would have prevented this tragedy. That is a false theory, Bowers was not a RSO, and AG Blumenthal's implied theory creates a false sense of security exemplified by this particular case.
Bowers was a 27 year old man (at the time) meeting a 19 year old girl (she lied about her age, see LA Times story), and a relationship developed. True, early on she admitted to him she really was 14, and yes, at that point he should have cut off the relationship. But he did not, it turned sexual. But, are his initial actions predatory?.
Federal law defines "Predatory" as "(E) The term “predatory” means an act directed at a stranger, or a person with whom a relationship has been established or promoted for the primary purpose of victimization." his initial purposes seems to be to develop a relationship. However, once he was told of her age and continued, well, he became a criminal, but predatory I'm not sure, I'll leave that for the courts to decide.
See LA Times story "During their initial online chats, Kristin initially lied and told him she was 19. But about a week after their first conversation, she admitted to being only 14. That's when Bowers started talking to her about sex, according to investigators, in graphic detail. She confided to him that she was a virgin."
Now, Connecticut AG Blumenthal enters claiming MySpace type sites are a "predator's dream." Followed by a statement, that in his state a few RSOs, who had MySpace accounts (legally I might add), were arrested. Does he say why? No, likely no more than a probation or parole violation, no crime, a technical violation of parole supervision, but then he takes a quantum leap inferring criminal actions, and never says that anyone was charged with anything.
The article goes on to say, that MySpace has a program to screen sex offenders (incorrectly stated, it screens for only those listed in the National Sex Offender Registry) so their accounts can be deleted. Bowers had no prior sex record so the program didn't find him, very logical. This fact is ignored by the AG, he is campaigning misusing the tragedy of this case and distorting the facts.
MySpace still has not changed their Terms of Agreement to state, that if one is a RSO then they cannot open a MySpace account. No wonder so many are being found on MySpace, but there are no reports of any doing anything wrong, much less criminal. Plenty of inferences by state AGs and the like. In court, proof is needed, in the media one can get away with name calling.
Finally, stopping former sex offenders (registrants in a national registry) from accessing MySpace type databases, will not prevent a case such as the Kristin Helms case. Bowers was not a RSO before this case, that is the point that political hype ignores!
Parents need to be more aware when teen relationships end, by whatever means, teens are very fragile, and maybe get them some help to handle such experiences.
This tragic case exemplifies that the AG's political hype about Internet sexual predators, is nothing more than something that sounds good, but ineffective. That, is my opinion.
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