Pirro Attacks a Web Site as a Threat to Youths

[Judi Lynn]

Pirro Attacks a Web Site as a Threat to Youths

By JONATHAN P. HICKS
Published: March 1, 2006

Jeanine F. Pirro, the Republican candidate for attorney general, has begun an attack on MySpace.com, the Internet social network for teenagers and young adults, saying that it represents a threat to child safety.

MySpace.com is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who controls the News Corporation, which owns The New York Post, a publication that has often been critical of Ms. Pirro.

In an interview yesterday, Ms. Pirro, a former Westchester County district attorney, said her criticisms of MySpace.com were based on reports that the site is shocking to many parents and, according to the police, is attracting sexual predators.

In a letter to Mr. Murdoch, Ms. Pirro proposed that a forum "be convened as soon as possible" to include executives of the News Corporation and MySpace.com as well as school officials and parent leaders.
(snip/...)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/01/nyregion/01pirro.html

[kenny blankenship]

1. Oh, I thought this was going to be about "www.goarmy.com"

perhaps the worst place on the Internet as it is full of scheming predators, who have lured many innocent young people to depravity, painful disfigurement and horrible death, way before their time.

[Teaser]

4. Comment of the Day!

and so early!

[Old and In the Way]

2. Jean, who made you the net nanny?

As father of 2 two net-savvy teens, I don't need you to tell me, or my kids, what is 'good' or 'bad' web content. That's my job.

[Trillo]

3. I've read recently that school officials are already there.

Students have allegedly been suspended for their postings at myspace.com.

Could it be that Republicans are now creating a propagandizing rationale for past infiltration and surveillance of the website?

Is this part of TIA :tinfoilhat: Does the surveillance code need tweaking?

[Trillo]

16. I guess the surveillance code needed tweaking.

bolding added by me:

MySpace.com to bolster security measures-CEO

BOSTON, March 2 (Reuters) - MySpace.com, the online virtual-community run by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NWS.N: Quote, Profile, Research). (NWS.N: Quote, Profile, Research), will soon add technology to screen how its 60 million members use the Web site to prevent crime, the company's chief executive said on Thursday.
...
Kevin O'Connor, the U.S. federal Attorney for Connecticut who announced the charges, said that MySpace was not at fault and that full blame lies with the two defendants.
...
But Richard Blumenthal, the attorney general for Connecticut's state government, has called on MySpace to tighten access to the site and improve its age verification system.

MySpace and Blumenthal's office are in negotiations over the attorney general's request. DeWolfe declined to comment on the status of those talks, saying that his company's objectives are "aligned" with those of Blumenthal.
http://yahoo.reuters.com/stocks/QuoteCompanyNewsArticle.aspx?storyID=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20060303:MTFH10941_2006-03-03_01-15-11_N02476178&symbol=NWS.N

[rocktivity]

5. It's the PREDATORS that are threatening child safety

not the children themselves. And of course she wants to shut it down--unless she can come up with a way to keep the predators from signing on. But why not there? Pirro's logic suggests that all kids should be be locked up at home all day--minus television sets, of course.

:headbang:
rocknation

[zbdent]

6. Hasn't anybody informed Pirro that

those fetuses have taken breath outside the womb?

Therefore, they are beyond the concern of a Repuke . . .

[HuffleClaw]

7. an attack on the net in the guise of 'SAVING THE CHILDREN'

and a blatant one at that. 'the site is shocking to many parents'. to those parents who are too goddamned lazy to care about how their child spends their time online maybe. one more case of republicans finding an excuse to abrogate their responsibility as parents if you ask me. funny. i wonder what this pirro would think of IRC, yahoo! chat, msn messenger, and all the other places that CHILDREN gather to talk. what a joke, but a sad one, considering they'll likely see if they can use this to control net access somehow.

[bleedingheart]

8. Knowing that MySpace is owned by Murdoch makes me think

that people are foolish to put any personal information or carry on any correspondences there..

[bobthedrummer]

9. Two years ago Judicial Watch filed a suit about PSYOPS aimed

at our kids, this is a related development imo.
http://www.judicialwatch.org/printer_4303.shtml

on edit: The Rendon Group, The Lincoln Group and other perception management businesses have been awarded many contracts by this administration. Rumsfeld has a Roadmap in regards to this.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB177/index.htm

[Tempest]

10. Pirro's jumping on the bandwagon

More and more fundies and conservatives have suddenly decided myspace.com is evil.

They have no shame.

[NashVegas]

11. Great Article on MySpace and the What Has Adults Alarmed

http://www.danah.org/papers/AAAS2006.html

http://www.utne.com/webwatch/2006_238/news/12020-1.html

Boyd argues that youth do not see the prospect of predators as an essential aspect of their online experience: "heir response is typically to ignore the issue." Rather, the kids are there for one thing: peer group socialization. Boyd notes that the burger joints of the 1950's are gone, as are the days of roaming the mall uninhibited. Today, kids must fight tooth and nail to find a social environment that is not controlled by parents or similar authority figures. MySpace provides an arena, albeit virtual, where kids can mingle, flirt, argue, and do all the things that kids do while in the throes of adolescent socialization. In a world where every hour is taken up by school, athletics, or parental supervision, MySpace stands as a relatively supervision-free social atmosphere where kids can try on different identities, learning who they are and who they aren't.

[Akoto]

12. I don't wish to sound like a devil's advocate, but ...

There are sexual predators making use of MySpace to track down victims. HOWEVER. There are also sexual predators at the mall, the grocery store and down the street. That does not, in itself, make any of these places "bad".

As always, it's important to be alert when associating with initially unfamiliar people, especially with the anonymity of the internet. You can usually tell when someone's pursuing a conversation with you for the wrong reasons.

If your kid's very young, I wouldn't personally endorse letting them use MySpace (or any part of the internet, for that matter) without supervision. As they get older, just make sure they're aware of the dangers of handing out unnecessary personal information on the net. Sexual predators aside, that also opens you to identity theft and any number of other crimes.

[Scairp]

15. You're completely right

But he Internet is making it that much easier for them. If any of you watched the "Dateline" sting, the one near me in So Cal, all of the men who showed up, some 60 of them, were on MySpace looking for victims. Trolling the Internet in their own homes much more convenient than trolling the malls. I don't want to be a "net nanny" either, but parents need to understand that sites like MySpace aren't just kids talking to each other. Kids give out their names, ages, the school they go to, enough personal information for bad people to use to lure them. Really scary.

How typical that someone like Murdoch, who wears his conservatism like a suit of armor, would buy a site that is now in the news for attracting pedophiles. And the sheep at Faux are falling over themselves to avoid this story. It would be funny if it weren't so sick.

[Ignacio Upton]

13. STFU Pirro

Teens should be able to use MySpace, and your political grandstanding means shit. Granted pedophiles are a problem online, but I don't believe that you can just blame MySpace for it (how are they supposed to keep track of a person's age?) But at least she's attacking Rupert Murdoch. Maybe the NY Post won't support her campaign :)
I can't wait to see her go down in the Attoreny General race. Has anyone seen page 10?

[SOS]

14. "The children" once again shamelessly used as political cover

From the article:

"In the past year, The Post has printed less-than-flattering portrayals of Ms. Pirro, who two months ago announced her candidacy for attorney general.
The paper published unflattering pictures of Ms. Pirro and reminded readers that her husband, Albert, had served time in prison for tax fraud and had been found to have fathered a child out of wedlock."

Murdoch and the NY Post did a hatchet job on Pirro, so now Pirro is going after MySpace.

Seems Rove and Murdoch want Hillary to run unopposed in NY....