Craig Alaimo, CS408-02, Assignment 6
Assignment 6: Online Predators
Online Predators are individuals who access and use the internet in ways that target children and teens in a sexual manner. Children are extremely vulnerable while browsing the web because they aren't aware of websites that may have explicative material on them or ones that they are not allowed to access. Recently, there has been more and more stories in the news about child predator cases and people targeting younger children. The public has created shows like MSNBC's "To Catch a Predator" and websites have been made (www.familywatchdog.us) that provide information to protect children online. However, these measures will never fully protect children on the internet. Kids still have access to just about all of the websites that adults can, whether they are allowed there or not (due to age). These shows and websites about Online Predators are more informatory and to get the word out to parents so that they will start monitoring their children's internet use.
Along with the parents having responsibility over their children's internet usage, the government has a role in it as well. We, as citizens of the USA, rely on our government to implement laws and safety regulations regarding what children can access. Along with this, there are laws about sex offenders and their access to the internet as well. However, just because there are laws protecting children from online predators doesn't mean that it will not happen. There will always be a way around certain laws, and it is up to the parents to really watch what their kids access online.
When it comes to the show "To Catch a Predator", I believe that they do not have the right to expose family members, children, or spouses of the sexual predators. These individuals should not be punished as a result of their family members action. Putting these people's names and faces in the spotlight on national television can make for a bad reputation and potentially harmful environment for them. In the end, the actual person that is the "online predator" should be held solely responsible and accept the consequences that faces them.
Myspace Suicide
Megan Meier's myspace suicide was an unexpected, tragic loss of life that could have been so easily prevented. As a 13 year old girl with depression and attention deficit disorder, Megan was extremely vulnerable in this case. The social networking website that she was using, Myspace, should not be held responsible for her suicide because that was not the intended use of this website. Myspace does not claim responsibility about who people meet and any interactions they may have, whether it be online or in person. They solely provide a website with a database of people's profiles, and while pictures and comments are monitored, they cannot monitor private messages that Megan exchanged with "Josh".
In my opinion, it is up to the parents to claim responsibility in this case. Both Megan's parents, and the parents of the perpetrators, are responsible in a way for what happened because they should have been monitoring what websites their children was using especially at age 13. If Megan's parents were aware that she had a Myspace and what interactions she was having with Josh on it, they could have stopped the situation before it bended tragically like it did. Along with this, the parents of the perpetrators are also responsible because they could have caught on to their daughter disguising herself as "Josh" for a month if only they had checked their daughter's browsing history. In this type of case, it is easy to point fingers at an individual or individuals, but in the end the blame can be dispersed among many people.
The neighbor who created Josh's profile and disguised herself for a month under this fake alias should be held criminally responsible for what she did, even though suicide was not her intended purpose. For example, if you are driving a car and accidentally hit a person and kill them, one of the charges against you might be involuntary manslaughter since your actions resulted in their death. The same type of law should apply in this case as well, and the perpetrator should definitely be held responsible.
Preventing these types of incidents can be a very challenging task. It is very hard for the social networking websites to tell who is real and who is making up a profile. Now a days, all you need to sign up for websites like Myspace or Facebook is a email address, first and last name, and a birthday. Anyone can make up an alias using a fake email and other falsified information. In order to try and prevent these types of situations from occurring, it starts with education and informing children at a young age the dangers of social networking websites. In schools, it should be required that kids learn the red flags involved with using websites like Facebook and Myspace.
Anonymity on the Internet
When it comes to using the internet anonymously, there are many pros and cons that come with this. In my opinion, being anonymous on the internet can be very beneficial. Hiding your IP address using programs like Torr allow for your history to be anonymous and not traced by an individual or government. Also, members of support groups often times use anonymity on the internet because if a family member or friend of theirs came across the same website, their identity would be protected and no one would know that they had a problem. Therefore, I believe that just because some criminals may use this as a way to hide from law enforcement, this should not ruin it for the people who are using anonymity for legitimate uses. This would not be fair to a lot of people, and if this ever was the case, it would spark heated debates and controversy.
Anonymity is definitely an important protection against possible abuse of government power especially in our current time. The United States government is in the process of building one of the most complex and intrusive computer systems that will be able to tap into just about anyone's personal information when it comes to their computer. The days of sending mail anonymously is completely out of the question because with any click of the mouse on the internet, that information is stored in a database and can be accessed at any time. With this said, using anonymizing tools will help protect yourself from the government when it comes to them accessing your information. If there were more restrictions on anonymity on the Internet put into place, this would be like pouring gas onto an already lit fire. Advocates for anonymity would be outraged and since it's a controversial topic, people will always be discussing ways to change how anonymity is used on the internet.
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