Online Madness!

By Bob Norman Mon., May 21 2007 at 1:36 PM

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When Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum, who is aligned politically with the right-wing religious crowd, announced he was cracking down on "online predators," the Help Team jumped to his side.

Today, Sun-Sentinel Help Team columnist Daniel Vasquez writes about youngsters who while online are being put at "risk of dangerous contact with strangers." After reading it, I think he's angling for a job on Dateline's Perverted Justice. Take this quote:

"Even children in middle school are very familiar with all the evil on the Internet, but they're not familiar with the fact that [the evil] can get them," McCollum told me this week. "That's why parents have to get involved."

Don't you love the added "evil" in

brackets? Ah, you can't tell me the Sentinel doesn't entertain. It's just too bad he didn't add that McCollum was sucking up to his supporters in the Christian Coalition with this nonsense and that, seriously, if you're kid is meeting perverts on the Internet and fucking them, you've got serious problems that likely extend outside the Demon Nets.

But Vasquez was rolling. He starts breaking down that dastardly kid lingo that, if you see it, clearly means your kid is about to get busy in a treehouse with Chester the Molester:

The fact that there are so many sick and savvy predators online chasing Florida's children is why parents should do themselves a favor and spend at least a couple of hours on SafeSurf.
I did. Here's just a few things I've learned.

Kids love to use lingo to throw parents off the trail: The Web site offers a 12-page list of child-based text codes, including POS (Parent over shoulder), P911 (My parents are coming) and LMIRL (Let's meet in real life).

Hand it to Vasquez, he's recreated the feel 1950s-era scare campaigns against marijuana and communism here in a very authentic way. Bravo.

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Hi, thought you might like to see this. ref: http://www.courthousenews.com/ http://www.courthousenews.com/BartelNBC.pdf Contrary to NBC Policies and Guidelines, as a paid contributor (freelance or otherwise), Perverted Justice founder and it's volunteers conducted numerous activities in both their professional and personal lives which demonstrate a conflict of interest Contrary to NBC Policies and Guidelines, NBC unethically pays Perverted Justice to troll and lure targets into its sting thereby giving it a financial incentive to lie and to trick targets of its sting NBC unethically pays or indirectly reimburses law enforcement officials to participate in the predator stings to enhance and intensify the dramatic effect of the show NBC Unethically obtains otherwise confidential data from local law enforcement officials as part of an unwritten quid pro quo agreement with such officials NBC does not provide complete transcripts from its trolling operations to NBC Perverted Justice gents, acting as children, sometimes beg individuals to come to the stings locations even after the targets of the sting initially decide not to come. Transcripts of these phone conversations are either not recorded or are not made available to the public, leaving viewers with incomplete and false impressions.
Do yourselves a favor: http://www.ardemgaz.com/Prev/Web/
I'd like to know your source on that 1,693 figure, O.S. Sure there have been a few scattered cases across the country, but that sounds way high. Now for you're reading enjoyment check out <a href="http://blogs.southflorida.com/citylink_dansweeney/2006/04/run_myspace_is_coming_to_rape.html">this dead-on year-old post</a> from Dan Sweeney's Doomed Generation on the same subject.
EM: Online predators? AYTMTB? AWGTHTGTTA? BMG & LMAO at your column about Internet safety. SFAIAA, there's nothing new with the column. Glad to see you get the IM lingo, but CSL. PS, u forgot Sun-Sentinel's fave shorthand: ANAWFOWS. B4N, XREADER Translation: Earl Maucker: Online predators? And you're telling me this because? Are we going to have to go through this again? Busting my gut and laughing my a** off at your column about Internet safety. So far as I am aware, there's nothing new with the column. Glad to see you get the Instant Message lingo, but I can't stop laughing. P.S: You forgot the Sun-Sentinel's favorite shorthand: And now a word from our Web sponsor. Bye for now, Ex-Reader
The only evil I see on the Internet on a regular basis is the Sun-Sentinel's Help Team. It's dangerous to the craft of journalism, and it sucks away valuable resources from the things that newspapers out to be doing: watching tax money, holding public officials acountable, telling the best tales of life in our communities and being an interesting publication.
I am all for parents solving inner problems of the family. Also in educating themselves about what their children are doing on the internet. One thing we all know is, predators go after the vulnerable. Just because the child is troubled does not make them the bad guys! Doesn't make the parents the bad guys! The bad guys are the pedophiles and opportunist that seek out these children for sex!! And they're out in droves on the internet because it apprears safer then trying to groom one in the neighborhood or grabbing one off the street! There are hundreds of stories of internet abduction/raping and sometimes the killing of children. I've read 1,693 cases since 2004! Might not sound like a huge problem but that is 1,693 real children to many! That's not counting the pedophiles/opportunists who get caught in sting operations! Do me a favor. Go make a 13-15yr old's profile, enter a chat room and sit, or not and stay clueless! It IS a real problem and the more who get involved, the better!!
I am #1 a security professional in the computer business. #2 a father of two. You don't have kids do you ?