Thursday, January 17, 2008

Edward Oberwise MySpace Predator

When arrested he was wearing a shirt that read "Real Men of Genius."


On the same day MySpace and the attorneys general for 49 states announced an agreement that will allow parents to have their kids' email addresses blocked from the social networking site we get this tragic story out of Florida:

A Tampa man met two girls, aged 14 and 12, through MySpace and met up with them to have sex. After the 14-year-old confided in her parents about what happened, the police nabbed the pervert after he attempted a second meeting with the younger girl.

Turn your irony sensors on now: When arrested he was wearing a shirt that read "Real Men of Genius." And that's the long and short of the humor here. Irony sensors off now. Thank you.



Nothing is funny about a predator skulking around MySpace looking for victims. It will be interesting to see how many parents take advantage of the new offering by the social networking site to let them block their children from signing up. Granted, this relies on the parents submitting their kids' email addresses in order to have them blocked, which may not be enough considering how easy it is to set up a new free email account. But at least it is a start.

What would you do to protect your kids from online predators? What do you do to protect yourself when you go online yourself?

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