RALEIGH, N.C. — Top law enforcement officers from eight states asked MySpace.com on Monday to turn over the names of registered sex offenders using the social networking website.
In a letter, the attorneys general asked MySpace how many registered sex offenders were using the site and where they lived. North Carolina Atty. Gen. Roy Cooper signed the letter, along with attorneys general from Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Cooper’s office said media outlets in 2006 “reported almost 100 criminal incidents across the country involving adults who used MySpace to prey or attempt to prey on children.”
In December, MySpace announced it was partnering with Sentinel Tech Holding Corp. to build a database on sex offenders in the United States. Software to identify and remove sex offenders from the site was launched in early May, MySpace said Monday in a statement.
Corra has definitely beliefs about adults who prey on children. While they are pathetic creatures who often emanate from abusive families themselves, the fact remains, according to most research, they are almost always repeat offenders. The news is filled with stories of men, usually men, anyway, who have been arrested for previous offenses only to be released so that they do it all over again.
We are inundated with headlines detailing perverts and the heinous crimes they commit against children. We are always shocked and appalled, but quite often these same perverts are back on our streets or on the Internet. No one should be shocked, really, that they are on the social networks. Where better to hunt for young and impressionable people, kids really, who can be intrigued by the right presentation.
Let’s face it, these guys know their territory and what it takes to lure a young person. Perverts are good at what they do. It makes sense since it is the contemplation of these acts and their actuality they obsess over through the course of their lives.
Apologists argue that they can’t help themselves. That they should be understood. Corra agrees we should understand them. We should know them well enough to protect our children against their overtures. This is but one of the reasons that Corra’s Nationwide Criminal Background Report includes the sames of anyone on the sexual offenders’ registries in all fifty states. Having run enough background checks, we have caught our share.
Maybe you can’t protect your kids from predators on the Internet. But you can certainly work to protect them against nannies, caregivers and others who come in contact with your children on a regular basis. Don’t be foolish. Check them out before you let them near your kids.
