Parry Aftab's Blog: 03/01/2009

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Charges against ’sexting’ teenagers highlight legal gaps | csmonitor.com

Sexting Victim is also the Perpetrator - ChildLaw Blog

Sexting Victim is also the Perpetrator - ChildLaw BlogI hope that the NJ AG will follow-through and I offer my help in any way she may need it. we need a solution that isn't too hot or too cold, just right.

Monday, March 30, 2009

Charges against ’sexting’ teenagers highlight legal gaps | csmonitor.com

Sunday, March 29, 2009

A debate swirls over teens' lurid pictures - NJ.com

A debate swirls over teens' lurid pictures - NJ.comWe need two new laws and we are working on proposing an enhancementof the harrassment laws for when students pass around these images to hurt their target and one that reduces the criminality when young people possess images of each other and harrassment is not implicated.

Friday, March 27, 2009

Twitter - what is it and why should we care?

Twitter / HomeI am using Twitter to share short packets of info with people who want to receive it.
We are using it to organize my cyberarmy of moms and am trying to get the knack of it for other things. Join twitter and follow me and wiremoms. Let's figure it out together.

DAILY EXCEPTION

DAILY EXCEPTIONI rarely "do" politics. I am too busdy on cybersafety and security issues to spend the time to understand who is real, and who is blowing smoke. I recently met this political analyst on a flight and became a quick and permanent fan.
My guess is, after reading his blog, you will too. You can even follow him on twitter at dailyexpression.

Compañia Periodistica Sudcaliforniana, Los Cabos, BCS. Mexico

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Students Sue Prosector in Cellphone Photos Case - NYTimes.com

Students Sue Prosector in Cellphone Photos Case - NYTimes.comBetween a rock and a hard place...the laws are either too hot or too cold and nothing is just right. Prosecutors have some discretion, but generally the kids who pass around images can be charged with state or federal harrassment misdemeanors or felonies (often a slap on the wrist) or with sexual exploitation of minors (child porn crimes). The conviction under the sex crimes often means their becoming a registered sex offender.
I would have thought that mandatory counseling would be a good approach rather than sex crime conviction.
what do we do?

Keeper League GM: Fantasy Baseball Keeper League and Fantasy Football Dynasty League Strategies

Keeper League GM: Fantasy Baseball Keeper League and Fantasy Football Dynasty League StrategiesLooking for a terrific blog/site on fantasy sports? This is as good as is comes! (And it's created by my son, Michael Caprio. :-))

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

sexting in singapore

The Electric New Paper, Singapore - The Electric New Paper News

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Reprecussions of "sexting"

The News and Tribune - McDONALD: Reprecussions of "sexting"

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Meeting Parry | MaryHeston.com

One of WiredSafety's child porn busts, years ago.

Mexico City, October 12, 2001
Press Release No. 690/01

Puebla

FRANCISCO JAVIER MUÑOZ CANO ALVAREZ WAS ARRESTED

· He worked on child pornography

· His arrest was thanks to an accusation via e-mail from France

Due to an accusation via e-mail by Mr. Pedro Velderrain Zazueta, Director of the International Division of WiredSafety in Mexico, agents of the Federal Investigation Police initiated an investigation which derived in the arrest in the city of Puebla of Francisco Javier Muñoz Cano Álvarez, who worked on the production and sale of pornographic material that involves minors.

In his accusation Velderrain Zazueta stated that his organization received reports from a person who detected an Internet page in which they requested children in the city of Puebla to take pictures of them naked.

Likewise, via inter-institutional cooperation they had knowledge that the Unit of Investigation of Delinquency in Technologies of Information of the Direction General of the Judiciary Police in Madrid, Spain has precedents of a message offering compact discs with child pornography of an e-mail account in which they sell digital pictures of pornographic and pedophilia contents.

Due to the previous, agents of the Federal Investigation Police subscribed to the Sub Attorney's Office of Criminal Proceedings "C", along with experts of the Institution, observed the search warrant granted by the Fourth District Judge of that State, due to the inquiry DGMPE/C/IV4/154/00, initiated for the crime of child pornography.

The agents secured a computer, 351 magnetic discs, 20 compact discs and 160 printed images. The described material was obtained through Internet and shows minors in acts of corporal and sexual exhibitionism.

It is important to mention that today criminal action was exercised against Francisco Javier Muñoz Cano Álvarez, declaring before the judicial authority in which he ratified the confession made before the Federal Prosecutor.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Cyber-security | Sex, lies and the internet | The Economist

Cyber-security | Sex, lies and the internet | The Economistsometimes making it easy is the best way to change things. I loved this article and was honored to have them cite to us.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

"Happy Slapping": Prügeltrend erobert US-Schulen - pressetext.schweiz

"Happy Slapping": Prügeltrend erobert US-Schulen - pressetext.schweizonline fight videos started in Europe.

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Sexting Can Lead to Death...the story of Jessie Logan

Sexting Can Lead to Death
This morning I appeared on the Today Show with Matt Lauer and a very special mother, Cynthia Logan, to discuss what lead her daughter (Jessica) to suicide. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29546030/
Jessica was a bright, funny, great teen who lived in Ohio. When she turned 18, she was dating a 19 year old and sent a few nude photos of herself to him using her cell phone. When they broke up, he sent it to at least one 16-year-old girl who sent it to others. (He now claims that the 16-year-old took it form his cell phone without his knowledge.) The image made the rounds of Jessica’s school and the other community schools. What had been a private communication became public humiliation.
The students were cruel. They called her names and made fun of her. They dubbed her the “porn queen” and she became “that girl.” She confided in her mom, but only told her bits and pieces, never the whole scenario of the torment. Cynthia offered to take her out of school and homeschool her until graduation, but Jessica wanted to stick it out.
Jessie had sought help from her school’s school resource officer (the police officer assigned to her school). But he didn’t offer to do anything other than contact the girl who started the harassment and ask her to take down the images and leave Jessica alone. (Cynthia said that the SRO is now claiming that he gave Jessica the choice between his contacting the other girl and pressing charges, but denies that his claim is true.)
“No one would help!” When Jessie’s mom told me that, I had chills. Cynthia’s simple words and her soft tone (muffled by her trying to hold back tears) remind us that “there but for the grace of God” go all of us. Jessica didn’t want her mom to contact the other parents. (Targets of cyberbullying never do.) They didn’t know what to do.
Then Jessie came up with a plan. She would recount her story on TV to try and keep others from doing things they will regret. So, she appeared (in shadow with her voice disguised) on the local NBC affiliate in Cincinnati last year to help educate other teens about the risks of sexting.
While the TV piece was able to reach so many, the ones who mattered the most – Jessica’s harassers – were unmoved. The harassment continued. The teens were relentless. Cynthia knew that Jessica was hurting, but didn’t know how much. The school would send truancy reports home, but failed to share anything about the ongoing harassment. Why? That remains unanswered.
But Jessica stuck it out and graduated with her class. To Cynthia, it looked like things would improve. When a friend of Jessica’s asked her for a ride to the funeral of a fellow student, Mitch, who had killed himself Jessica became more troubled. “Why,” she asked her mother, “would a teen take his own life?” They talked about it. Cynthia said you never know what goes through someone’s mind when they consider something like this. Jessie seemed angry about Mitch’s suicide. But no one could have known that Jessica had ulterior motives when asking why this young man took his own life. She was looking to see if that was a viable choice for her.
The school never offered counseling for the other students after the young man’s suicide. They never offered counseling for Jessie. They said they couldn’t do anything because she was 18 and that students attended school at their own risk. They took the easy way out. And they failed Jessie..
Jessica went to the funeral with her friend, but didn’t come right home. Cynthia had to call her to get her to come home for dinner. She held the memorial information about the young man in her hand when she came through the doors and tossed it at Cynthia. She seemed agitated, angry. But Cynthia was used to this when things troubled Jessica and thought it was to be expected after the memorial service. The table was set as Jessie climbed the stairs to take a shower.
Cynthia was on a call with her brother when she walked down the upstairs hall. She passed Jessie coming out of the shower. She had no sense that anything was especially wrong.
But that was the last time Cynthia saw her daughter alive.
Cynthia walked upstairs and knocked at Jessie’s door. (She had a knock and open the door policy.) When she didn’t get an answer, she opened it to find Jessica’s cell phone in the middle of the room. She scanned the room looking for Jessica and the closet door was open. Her daughter hanging by her neck from the clothing rod.
Her husband bounded up the stairs at Cynthia’s screams, pulling out a pen knife to cut his daughter down. Jessica was already cold and blue. Their attempts to resuscitate her were futile.
Now Cynthia wants answers. What are the laws? How can she hold the school accountable? Can she make the teens responsible for this harassment apologize before their peers? How can she make sure that Jessica did not die in vain?
As soon as I heard her story, I knew this was something that would change the landscape in cybersafety. Like the story of Megan Meier and her suicide following the harassment of a neighborhood mom posing as a cute sixteen-year-old, Jessica’s name will mean something to teens and preteens.
It combines cyberbullying and the damage that teens can do to other teens when armed with embarrassing and private images and information. It makes the risks of sexting and cyberbullying real.
Sexting is a growing and serious problem. It’s when young people take nude pictures or images of them engaging in real or simulated sex acts on their cell phones or webcams and then send them to others by cell phone or webcams. About 20% of the teen girls we polled said they had taken a nude or sexually explicit cell phone picture or webcam shot of themselves and shared it with others (most often their boyfriends). 14% of the boys share these “private” images with others when they break up with their girlfriends. And 44% of the boys polled admitted to having seen at least one of these sexual images of a classmate.
22% of the girls polled said that they regretted whatever they had recorded on their webcam and 71% use them in their bedroom. And older teens and young adults are even more at risk, with almost 40% of the teens over 18 and college students we polled said they had shared a nude or sexual image with their boyfriend or girlfriend online or by cell phone.

Your daughter could be next.

Beginning immediately, I will be working with Cynthia and her husband Burt to spread awareness about Jessie and the consequences of cyberbullying and the risks of texting. We will be working with Jessie’s friends and my Teenangels to develop a campaign to reach teens and change behavior.

The new StopCyberbullying Coalition will bring individuals, companies, policymakers, educators, healthcare and mental health professionals and media together to address these issues. It will explore all aspects of cyberbullying and how sexting increases the risks of harassment and personal humiliation.

Interested in helping this become the last cyberbullying-related suicide? Want to help us spread the word about sexting and risks to young people online? Join us at WiredSafety.org. We need your help. Help us make sure your child won’t be next.

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Two Lawyers Fight Cyber-Bullying - National Business News - Portfolio.com

Two Lawyers Fight Cyber-Bullying - National Business News - Portfolio.comThis case will be interesting to watch....

Seven Lies We Tell Ourselves About Facebook | Newsweek Culture | Newsweek.com

Seven Lies We Tell Ourselves About Facebook | Newsweek Culture | Newsweek.comI loved this article! When everyone spends time each and every day changing their status - like we care! But we do! (I do it once in awhile because it's the only FB application I know how to use from my blackberry.)