11.30.07
Posted in Internet crimes against children at 19:51 by Administrator
Computer Security Tips – From PCMag.com, by Neil J. Rubenking, 11/14/07
A few quick clicks and keystrokes will keep you safe when using a public terminal.
1. Before you start, turn off dangerous browser settings. In Internet Explorer’s Options dialog click the Content tab, click the Settings button in the AutoComplete pane and uncheck all the boxes. In Firefox’s Options dialog click the Privacy tab and uncheck all the boxes under History and Cookies, then click the Security tab and uncheck all the boxes under Passwords.
2. Be careful not to visit any financial Web sites by clicking hyperlinks received in your Web-based e-mail. The sites they bring you to might be fraudulent, and the public computer may not have antiphishing software enabled. If you need to visit a bank or other financial Web site, type the URL yourself.
3. Before entering any sensitive data on the public computer, make sure there’s no active malicious software on the system by running a quick scan from www.nanoscan.com. Keep in mind that no software will detect a hardware keylogger, so limit your sensitive transactions to those that are utterly essential.
4. When you’re finished with the browser, erase your tracks. In Firefox press Ctrl-Shift-Del and check all the boxes, then click OK. In IE select Delete Browsing History from the Tools menu and click Delete all.
5. When you are all done, launch My Computer, right-click the icon for the hard disk, and click Properties. Click the Disk Cleanup button and wait for the list of choices. Make sure that Recycle Bin and Temporary files are checked and that Compress old files is not checked. Then click OK to clean up.
Retrieved November 30, 2007 from http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,2223534,00.asp?kc=PCRSS03129TX1K0000625
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11.28.07
Posted in Internet crimes against children at 15:53 by Administrator
Dr. Kardasz: Investigators are receiving a rising number of complaints about unlawful images being trafficked via cell phone cameras but this is an unusual case.
‘I’m a pervert,’ suspected Phoenix voyeur tells police
By Colleen Sparks, The Arizona Republic, 11/27/07
A Phoenix man has been arrested for reportedly breaking into a home while the residents slept and taking sexually explicit photos of himself with one of the residents’ cell phones.
“I’m a pervert,” he allegedly told police after being arrested.
The crime was discovered when the resident found the photos of the man on her phone.
Ryan Houghton, 18, was arrested Nov. 20 on suspicion of “burglary of occupied residential structure,” a Class 3 felony, and “voyeurism,” a Class 4 felony.
The victim found the photos on Nov. 17, and earlier that morning had noticed that her arcadia door was ajar, said Phoenix Police Sgt. Joel Tranter.
Police believe that Houghton entered the home, in the 4500 block of East Kiowa Street near 48th Street and Elliot Road, sometime between 9:30 p.m. Nov. 16 and 6 a.m. Nov. 17.
The residents discovered that someone had signed onto a pornographic Web site on the home’s computer. Part of Houghton’s username was found on the Web site, Tranter said.
Friends of the victims researched the Web site and found Houghton’s username and photo online. One of the friends recognized him as working at a fast food restaurant near 48th Street and Elliot Road, Tranter said.
The residents contacted police. Sex crimes detectives went to the restaurant and found out part of Houghton’s name and a possible address for him, Tranter said. When police went to the address, Houghton was not there, he said.
Detectives learned in a follow-up investigation that Houghton skateboarded. Police went back to the victims’ home on Nov. 20 and one of the detectives heard a skateboard, Tranter said.
Detectives saw Houghton and another male teen and asked them their names. They saw Houghton try to pass a pipe to his friend and they arrested him for that, Tranter said. Nothing was found in the pipe but police discovered Houghton could be the burglar and voyeur.
When interviewed, Houghton told police that he had entered the house through a side gate and an unlocked arcadia door while the three adult residents were sleeping, Tranter said. Houghton said he had taken photos of himself masturbating with the phone, according to police.
When asked why he did it, Tranter said that Houghton told police, “I’m a pervert.”
Houghton “is not associated with the people that live in that house,” Tranter said.
Tranter advised residents to keep their windows and doors locked when they are out or sleeping.
“It’s fine leaving your doors open when you’re awake and up,” Tranter said. “If you leave the house or you’re going to bed for the night you need to ensure that . . . your doors and windows are locked.
“There are people out there that are looking to take advantage of people.”
Retrieved November 28, 2007 from http://www.azcentral.com/community/ahwatukee/articles/1127ar-voyeur1127.html
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Posted in Internet crimes against children at 15:50 by Administrator
Tucson, AZ – Carl Harrison, 42, of Tucson, was sentenced to 97 months in federal prison by U.S. District Court Judge Roll. Harrison pleaded guilty to one count of Distribution of Child Pornography and two counts of Possession of Child Pornography after investigators found hundreds of movies and images that depicted or dealt with minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct on computers at his home. Harrison’s sentence will be followed by lifetime supervised release and requires him to register as a sex offender.
Through an investigation initiated in July 2004, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children found that Harrison was using an America On Line trader’s group to download pornographic images of children. After finding hundreds of images on his home computer after a search in February 2005, Harrison admitted in an interview with law enforcement investigators that he was sexually attracted to girls age 14 to 16 years old. A subsequent search of his home in May 2005 turned up four additional computers, some of which were used to download child pornography. It was also discovered that an adult woman was living in Harrison’s home along with her four minor children, ages 4 to 13.
Further forensic review of the computers seized in February and May 2005 indicated that there were a number of e-mails, both incoming and outgoing, to other e-mail addresses with attachments that were images of child pornography. As a result, a number of investigative leads were sent to other jurisdictions and so far arrests for child pornography related charges have been made in Maine, Washington, Tennessee, and Texas. All those found were apparently members of a child pornography distribution ring. Additional investigations are ongoing.
On May 24, 2006, Harrison was indicted on six counts of child pornography related charges. When the agents arrived to serve the arrest warrant on May 25, 2006, they discovered that the same woman was living at the defendant’s new residence, again with her four minor children. The agents also found four additional computers in the home. Another search warrant and forensic search of the computer that Harrison used in the home contained hundreds of child pornography images, as well as images of bestiality and violence and sexual assault directed at women. Harrison was arrested that day and had been held in federal custody pending final resolution of this case. As a result of the plea agreement, three of the original six charges were dismissed.
The investigation in this case was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The prosecution was handled by Judson T. Mihok, Assistant U.S. Attorney, District of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz.
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11.26.07
Posted in Internet crimes against children at 15:37 by Administrator
Dr. Kardasz: The following story by Pablo Ros is an interesting report of justice-gone wacko. I am of the humble opinion that persons convicted of computer-related crimes should be directed towards vocations in prison-training classes that do not involve computers. Similarly, drug offenders should not be trained towards careers in pharmacy or chemistry. There are many career options and fields of study. Offenders should not be permitted to choose training that is aligned with the offense that resulted in their incarceration.
Online child-porn offender released early for learning about computers
Pablo Ros, Tribune Staff Writer. 11/24/07
South Bend, Indiana – A 58-year-old convicted sex offender recently cut his prison sentence short by completing a course on computer repair.
Larry B. Abshagen had always had a computer at home, and his ex-wife said she couldn’t fail to see the irony in his sentence reduction.
“He was very knowledgeable with computers,” said his ex-wife, whom The Tribune is not naming to protect her identity. “He knew how to fix ‘em, how to get on ‘em. He didn’t need to take a course on computer repair.”
Abshagen was sentenced to four years in prison in August 2006 for sending child pornography over the Internet. With credit for time served, credit for good behavior and a vocational studies certificate in computer repair, Abshagen finished his sentence in fewer than two years. He was released in October.
Abshagen’s ex-wife said she is upset that he was given an additional three-month break from an already mild sentence.”I’m upset that they cut his sentence short because of (the computer course),” she said. She added that she’s not opposed to prisoners receiving credit for completing courses that benefit them, such as earning a GED.
“Why train him on something he got in trouble for?” she said.
Karen Cantou Grubbs, communications chief at the Indiana Department of Correction, said all prisoners are eligible for educational courses.
“There is no filter process for assignment to academic, vocational, college programs in the IDOC,” she wrote in an e-mail. “It is an open-entry process for all offenders. Threshold qualifications for assignment to vocational programs would be credit class, education code, and length of time left to serve.”
The DOC’s educational program stems from “the department’s mandate to provide an environment designed to promote restoration and public safety,” said Randy Koester, a DOC spokesman. “Advancing an inmate’s education reduces the likelihood they will reoffend, and promotes public safety.”Abshagen’s ex-wife said she doesn’t think Abshagen is more dangerous now after taking a computer course because he probably learned little from it that he didn’t already know. In that way, Abshagen would be atypical of most sex offenders, according to John Shehan of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Shehan, who is deputy director of the NCMEC’s exploited child division, said sex offenders “come from all walks of life” and have varying educational levels. But those who are most easily caught by law enforcement, he said, lack a sophisticated knowledge of computers.
“Normally they aren’t Internet-savvy,” he said.
When asked whether by taking a course on computer repair a sex offender might become better equipped to reoffend, Shehan said that by learning the basic workings of a computer — such as how to remove a hard drive and destroy it — a person could more easily get away with Internet crimes.”It’s an interesting question,” Shehan said, but he did not express an opinion on whether sex offenders should be eligible to take computer courses in prison.
“It’s the first I’ve ever heard of a case like that,” he said.
But Parry Aftab, executive director of the online safety volunteer organization WiredSafety.org, said she doesn’t think access to computer education in prison is an added risk.
“I think that learning how to fix a computer has no relationship whatsoever to predatorial behavior,” she wrote in an e-mail. “I am concerned about inmates having Internet access while in prison, or unsupervised access while on probation. That poses a risk.”
Koester said inmates are not allowed to access the Internet in prison. Using the Internet or any other online service at any location without approval of a probation officer is a violation of the Indiana recommended special probation conditions for sex offenders, which are found on the state’s Web site, although they become case-applicable at a judge’s discretion.
Jerry Johnson, chief probation officer of St. Joseph County’s adult probation, said he doesn’t know offhand how often that probation condition is applied here.
Retrieved November 26, 2007 from http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?Date=20071124&Category=News01&ArtNo=711240358&SectionCat=BIZ&Template=printart
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11.21.07
Posted in Internet crimes against children at 16:52 by Administrator
Dr. Kardasz: The sad story below is another example of minors using cell phones to record and traffic unlawful images.
High school player accused of sexually assaulting teen – others filmed it with cell phone cameras
By Lars Jacoby. The Arizona Republic. 11/20/07
Florence (Arizona) police are investigating the alleged sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl by a Florence High School football player during a party in the desert as others photographed the incident with cell phone cameras.
According to Florence Police spokesman Detective Walt Hunter, the party took place after a football game on Oct. 26, which was held in an isolated area in the desert near Florence.
“There was drinking involved . . . (and) a 16-year-old female is making an allegation that she was sexually assaulted by a 17-year-old football player at the party,” said Hunter.
Hunter confirmed that police are investigating the possibility that teammates of the football player took photographs of the incident using cell phone cameras.
Police are waiting for test results from the Arizona Department of Public Safety’s crime lab before they can move forward.
Hunter said the holiday may delay progress in the case until next week.
Not only is the 17-year-old under investigation, so is anyone who photographed the incident, Hunter said.
Hunter said it’s a Class 2 felony to take, possess or distribute photos of a sex act involving a minor.
A spokesman for the Florence Unified School District said there has been no discipline taken against any student yet, but may do so based on the police investigation.
“The students are back in school and there have been no incidents,” Larry Cline said.
Retrieved 11/21/07 from http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1120gr-florencehigh1120-ON.html#
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11.17.07
Posted in Internet crimes against children at 15:04 by Administrator
By Grant Gross. 11/16/07. From Computerworld Security (online) and the IDG News Service
The US Senate has passed a bill that would allow victims of online identity theft schemes to seek restitution from criminals and expands the definition of cyberextortion.
The Senate passed the Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act by unanimous consent Thursday. The bill, introduced a month ago by Senator Patrick Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, allows victims of identity theft to seek restitution for the time they spend to fix the problems. The bill would allow prosecutors to go after criminals who threaten to take or release information from computers with cyberextortion, and it would allow prosecutors to charge cybercriminals with conspiracy to commit a cybercrime.
Current law only permits the prosecution of criminals who seek to extort companies or government agencies by explicitly threatening to shut down or damage a computer.
The bill would also make it a felony to use spyware or keystroke loggers to damage 10 or more computers, even if the amount of damage was less than $5,000. In the past, damage of less than $5,000 was a misdemeanor.
The legislation, among other things, would also allow the federal prosecution of those who steal personal information from a computer even when the victim’s computer is in the same state as the attacker’s computer. Under current law, federal courts only have jurisdiction if the thief attacks from another state, according to Leahy’s office.
Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, applauded the Senate action. The U.S. Department of Justice worked with senators to craft the legislation and fill holes in cybercrime laws, he said on the Senate floor.
The bill “takes several important and long-overdue steps to protect Americans from the growing and evolving threat of identity theft and other cybercrimes,” he said. “To better protect American consumers, our bill provides the victims of identity theft with the ability to seek restitution in federal court for the loss of time and money spent restoring their credit and remedying the harms of identity theft, so that identity theft victims can be made whole.”
The Business Software Alliance (BSA), a trade group, and the Cyber Security Industry Alliance (CSIA) both praised the Senate for passing the legislation. The BSA urged the House of Representatives to act on a similar bill.
The Senate bill closes “loopholes” in U.S. law, CSIA President Tim Bennett said in a statement.
The Senate bill will “provide law enforcement greater tools to crack down on the increasingly sophisticated network of cybercriminals,” Bennett added. “Identity theft and data breaches have become organized crime’s number one business.”
Retrieved November 16, 2007 from http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9047578&source=rss_news10
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11.15.07
Posted in Internet crimes against children at 14:50 by Administrator
Dr. Kardasz: The sad and tragic story below is a reminder that the improper use of social networking sites and chat rooms can have terrible consequenses. The Megan Meier incident is not an isolated occurrence. Several years ago a Phoenix teen was coaxed by his on-line “friends” to continue using drugs and alcohol until he overdosed and died while others watched him via his web-cam.
‘My Space’ hoax ends with suicide of Dardenne Prairie teen
By Steve Pokin. 11/14/07. From Suburban Journals, St. Louis MO (on-line)
His name was Josh Evans. He was 16 years old. And he was hot.
“Mom! Mom! Mom! Look at him!” Tina Meier recalls her daughter saying.
Josh had contacted Megan Meier through her MySpace page and wanted to be added as a friend.
Yes, he’s cute, Tina Meier told her daughter. “Do you know who he is?”
“No, but look at him! He’s hot! Please, please, can I add him?”
Mom said yes. And for six weeks Megan and Josh – under Tina’s watchful eye – became acquainted in the virtual world of MySpace.
Josh said he was born in Florida and recently had moved to O’Fallon. He was homeschooled. He played the guitar and drums.
He was from a broken home: “when i was 7 my dad left me and my mom and my older brother and my newborn brother 3 boys god i know poor mom yeah she had such a hard time when we were younger finding work to pay for us after he loeft.”
As for 13-year-old Megan, of Dardenne Prairie, this is how she expressed who she was:
M is for Modern
E is for Enthusiastic
G is for Goofy
A is for Alluring
N is for Neglected.
She loved swimming, boating, fishing, dogs, rap music and boys. But her life had not always been easy, her mother says.
She was heavy and for years had tried to lose weight. She had attention deficit disorder and battled depression. Back in third grade she had talked about suicide, Tina says, and ever since had seen a therapist.
But things were going exceptionally well. She had shed 20 pounds, getting down to 175. She was 5 foot 5½ inches tall.
She had just started eighth grade at a new school, Immaculate Conception, in Dardenne Prairie, where she was on the volleyball team. She had attended Fort Zumwalt public schools before that.
Amid all these positives, Tina says, her daughter decided to end a friendship with a girlfriend who lived down the street from them. The girls had spent much of seventh grade alternating between being friends and, the next day, not being friends, Tina says.
Part of the reason for Megan’s rosy outlook was Josh, Tina says. After school, Megan would rush to the computer.
“Megan had a lifelong struggle with weight and self-esteem,” Tina says. “And now she finally had a boy who she thought really thought she was pretty.”
It did seem odd, Tina says, that Josh never asked for Megan’s phone number. And when Megan asked for his, she says, Josh said he didn’t have a cell and his mother did not yet have a landline.
And then on Sunday, Oct. 15, 2006, Megan received a puzzling and disturbing message from Josh. Tina recalls that it said: “I don’t know if I want to be friends with you anymore because I’ve heard that you are not very nice to your friends.”
Frantic, Megan shot back: “What are you talking about?”
SHADOWY CYBERSPACE
Tina Meier was wary of the cyber-world of MySpace and its 70 million users. People are not always who they say they are.
Tina knew firsthand. Megan and the girl down the block, the former friend, once had created a fake MySpace account, using the photo of a good-looking girl as a way to talk to boys online, Tina says. When Tina found out, she ended Megan’s access.
MySpace has rules. A lot of them. There are nine pages of terms and conditions. The long list of prohibited content includes sexual material. And users must be at least 14.
“Are you joking?” Tina asks. “There are fifth-grade girls who have MySpace accounts.”
As for sexual content, Tina says, most parents have no clue how much there is. And Megan wasn’t 14 when she opened her account. To join, you are asked your age but there is no check. The accounts are free.
As Megan’s 14th birthday approached, she pleaded for her mom to give her another chance on MySpace, and Tina relented.
She told Megan she would be all over this account, monitoring it. Megan didn’t always make good choices because of her ADD, Tina says. And this time, Megan’s page would be set to private and only Mom and Dad would have the password.
‘GOD-AWFUL FEELING’
Monday, Oct. 16, 2006, was a rainy, bleak day. At school, Megan had handed out invitations to her upcoming birthday party and when she got home she asked her mother to log on to MySpace to see if Josh had responded.
Why did he suddenly think she was mean? Who had he been talking to?
Tina signed on. But she was in a hurry. She had to take her younger daughter, Allison, to the orthodontist.
Before Tina could get out the door it was clear Megan was upset. Josh still was sending troubling messages. And he apparently had shared some of Megan’s messages with others.
Tina recalled telling Megan to sign off.
“I will Mom,” Megan said. “Let me finish up.”
Tina was pressed for time. She had to go. But once at the orthodontist’s office she called Megan: Did you sign off?
“No, Mom. They are all being so mean to me.”
“You are not listening to me, Megan! Sign off, now!”
Fifteen minutes later, Megan called her mother. By now Megan was in tears.
“They are posting bulletins about me.” A bulletin is like a survey. “Megan Meier is a slut. Megan Meier is fat.”
Megan was sobbing hysterically. Tina was furious that she had not signed off.
Once Tina returned home she rushed into the basement where the computer was. Tina was shocked at the vulgar language her daughter was firing back at people.
“I am so aggravated at you for doing this!” she told Megan.
Megan ran from the computer and left, but not without first telling Tina, “You’re supposed to be my mom! You’re supposed to be on my side!”
On the stairway leading to her second-story bedroom, Megan ran into her father, Ron.
“I grabbed her as she tried to go by,” Ron says. “She told me that some kids were saying horrible stuff about her and she didn’t understand why. I told her it’s OK. I told her that they obviously don’t know her. And that it would be fine.”
Megan went to her room and Ron went downstairs to the kitchen, where he and Tina talked about what had happened, the MySpace account, and made dinner.
Twenty minutes later, Tina suddenly froze in mid-sentence.
“I had this God-awful feeling and I ran up into her room and she had hung herself in the closet.”
Megan Taylor Meier died the next day, three weeks before her 14th birthday.
Later that day, Ron opened his daughter’s MySpace account and viewed what he believes to be the final message Megan saw – one the FBI would be unable to retrieve from the hard drive.
It was from Josh and, according to Ron’s best recollection, it said, “Everybody in O’Fallon knows how you are. You are a bad person and everybody hates you. Have a shitty rest of your life. The world would be a better place without you.”
BEYOND GRIEF INTO FURY
Tina and Ron saw a grief counselor. Tina went to a couple of Parents After Loss of Suicide meetings, as well.
They tried to message Josh Evans, to let him know the deadly power of mean words. But his MySpace account had been deleted.
The day after Megan’s death, they went down the street to comfort the family of the girl who had once been Megan’s friend. They let the girl and her family know that although she and Megan had their ups and down, Megan valued her friendship.
They also attended the girl’s birthday party, although Ron had to leave when it came time to sing “Happy Birthday.” The Meiers went to the father’s 50th birthday celebration. In addition, the Meiers stored a foosball table, a Christmas gift, for that family.
Six weeks after Megan died, on a Saturday morning, a neighbor down the street, a different neighbor, one they didn’t know well, called and insisted that they meet that morning at a counselor’s office in northern O’Fallon.
The woman would not provide details. Ron and Tina went. Their grief counselor was there. As well as a counselor from Fort Zumwalt West Middle School.
The neighbor from down the street, a single mom with a daughter the same age as Megan, informed the Meiers that Josh Evans never existed.
She told the Meiers that Josh Evans was created by adults, a family on their block. These adults, she told the Meiers, were the parents of Megan’s former girlfriend, the one with whom she had a falling out. These were the people who’d asked the Meiers to store their foosball table.
The single mother, for this story, requested that her name not be used. She said her daughter, who had carpooled with the family that was involved in creating the phony MySpace account, had the password to the Josh Evans account and had sent one message – the one Megan received (and later retrieved off the hard drive) the night before she took her life.
“She had been encouraged to join in the joke,” the single mother said.
The single mother said her daughter feels the guilt of not saying something sooner and for writing that message. Her daughter didn’t speak out sooner because she’d known the other family for years and thought that what they were doing must be OK because, after all, they were trusted adults.
On the night the ambulance came for Megan, the single mother said, before it left the Meiers’ house her daughter received a call. It was the woman behind the creation of the Josh Evans account. She had called to tell the girl that something had happened to Megan and advised the girl not to mention the MySpace account.
AX AND SLEDGEHAMMER
The Meiers went home and tore into the foosball table.
Tina used an ax and Ron a sledgehammer. They put the pieces in Ron’s pickup and dumped them in their neighbor’s driveway. Tina spray painted “Merry Christmas” on the box.
According to Tina, Megan had gone on vacations with this family. They knew how she struggled with depression, that she took medication.
“I know that they did not physically come up to our house and tie a belt around her neck,” Tina says. “But when adults are involved and continue to screw with a 13-year-old – with or without mental problems – it is absolutely vile.
“She wanted to get Megan to feel like she was liked by a boy and let everyone know this was a false MySpace and have everyone laugh at her.
“I don’t feel their intentions were for her to kill herself. But that’s how it ended.”
‘GAINING MEGAN’S CONFIDENCE’
That same day, the family down the street tried to talk to the Meiers. Ron asked friends to convince them to leave before he physically harmed them.
In a letter dated Nov. 30, 2006, the family tells Ron and Tina, “We are sorry for the extreme pain you are going through and can only imagine how difficult it must be. We have every compassion for you and your family.”
The Suburban Journals have decided not to name the family out of consideration for their teenage daughter.
The mother declined comment.
“I have been advised not to give out any information and I apologize for that,” she says. “I would love to sit here and talk to you about it but I can’t.”
She was informed that without her direct comment the newspaper would rely heavily on the police report she filed with the St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department regarding the destroyed foosball table.
“I will tell you that the police report is totally wrong,” the mother said. “We have worked on getting that changed. I would just be very careful about what you write.”
Lt. Craig McGuire, spokesman for the sheriff’s department, said he is unaware of anyone contacting the department to alter the report.
“We stand behind the report as written,” McGuire says. “There was no supplement to it. What is in the report is what we believe she told us.”
The police report – without using the mother’s name – states:
“(She) stated in the months leading up Meier’s daughter’s suicide, she instigated and monitored a ‘my space’ account which was created for the sole purpose of communicating with Meier’s daughter.
“(She) said she, with the help of temporary employee named —— constructed a profile of ‘good looking’ male on ‘my space’ in order to ‘find out what Megan (Meier’s daughter) was saying on-line’ about her daughter. (She) explained the communication between the fake male profile and Megan was aimed at gaining Megan’s confidence and finding out what Megan felt about her daughter and other people.
“(She) stated she, her daughter and (the temporary employee) all typed, read and monitored the communication between the fake male profile and Megan Â…..
“According to (her) ‘somehow’ other ‘my space’ users were able to access the fake male profile and Megan found out she had been duped. (She) stated she knew ‘arguments’ had broken out between Megan and others on ‘my space.’ (She) felt this incident contributed to Megan’s suicide, but she did not feel ‘as guilty’ because at the funeral she found out ‘Megan had tried to commit suicide before.’”
Tina says her daughter died thinking Josh was real and that she never before attempted suicide.
“She was the happiest she had ever been in her life,” Ron says.
After years of wearing braces, Megan was scheduled to have them removed the day she died. And she was looking forward to her birthday party.
“She and her mom went shopping and bought a new dress,” Ron says. “She wanted to make this grand entrance with me carrying her down the stairs. I never got to see her in that dress until the funeral.”
NO CRIMINAL CHARGES
It does not appear that there will be criminal charges filed in connection with Megan’s death.
“We did not have a charge to fit it,” McGuire says. “I don’t know that anybody can sit down and say, ‘This is why this young girl took her life.’”
The Meiers say the matter also was investigated by the FBI, which analyzed the family computer and conducted interviews. Ron said a stumbling block is that the FBI was unable to retrieve the electronic messages from Megan’s final day, including that final message that only Ron saw.
The Meiers do not plan to file a civil lawsuit. Here’s what they want: They want the law changed, state or federal, so that what happened to Megan – at the hands of an adult – is a crime.
THE AFTERMATH IS PAIN
The Meiers are divorcing. Ron says Tina was as vigilant as a parent could be in monitoring Megan on MySpace. Yet she blames herself.
“I have this awful, horrible guilt and this I can never change,” she said. “Ever.”
Ron struggles daily with the loss of a daughter who, no matter how low she felt, tried to make others laugh and feel a little bit better.
He has difficulty maintaining focus and has kept his job as a tool and die maker through the grace and understanding of his employer, he says. His emotions remain jagged, on edge.
Christine Buckles lives in the same Waterford Crossing subdivision. In her view, everyone in the subdivision knows of Megan’s death, but few know of the other family’s involvement.
Tina says she and Ron have dissuaded angry friends and family members from vandalizing the other home for one, and only one, reason.
“The police will think we did it,” Tina says.
Ron faces a misdemeanor charge of property damage. He is accused of driving his truck across the lawn of the family down the street, doing $1,000 in damage, in March. A security camera the neighbors installed on their home allegedly caught him.
It was Tina, a real estate agent, who helped the other family purchase their home on the same block 2½ years ago.
“I just wish they would go away, move,” Ron says.
Vicki Dunn, Tina’s aunt, last month placed signs in and near the neighborhood on the anniversary of Megan’s death.
They read: “Justice for Megan Meier,” “Call the St. Charles County Prosecuting Attorney,” and “MySpace Impersonator in Your Neighborhood.”
On the window outside Megan’s room is an ornamental angel that Ron turns on almost every night. Inside are pictures of boys, posters of Usher, Beyonce and on the dresser a tube of instant bronzer.
“She was all about getting a tan,” Ron says.
He has placed the doors back on the closet. Megan had them off.
If only she had waited, talked to someone, or just made it to dinner, then through the evening, and then on to the beginning of a new day in what could have been a remarkable life.
If she had, he says, there is no doubt she would have chosen to live. Instead, there is so much pain.
“She never would have wanted to see her parents divorce,” Ron says.
Ultimately, it was Megan’s choice to do what she did, he says. “But it was like someone handed her a loaded gun.”
Retrieved November 15, 2007 from http://suburbanjournals.stltoday.com/articles/2007/11/14/news/sj2tn20071110-1111stc_pokin_1.ii1.prt
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11.09.07
Posted in Internet crimes against children at 17:18 by Administrator
by Dr. Frank Kardasz, November 9, 2007
The arrest of another sex offender for Internet child pornography at a public library highlights the need for continued vigilance against this disturbing form of child abuse. While the Internet is an unprecedented source of worthwhile educational information, it is also the preferred venue of many sociopaths, thieves, fraudsters, bullies and sex offenders. Free public access to computers at libraries provide criminals with the means and mechanisms to facilitate their crimes.
Sometimes when I speak with community groups and describe the surprising number of crimes being facilitated via the Internet someone asks, “Why don’t they just shut the whole thing down!” – as if a switch exists somewhere that will simply cut the power to the entire Internet. Although the Internet is with us to stay, I doubt that the framers of our constitution could have envisioned child pornography being accessed through computers at our tax-supported public libraries. In Minneapolis, the problem with people viewing all forms of pornography on library computers became so disturbing that in 2000, librarians there filed a hostile work environment lawsuit against the city and won a large settlement. (see http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1063212018621)
Some free speech advocates have tried to inhibit the use of Internet filters on public library computers. The argument about whether or not an individual has the right to view adult pornography on a public library computer has been decided by the Supreme Court. In 2003 the Court ruled against the American Library Association and pornography producers by authorizing filtering of pornography from public library computers. Justice Stevens said, “The interest in protecting young library users from material inappropriate for minors is legitimate, and even compelling, as all Members of the Court appear to agree.” In his concurring opinion, the late Justice Rehnquist cited an expert who said, “The librarian’s responsibility…is to separate out the gold from the garbage, not to preserve everything.” (see http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/02-361.ZC.html)
The law classifies child pornography differently from pornography depicting adults. Child pornography is unlawful everywhere but its potential for harm is sometimes underestimated. Apologists for the possessors of child pornography argue that the images are “only pictures” and that looking at images is acceptable and preferable to molesting a child. Such ridiculous rationalization was best refuted by Canadian Michael Brier, a viewer of Internet child pornography who murdered 10 year old Holly Jones in Toronto. He confessed that viewing the images made him “long for it” (the sex act) “in his heart.” (see http://www.independent-bangladesh.com/news/dec/31/31122004wo.htm)
In one Arizona appellate case (State of Arizona v. Morton Robert Berger, 2004) the defendant argued that because his possession of child pornography was passive and because he did not use violence, his long prison sentence was unfair. Judges Ehrlich and Hall of the Arizona Court of Appeals disagreed. They said that such logic is abstruse and cited other courts that have decided that child pornography is a form of child abuse. According to the courts, possessors of child pornography support the child pornography industry and thus support the subordination of children. The court in Berger also said that consumers of child pornography provide an economic motive for its creation and continuation; absent such encouragement and enablement, these children would not have been abused as they were. (see Haslett, 205, Ariz. at 527 P11, 73 P.3d at 1262)
Other apologists for possessors of child pornography argue that no proven link exists between those who view child pornography and those who commit “hands-on” contact offenses. This argument was refuted when a study of prisoners in Federal custody for possession of child pornography found that a significant number had committed previously unreported acts of contact sex offenses against minors. (see http://www.kardasz.org/HernandezPrisonStudy.pdf)
Meanwhile the troubles involving offenders viewing child pornography in libraries continue. In 2004, a Pennsylvania man raped and choked an eight year old girl in a public library restroom after viewing pornography on the computers there. (see http://citypaper.net/articles/2004-04-08/cb.shtml) Other similar incidents throughout the United States have caused some library administrators to take notice.
While some libraries have taken affirmative steps towards protecting patrons from both adult pornography and child pornography, more work is needed. Investigators need additional tools to assist them in stopping child pornography in public libraries. I recommend the following additional steps to further improve library safety and assist law enforcement officers investigating child pornography incidents:
1. Those who use public library computers should be required to provide and enter identification information, if only a library card number, before being permitted to use the computers. The library card number should be preserved on the library computer servers for 90 days so that in the event of a crime investigators could obtain a subpoena and retrieve the information.
2. Computer software that filters pornography must be actively and carefully monitored in order to keep computers safe.
3. Libraries should adjust their computer server logs to capture information about all Internet (URL) locations visited by each computer, and retain the information for at least 90 days. The captured information would not be revealed to anyone without the appropriate court order.
4. Libraries should retain information about the library materials checked out and later returned by patrons for a period of 90 days after the items are returned. This information would not be accessible without the appropriate court order.
5. Libraries must acknowledge that library computers become Internet service providers as defined in Federal law and subject to the provisions of law that requires them to report child pornography when it is discovered on computers. (see http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00002510—-000-.html)
6. Surveillance video collected in public areas of libraries is public information. Persons whose images are recorded at the library are not in a place where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Copies of such videos should be provided to law enforcement officers upon request and without requiring a court order.
7. Those who use information from a stolen or fraudulently obtained library card in order to access Library computers should be investigated. The Arizona law against computer tampering (ARS 13-2316.A.8) makes the offense a class six felony. Other states have similar laws.
Implementing these recommendations will help make libraries safer for citizens and give law enforcement additional avenues for finding offenders when incidents occur.
I can be contacted by e-mail at kardasz@kardasz.org
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