Afghan in Jersey
Posted on 11/06/2005 1:15:15 PM PST by chito
For those of you who are not familiar with it. Myspace is a digital community portal. Similar to Match.com and other sites, but it takes the dating thing even further to create communities of friends that share likes and dislikes. Be it music, movies, or whatever you can think of. Its based on the 6 degrees of separation concept. As you create a network of friends your network extends and criss-crosses with others. I have nieces that spend hours going threw profiles of others to find people that have posted profiles that they would like to meet or chat with. I did a search for "jihad" and "islam", and these jokers came up:
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=15047403&Mytoken=2D7E0FAD-EF11-462B-A6952B32ADDE76581362701171
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=20906276&Mytoken=2D7E0FAD-EF11-462B-A6952B32ADDE76581362701171
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=15169117&Mytoken=2D7E0FAD-EF11-462B-A6952B32ADDE76581362701171
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=25156488&Mytoken=366D3D0C-8CEE-460C-82D306B2DD29F7E8421915375
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=10102501&Mytoken=366D3D0C-8CEE-460C-82D306B2DD29F7E8421915375
Are these kids just being stupid? Maybe. It would almost be laughable if it wasn't for the fact that there are so many of them. If you click threw and see how many in different parts of the country (Afghans in Jersey, Bosnians in Northern Washington State, Black Muslims in Hayward) then you have to start asking some questions as to whether we should take this a little more serious..yes they're kids, but so are the ones throwing rocks in France. I wonder if Myspace would consider any of this hate speech or offensive enough to censor it as they would if I was to speak out on my profile about homosexuality or the right to life. Myspace has no age limit or any standards for content that I know of that they would consider inappropriate.
Kim Komando says this is a bad, bad place to let your kids hang out. Lots of predators surf the place and it's so kid-friendly that kids feel inclined to give out real info about who they are, where they live, where they go to school, etc.
Here's her tip for finding out what your kid may be up to or invlved with in the most popular teen chat forums:
"How to find your kid’s online blog
Your children value their independence and their privacy. But they may be opening themselves up online. More children than ever are using online journals (blogs) to share their lives.
In a perfect world, you could ask your teen if they keep a blog. He or she would answer honestly. But this isn’t always the case.
Some popular online journal sites include MySpace, Xanga and LiveJournal. These sites let each member use an alias. But many kids simply use their real names anyway. They open their personal lives and information to the Web. As a parent, you should know what's going on in your child's online world.
Most journal sites allow you to browse their members. But they tend to be stingy with their search features. If your children have journals, you still have a decent chance of finding them. Most are honest about personal information like name, age and location. Let's use MySpace as an example. They have a free search.
MySpace.com
First, go to www.myspace.com. Click on search from the menu bar. You'll be taken to a page with search options. Under "Find Someone You Know," you can simply enter your child's name. Then click Find. Most members post photos, so you should be able to easily spot your child in the search results.
Most children don't see a reason to lie about names if they're looking to make friends on the site. But if you don't get any results, you can try search for your child's e-mail address if you know it. Just go back to the "Find Someone You Know" section on the search page. For the "Select search by" option, select Email. Then enter the e-mail address and click Find.
LiveJournal.com
LiveJournal requires an account for searching. If you're not comfortable creating an account, you can still try searching the site through Google. I’ll tell you more about that in a moment.
To create an account at LiveJournal, click Welcome>>Create an Account from the menu bar. You'll need to enter your e-mail address and birthdate. You'll also need to enter a username and password of your choice. Finally, make sure that you choose "Free Account" so you won't be charged.
To search, go to http://www.livejournal.com. Click Search>>Advanced from the menu bar. Select your country, state and city. Under Journal Update Time, don't select anything. Under Age, enter your child's age into both boxes to search for the right age. Under Interest, I would leave it blank. Enter a word only if it's definitely a big part of your child's life. Under Has Friend, leave it blank. Then click the Search button.
Xanga.com
Xanga (http://www.xanga.com) offers searching to only paid members. You can search the site for free by trying a Google search of the site.
Facebook.com
Another site that has gained popularity is Facebook (www.facebook.com). Facebook's interactivity, including searching, is available only to students. An e-mail address ending with ".edu" is required to sign up or use the site. So there's not much you can look into if your child is using Facebook. I think it's important nevertheless to be aware of it. If you do happen to have a .edu e-mail address as a college alumnus, you should check out the site.
Of course, use Google
Then, of course, there's Google. Google can do pretty well searching only your child's first name and city. It can often outdo even a site's own search. You can search an individual site with the "site:" operator. For example, you can Google search MySpace by entering "site:myspace.com" Follow that phrase with search terms like age, location or interests.
If that’s not clear enough instructions for you, use Google’s Advanced Search page:
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
Enter your child’s information in the Find Results area. Then, under Domain, enter the Web site. For example, here you would type xanga.com
Google might be able to catch old journals. It caches (stores) pages that might not exist anymore. If one of your search results links doesn't work, try the cache. It's a link called "Cached" below each search result. That's handy for journals that have been recently lost or erased.
Worried about intruding in your child's privacy? Think about all the anonymous Internet surfers who do it without conscience. Shouldn't you know at least as much as those strangers? Make sure your child isn't giving away too much information, like addresses and phone numbers.
And the information you find can help you as a parent. It could tip you off to bad influences in your child's life. It's worth knowing if your teen is drinking, sexually active, or going through bouts of depression."
http://www.komando.com/
Yes I agree, it is a very bad place for kids. I have a profile on there because I am an artist/musician and I was shocked to find out that my 14 year old nieces were on there. Seems like there is no holds barred. Aside from the sexual degenerate stuff you have to deal with 16 year old Jihadist's
Which is it? Click or throw? Make up yer mind....
Runon sentence ping..
"And the information you find can help you as a parent."
All good points. However, there is another angle. That is the effect on our society of a web site that helps promote jihad.
The question is not a simple one. Free speech does need to be considered. If laws are not crafted carefully enough, we could find our own discussions about jihad on FR circumscribed.
Nonetheless, I think we do need to try to pass laws preventing web sites from acting as facilitators to connect children to the world of jihad.
Uh, is this where Van der Sloot and the Kalpoe brothers from Aruba hung out?
LOL! Ok I hit spell check before I posted and still ended up ridiculed.
We merely point out spelling errors and also examples of that poor writing stuff thing..
Thanks. I will take greater care in the future.
We also hijack threads every now and then.
I understand your concern but the fact of the matter is there are a lot worse places your kids could end up on the internet. Keep in mind, if you have young kids it is the parents responsibility to keep an eye on and control what they view on the internet.
Parents that aren't aware of what "myspace" is, certainly need to be, and keep their kids off the site.
On the surface, it is a teen cyber hangout, but there is porn easily accessible to teens on the site, and it is swarmed by child predators (that info via our local community police officer.)
In fact, at our last Neighborhood Crime Watch meeting, a policeman warned parents about myspace and said that they were running stings on the site to catch child predators and sexual offenders.
The profile links I clicked on were rather disturbing. I don't think they're the product of bored teenagers, because I don't think your average teenager understands Islam's terrorist beliefs enough to do elaborate profiles like that. That and a lot of friends on those lists are Middle Eastern. All those online journal sites are very sketchy, and I wouldn't let my kids have one (if I had kids). If they want a journal everyone can read, then they can write their journals on notepaper then photocopy it and hang it up all over school.
I HIGHLY recommend to any parents reading this thread who have children using their home computers to invest in a Linksys router that supports parental controls. You plug your router into your broadband box (DSL or cable) and then plug your computers into the router. It costs about $100 and the parental control subscription is about $50 per year.
It works with any computer using your home network (any OS) without installing software on the computer. It allows you to control all types of internet usage including web, chat, and email, and allows you to set various levels of access as well as time of day restrictions.
Afghans? So what? I have several that I've made, and they've never given anybody any trouble. The cats like to sleep on them, and they keep my feet warm.
If people in Jersey who have cats and cold feet want Afghans, where's the harm?
We of the Grammar Polizei have no sense of humor that we are aware of, Ma'am.
"Keep in mind, if you have young kids it is the parents responsibility to keep an eye on and control what they view on the internet."
You don't have to remind me for one second about what my responsiblities are as a parent. I was one of those "Mean Moms" who relished her role as "Gatekeeper" in her home. ;)
Our son got away with little. His dad is a computer engineer and there were thorough cleanings of our entire home network on a weekly basis while he was growing up.
He's 18 now, in college. Has his own laptop, his own internet service bills, etc. What he does from here on out is his own business, but since he's working on a degree in computers, I feel confident that he's savvy enough to know what he's getting into should he come across some of the stupidity that's out there.
My nephew owns the hottest "Final Fantasy" website around. The kid (he's 20) is raking in more cash than my BIL earns each year on advertising, alone.
To say that we're geeks is an understatement, LOL! :)
See my Post #18.
Afghan in Jersey
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