Online Safety

[DodiaFae]

I wanted to get a discussion going about online safety issues for a while, but a few things have come up recently that have lit the fire under my butt to sit down at the computer and get it done.

Like every other network, people come and go here. One of our former Admins sent out an email about this subject at one point, and I think that it may have scared some members off from posting anything at all. That was not the intent of that email, or the intent of this discussion.

The sad fact of the matter is that child abuse awareness sites will attract child predators now and then. I don't say this to frighten anyone away, or to scare anyone into not contributing or participating in discussions or groups. It's just the way they operate.

You can ask Sue how often they attempt to comment on her site, Warriors For Innocence. You could ask Rob how often they comment on his child abuse blog posts at Red Alerts, how many pedophiles post on his articles about pedophiles (usually tagged under Filthy Degenerates), such as this one. While Sue moderates comments to her site to keep the predators' negativity from infecting it (any more than is obviously necessary, given the subject matter), Rob lets them post their comments so the world can see just how sick and delusional they are.

They want to see what we're up to, just as we check up on them and what they're up to (see links for Perverted Justice and Wikisposure on the main page.)

We do have some measures in place to keep track of these people, such as trackers on the site. Please keep in mind and be assured that these trackers are not used to keep tabs on every member, only those that give us cause to keep an eye on them (and percentage-wise, it's not that many). We also use it to see how people navigate to PACA. This is one of the ways in which we know that predators do pop in now and then.

For example, I found this Google search used to navigate to us this morning. For those of you who aren't aware of the term "boylove", it's a pedophile term that some of them use to describe what they do. They would prefer that people call them "child lovers" than what they truly are, which are child rapists. A "Boy Lover" (or BL) is an adult who is sexually attracted to boys. A "Girl Lover" (or GL) is an adult who is sexually attracted to girls. So anyone who is doing a search on one of those phrases is most likely a child predator.

We've seen that people surf into PACA using searches on Google, Yahoo, and Ning using phrases like the one above, or "child porn", "child porno", "kiddie porn", and "child love", just to name a few. When we see these searches, we do pay attention to who joins the network from the area in which those searches were performed around the time the search was performed, and we keep track of them to ensure that they are safe to have on the network.

We have also enacted other safety precautions on the site, such as only allowing a limited number of trusted adults into the PACA Teens group for moderation purposes. PACA membership is currently set to "moderated" so that we can make sure that we aren't inundated with spammers, etc.

That being said, everyone should be aware of safety precautions that they should take for themselves, no matter what online community they join. Ning has posted some Safety Tips for all their members to read:

We are committed to continuing to ensure the Ning platform remains safe and fun for everyone who uses Ning to create and participate in their social networks. An important aspect of this commitment is the protection of our members' privacy and the education of parents on how to most effectively ensure that their kids are staying safe online. As part of this, we are dedicated to promoting digital citizenship on the part of our members: civil, ethical, and mindful participation in their social networks on Ning.

We have implemented many safety and privacy controls on Ning as part of our goal to enable people to protect their privacy and that of fellow members.

Children younger than 13 years of age aren't permitted to use the Ning platform. In addition, parents of children 13 years and older should consider whether their children should be supervised during their use of the Ning platform.

This section has several sub-categories:
1. General Safety Tips
2. Safety Tips for Teens
3. Safety Tips for Parents
4. Safety Settings for Members
5. Safety Settings for Network Creators
6. Safety Resources
7. Safety FAQs

I want to encourage everyone to read the resources above, particularly the resources in the "Safety Resources" link. Please don't be afraid to participate in discussions, join and participate in groups, etc., just be aware of what personal information you are putting "out there".

Please feel free to post any questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions to this discussion, or to email me directly.

Blessings,
~ DodiaFae

[DodiaFae]

Just to let everyone know how rife Ning is with this problem, I just got another hit via this Ning search.
For those who don't know what a "voyeur" is, Dictionary.com had this to say (among other things):
voy·eur (voi-yûr')
n.
1. A person who derives sexual gratification from observing the naked bodies or sexual acts of others, especially from a secret vantage point.
2. An obsessive observer of sordid or sensational subjects.
Main Entry: voy·eur
Pronunciation: vwä-'yr, voi-'r
Function: noun
: one obtaining sexual gratification from seeing sex organs and sexual acts; broadly : one who habitually seeks sexual stimulation by visual means

Now, think about what someone searching for that term, followed by "child" is looking for...

As I said, I'm not making everyone aware of this to scare anyone away from PACA (or Ning, or any child abuse awareness site), I just want everyone to have a clear idea of what levels these people will stoop to in order to get what they want, and that they do troll any child abuse awareness and prevention site they come across (most of which will show up in searches like the one above, due to the terminology that most such sites will try to make people aware of, as well as the general tags such as "child", "abuse", and "pornography" used to tag many of the discussion topics.)

I also want to assure everyone that we do keep track of any and all information we get from trackers in these instances for future reference. We do this to keep our members safe in case these people attempt to join the network in the near future, as well as to report them to LE in the hopes that they can help to protect other children.

I guess I'm hoping that this information makes everyone else as angry as it makes me that these people are so blatant and unafraid to perform these searches. I'm also hoping that it will serve as a wake-up call to everyone about posting personal information anywhere online that could assist anyone in tracking you, such as your real name and your exact location together, pictures of your kids and their activities, etc. A determined individual can find out just about anything they need with relatively few key pieces of information.