Internet Dangers

January 6, 2005 6:53 AM

Can anyone point me to real-world examples (i.e. news articles) of children/teenagers who have experienced Internet-related stalking/kindapping/harassment?
posted by jeremias to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (4 answers total)

I don't recall the age of the victim, and don't have time to scan the article just now, but anyone looking at this issue should consider A Rape in Cyberspace essential reading, if you've not seen it already.
posted by nthdegx at 7:17 AM on January 6, 2005

This page (for an anti-spyware site) lists several "news clippings" regarding Internet predators/kidnapping of children. You should be able to verify these through separate searches of local newspapers and television station sites. The Pittsburgh story I remember distictly, as I had just moved from Pgh to DC at that time, and the kidnapper had taken a teenager from Pittsburgh to the DC area.
posted by arco at 8:18 AM on January 6, 2005

You might want to mine the site of Perry Aftab. She's the lawyer that was (allegedly) trying to strongarm the owner of katie.com into giving up her domain name. She's big into protecting kids from online predators.
posted by pookzilla at 8:44 AM on January 6, 2005

I hope this isn't for child-scaring purposes. "Everyone you meet on the internet is an evil kidnapper!" is pretty silly.

Also, check out www.perverted-justice.com for some pretty yucky IM conversations from net perverts. I worked for the site for quite some time (I won't reveal my nickname here) posing as a young girl, and had to quit because I was getting traumatized.
posted by u.n. owen at 3:09 PM on January 6, 2005