If you want to make it sound like a dire problem, you'll have to try harder than this:
Staton cited statistics on dozens of teens who have been molested - or murdered, in some instances - by people they met through MySpace.com, according to law enforcement officials.
Dozens, eh? Let's up that to 100 teens instead of a few dozen, and let's say that there are only 2.5M MySpace users (don't laugh, I'm be very generous to law enforcement and the politician who wants this bill). That means only 0.004% of MySpace users have been subjected to sexual abuse as a direct result of their meeting a predator on MySpace and going to meet them in person.
Sounds pretty... tame... considering how large the number of users is.
There will always be idiots in the herd. These are, for example, the teenage girls who will always insist that they are smart and couldn't possibly be making a mistake by hooking up with an older man who has a singular obsession with teenage girls.
Dozens? Heh, I bet more kids are molested everyday at school in an area like Fairfax at school by their teachers than the ones who got hurt by their mistakes on MySpace...
Staton said the bill does not tell the companies exactly how to ensure that minors don’t log on without parental permission. The companies can figure that out on their own, he said.
“They can find a way to do this,†Staton said. “That’s my challenge to them.â€ÂÂÂÂ
And I'll be blunt. People like this are the reason I believe in ending universal suffrage and ability to run for office. He doesn't even have a reason to believe that this is even technically possible for them to accomplish without shutting down their service, but hey, that's their problem, right? What's next? Cars that won't turn on if a minor without a learner's permit or a driver's license gets in behind the wheel?
Thought you might be interested in this article.
Says 100 million separate accounts. Obviously there are duplicates and spam but I would think it would be safe to say some 25 million actual accounts.
Yeah, that doesn't surprise me. I think I saw that stat a while ago. I low balled the stat in order to make it patently obvious that even with only a small base of users that wringing your hands over a few dozen cases is absurd. It's one of the safest "places" for young people if you think about it. With stats like those, the odds of your teens getting in trouble are actually much lower than they would be at some place like a mall.
I thought of the same example you did. What next, a bill banning public schools?!? Hey, that may not be a bad idea...
Staton cited statistics on dozens of teens who have been molested - or murdered, in some instances - by people they met through MySpace.com, according to law enforcement officials.
In other words, "we have no evidence that this has actually happened, but it sounds possible".
Children could meet their molesters in a safe comfortable environment, like their church, school, home, or their part-time jobs. Gee, does that leave anywhere else?
This also completely ignores the desire of the "children" to intentionally hook up with an older man to have sex.
You are jumping to a conclusion that this guy can use math. Or would even want to.
Don't be reasonable, but make it sound shocking.
That's what works for the media.
And Roci makes a great point. Unfortunately that would make those who support Staton's point think 'pedophilia'.
Yeah, Roland. The problem is that these sorts of issues are nowhere near as clear-cut as they're often made out to be. Roci is right for pointing out that a lot of these "children" actively seek out older men and women because they're perceived as being better sexual partners than their peers. I've known girls who have done that and didn't regret it. Like a 13 year old who had no problem with having sex with guys who were 18, back when I was in high school (that incident was like... 9 to 10 years ago).