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Apr 11, 2006 11:20 pm US/Eastern
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MySpace.com Issues Online Predator Warnings
by Mike Hellgren
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
With increasing reports of child sex abuse sparked by online relationships on popular teen websites such as MySpace.com, a new marketing campaign has been created to help curb the problem.
MySpace.com, a web giant with a database of over 70-million members, is behind the television commercial campaign. The goal is to warn members of the potential dangers that could come from starting online relationships with people they've never met.
"I've heard some stories of people who thought they were friends with a 20-year-old named John and it was a 50-year-old named Frank," says MySpace member Cat Iarrison.
One such relationship turned deadly for a Hampden woman. Police say 27-year-old Josie Brown was killed late last year after arranging a date through MySpace with John Gaumer, a UMBC student at the time. He is charged with her murder after allegedly pushing her over a guardrail off the beltway and beating her with a blunt object.
Brown's case is one in a series of crimes with links to the Internet in or near Maryland. The murders of Michael and Cathryn Borden in Lititz, Pennsylvania gained national attention when the victims' 14-year-old daughter used MySpace to talk with 18-year-old David Ludwig, the charged gunman in the shooting.
Last week, Queen Anne's County police arrested Christopher Tribbitt, a teacher at Centreville Middle School. Police say Tribbitt molested a girl for two years, starting when she was just twelve. He was arrested after an Internet chat with an undercover officer, who was posing as the teen.
And the arrest of 55-year-old Homeland Security Deputy Press Secretary Brian Doyle shocked the nation after he was caught chatting to a detective also posing as a teenager online.
The MySpace.com campaign to stop such acts uses the slogan, "Don't believe the type." It reminds viewers that one in five children have been sexually solicited online.
"What you don't do online is give out your home address, your real phone number, your bank account, and this doesn't matter if you're a kid or if you're an adult," says Michael Miller, Chief Content Officer of PC Magazine.
(© MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)