The Child Protection eNewsletter

MySpace announces new protections…
MySpace.com is planning new restrictions on how adults may contact its younger users in response to growing concerns about the safety of teenagers who frequent the popular online social networking site. http://www.cbsnews.com Under the changes, announced Wednesday and taking effect next week, MySpace users who are 18 or over could no longer request to be on a 14- or 15-year-old's friends' list unless they already know either the youth's e-mail address or full name. "Even with the new system, there are no restrictions on people who lie about their ages," says CBSNews.com Technology Analyst Larry Magid. "If an adult says they're 16, they can request to be a friend of a 14- or 15-year-old."

In related news, a 14-year-old girl who says she was sexually assaulted by another user of MySpace.com sued the social networking Web site Monday for failing to adequately protect underage members. http://hosted.ap.org This after authorities filed a runaway juvenile petition against a Michigan teenager who flew to the Middle East to be with a man she met on MySpace. http://hosted.ap.org U. S. officials in Jordan intercepted the 16-year-old before she reached her intended destination. vol4_iss26

Online safety has become a primary concern as overall violence rates have fallen. http://www.cbsnews.com Almost one in five young Internet users will receive an unwanted sexual solicitation, according to the U.S. Department of Justice; nearly half the time, the harasser is another teen. One in 33 teens will receive an aggressive invitation to meet the solicitor. Such statistics have resulted in greater online safeguards by parents http://abcnews.go.com as predators watch kids, http://www.cbsnews.com and law enforcement agencies watch predators. The Attorney General of Pennsylvania just announced that his office alone has arrested 50 online predators in the last 18 months. http://www.wgal.com

Trafficking reports…
A House subcommittee heard testimony from Ambassador John Miller, head of the State Department's human trafficking office, concerning the call for Germany to control trafficking around the World Cup, http://www.cbsnews.com following the release of the 2006 Trafficking in Persons Report by the U. S. State Department. vol4_iss25

Microsoft Corp. has awarded over $1 million in grants to organizations in six Asian countries to provide computer skills in a bid to protect people most vulnerable to human trafficking, the software giant said Thursday. http://public.findlaw.com

Federal agents are searching for a former Sikh priest named in a human trafficking indictment this month and who is believed to be with a teenage girl recently smuggled into the United States from India. http://public.findlaw.com

In other news...
A blitz by federal agents during the last three weeks captured nearly 2,100 illegal immigrants across the country in raids targeting child molesters, violent gang members and past deportees who re-entered the country. 140 convicted molesters were arrested. http://abcnews.go.com

Two teenage boys have been charged with assault in Michigan in the school bus beating of a 10-year-old that was recorded by a surveillance camera. http://hosted.ap.org

The DNA of an aborted fetus will be tested by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation to determine the identity of the alleged rapist of a 14-year-old girl. Police say they don’t know the last name of the boy, who is thought to be about 16. The director of the abortion clinic says she has no problem with police taking the fetus, particularly if it helps catch a rapist. http://www.wgal.com


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