The Child Protection eNewsletter

New York Attorney General subpoenas Facebook…

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said his office has subpoenaed Facebook, accusing the social networking site of not keeping young users safe from sexual predators and not responding to user complaints. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/ In a letter accompanying a subpoena for documents, Cuomo said a preliminary review revealed defects in Facebook's safety controls and in its response to complaints. He said the shortcomings contrasted with assurances made by the company.

In recent weeks, N.Y. state investigators have gone undercover to test Facebook's safety controls and procedures, posing as underage users. The investigators were solicited by adult sexual predators and could access pornographic images and videos, Cuomo said.

Cuomo's subpoena came as part of a joint 50-state investigation into Facebook, News Corp’s MySpace.com Web site and other online social networks. Such sites have come under scrutiny over concerns they may fall short in protecting young users.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, North Carolina's Roy Cooper and Ohio's Marc Dann said they met with Facebook last week. "We are negotiating with Facebook — including a productive, face-to-face meeting with Facebook representatives last week in my Hartford office," Blumenthal said. "Facebook has a long way to go before we are satisfied." Blumenthal told Reuters in July that his office had learned of at least three convicted sex offenders who were on Facebook's Web site, adding that that number may be the "tip of the iceberg."

Facebook has seen a rapid expansion of users since it expanded beyond its origins as a college student network to include older users and high school students.

Cuomo's letter, which was addressed to Mark Zuckerman, the 23-year-old founder and chief executive of privately held Facebook, accused the site of failing to match its improvement in safety measures with its expansion ambitions.

"It appears that Facebook has not significantly altered its representations about safety and inappropriate content on the site," said Cuomo. "It does not have the right to represent that its site is safe and that it promptly responds to complaints when such statements are not accurate."

Separately on Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that Microsoft Corp was in talks to buy a minority stake in Facebook that could value the company at $10 billion or more in total.

Citing sources familiar with the matter, the Journal said Microsoft sought to buy up to 5 percent of Facebook for $300 million to $500 million. Read More

Case against McCanns continues to crumble…

The police case against Kate and Gerry McCann for killing their daughter appeared to be crumbling yesterday after a senior prosecutor said that Madeleine’s body must be found to secure a conviction. Read More The development came as the McCann family said that they expected to spend a year fighting to clear their names, and that they would rather Madeleine were found dead than be left in the “awful limbo” of not knowing her fate.

António Cluny, the president of the Portuguese public prosecutors’ service, said that it appeared that there was insufficient evidence that Madeline was killed by her parents. His comments come after an increasing number of reports in Portugal that samples taken from the McCanns’ apartment and hire car are inconclusive. Last week a judge said that police had failed to gather new evidence to justify reinterviewing the couple.

Four-year-old Madeleine McCann is said to have been spotted in Morocco. CBS News reports that even before their very public falling out with Portuguese police when they were named suspects in the disappearance of their own child, the McCanns had hired a private security firm to mount its own investigation. http://www.cbsnews.com/ The McCanns engaged a firm called National Risk Group which specializes in following up kidnapping. One of their jobs has reportedly been to keep track of the many reported sightings of the little girl.

Meanwhile, with Portuguese officials still tight-lipped on the case, word is emerging of a video that showed Maddie dining out just hours before she vanished, while a suspect is denying a published report that police told him they had eliminated him from suspicion. http://abcnews.go.com/

In other news… 

After receiving a graphic tape of a young girl being assaulted by an adult male, Nye County, Nevada police need help identifying both the victim and the man. http://www.fox5vegas.com/ "There's no other way to describe it," said Detective David Boruchowitz with the Nye County Sheriff's Office. "She's a victim that's used to being victimized." Police said the tape shows a little girl being abused and violated by an adult man. "It's as awful as you can imagine," Boruchowitz said. "It's explicit and just about the worst you can imagine."

The body of the 3-year-old girl who has been missing since Friday was discovered Monday afternoon in a trash bag dumped in a ravine at Lakewood Gulch Park. http://www.thedenverchannel.com/ The discovery ends what has been a heartbreaking four-day search through Denver's Capitol Hill neighborhood, where police made a gruesome plea to the public to look through their Dumpsters and outdoor trash bins for the body of Niveah Gallegos. Niveah's mother, Miriam Gallegos, 20, had initially claimed her daughter had been kidnapped. But when questioned about it, she broke down and admitted to police that her 3-year-old was dead and stuffed in two plastic bags, according to arrest affidavits. Gallegos is now being held on suspicion of being an accessory to the slaying and on suspicion of filing a false report. Her boyfriend, Angel Ray Montoya, is being held on charges of first-degree murder. Montoya is a registered sex offender and has been convicted of child abuse and indecent exposure to minors and adults.

A government-run human rights commission accused soldiers of rape and torture and recommended the army be pulled out of Mexico's nationwide drug war. http://www.cnn.com/ The report by the National Human Rights Commission is the first official document to back up long-standing allegations of human rights abuses by soldiers ordered by President Felipe Calderon to retake large swaths of territory controlled by powerful drug cartels.

Bishop Salvatore Cordileone, Auxiliary Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of San Diego had an interesting op-ed piece in the San Diego Union-Tribune. http://www.signonsandiego.com/ In it, BishopCordileone notes that “with regard to prevalence, the study demonstrated that a total of roughly 4 percent of all priests and deacons serving during these 52 years were accused of sexual abuse of minors, with 10,667 people making allegations.”

A dentist who fled before he was sentenced four years ago for raping a 15-year-old patient was returned to Maryland on Friday, five months after his arrest in Mexico. Read More David Fuster, 51, was taken to Baltimore after the extradition proceedings, Montgomery County Sheriff Raymond Kight said. He was taken to Montgomery County [jail] and will remain in custody. Fuster had been out on $100,000 bail after his conviction in 2003, but when he missed two court dates, authorities discovered he had disappeared with his family and minivan. An arrest warrant was issued and bond was revoked.

A photograph by a controversial American artist which is part of Sir Elton John's private collection has been seized by police from a gallery on suspicion it may have breached child pornography laws. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ The image, which featured two young girls one of whom was sitting down with her legs wide apart, was taken by the renowned photographer Nan Goldin. The shot, from the artist's Thanksgiving series, was to be exhibited at the Baltic Modern Art gallery, Tyneside, this week along with some of her other work. But the day before it was due to be viewed by the public, police came and removed the image over fears that it might be breaking the law.

A former teacher was charged with having sex with a teenage boy, the third teacher in the same county accused of such crimes in the past year and a half. http://abcnews.go.com/ Karen Robbins, 49, was arrested over the weekend and charged with three counts each of criminal sexual conduct with a minor and committing a lewd act on a child. The sex occurred with a 15-year-old in her car and twice at her home between September and November 2005, according to arrest warrants. Police said they began investigating after school officials turned over letters in July found at Bell Street Middle School, where Robbins worked during the 2006-2007 school year. Earlier this month, Allena Ward, also a former Bell Street Middle teacher, pleaded guilty to having sex with five teenage boys, some of them students where she taught. Read More Wendie Ann Schweikert, a former elementary school teacher in Laurens County, was sentenced in June to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to having sex with an 11-year-old student. Read More

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