Wired News: How to Catch a MySpace Creep
Six months ago, Wired News launched an investigation of MySpace with the goal of comparing the company's 120 million user profiles against public sex offender registries to see how many matches it could find.
Wired News Senior Editor Kevin Poulsen wrote a software program that compared MySpace profiles against public sex offender registries. His work found a convicted sex offender sending sexually charged messages to a teen on MySpace. He tipped off the police, who made an arrest based primarily on his reporting.
This is a fantastic example of how technology can be used to help enhance journalism.
You can read the story here.
You can also read about how he did it, and even download the code he used, here.
Oct 22, 2006 | E-MAIL | SAVE | PRINT | PERMALINK | DISCUSS(3)
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3 comments about 'Wired News: How to Catch a MySpace Creep'I did see this article, totally shocking! Really drives home how important it is for parents to be using and understanding technology so they can talk to their kids about it and understand how best to keep them safe whether it is a stern conversation, or limiting/supervising computer time, etc. Also shows the importance of sites like CyberTipline where you can report these sickos when you come across them online - I have it bookmarked and use it often!
Posted by Catch Up Lady at October 23, 2006 4:59 PM
lol
Posted by mko at November 7, 2006 2:32 PM
w@t up my m!99@
Posted by kevin at November 16, 2006 12:06 AM
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