Writing on Adotas, Pesach Lattin describes how he spent some time on MySpace and within minutes was able to find sexually related forum discussions between grownups and teenagers. Lattin writes, “MySpace is a buffet for any pervert looking for easy targets” and outlines how easily it is for anyone to access and partake in explicit activity on the site. Doing some digging Lattin found a group called Lesbian Passion in which 14 year old members were listed right next to 55 year olds and some discussion centered on which members have had sex with each other. He found other forums where adults and children were talking about having sex with each other in supposedly private but easily accessible forums. Lattin also found a public forum called “Bears” in which members were discussing having sex with young boys accompanied by photos, some of which were nude.
Now there’s nothing wrong with sexual content, nothing wrong with talking about sex and nothing wrong with having sex but when any of these cross the under 18/over 18 line, people start to get concerned. We’re sure MySpace nor any other similar group knowingly makes it easy for adults to mingle with under 18’s but it happens and it’s rampant. AOL was doing it a long time ago. Most of the activity is consensual but as was recently reported in the news, sometimes it’s not. The last thing we want is for right wing religious groups to lobby government to force these communities to close. However, advertisers should be very aware of what they are spending their money on and what that money supports.
