MySpace Mania

So it appears these days you can be sexual predator and no one cares. But if you use MySpace to do it you can make the 11 o’clock “news”.

All this MySpace crap junk on TV makes it sound as if as long as you can keep your kids away from MySpace they’re a-okay. That’s like saying if you keep your kids away from the one hoodlum that you know about they won’t get into trouble (and you’re so busy watching for that you’re missing the rest). Teach them some common sense and keep an eye on them. I’m not saying it’ll fix everything, but it’s a lot more sense than this MySpace sewage that’s on the air all the time.

Look at these pre-MySpace Rochester U and RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) Sexual Assault Statistics.

Every two and a half minutes, somewhere in America, someone is sexually assaulted.

One in six American women has been the victim of an attempted or completed rape, and 10% of sexual assault victims are men.

About 44% of rape victims are under age 18, and 80% are under age 30.

And the really amazing part is that “Since 1993, rape/sexual assault has fallen by over 64%”, imagine how high the numbers were previously. (These stats are from the RAINN site)

I’m sorry I’ve gone on a rant here. I just started with being annoyed at the news covering MySpace from a new angle every day. But once I started looking things up I got on a roll (or maybe it’s a soapbox).

The problem is not the Internet. The problem is people. And according to the Rochester statistics rape appears to be more prevalent in the US, 13 time higher than England (4 times that in Germany and 20 times that of Japan). Of course people are using the Internet for this, they’re using it for everything (good and evil) these days.

All these numbers vary slightly from report to report but even if you decreased the numbers by a factor of ten (or even 100) it’s still obscene what happens in the US or the world. And no matter what the news tells you it’s not the fault of the Internet or even MySpace.

Contrary to the belief that rapists are hiding in the bushes or in the shadows of the parking garage, almost two-thirds of all rapes were committed by someone who is known to the victim. 67% of sexual assaults were perpetrated by a non-stranger – 47% of perpetrators were a friend or acquaintance of the victim, 17% were an intimate and 3% were another relative.
National Crime Victimization Survey, 2004

In the above mentioned 12 page “2004 National Crime Victimization Survey” from the Bureau of Justice Statistics I was curious to how much they attributed to the Internet. I was pretty surprised that they don’t mention the ‘net even once. Going to Bureau of Justice Statistics web site I was surprised how much they also didn’t mention the Internet.