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Perverts on the Loose, Or Just Fox News Unleashed?
Filed under: News, In The News, Weird But True, New In Pop Culture
Is NAMBLA really all over Facebook? Credit: Romeo Gacad, AFP/Getty Images
Or not.
It depends on how you do the math.
Fox News came out with a story that the network's investigators did a five-second search of Facebook on Sept. 23 and uncovered "dozens of pages" devoted to the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) and "hundreds of links" to the organization.
Wow! Dozens of pages? Hundreds of links? Really?
No, not really. Facebook officials tell CBS News that Fox, when pressed, provided links to four or five groups (none of which had more than 15 to 25 members each). CBS News reports the links were immediately disabled and the accounts were canceled.
This is a far cry from the first Fox News report that made Facebook sound like Perv Central when it announced "pedophiles find a home for social networking."
Hemanshu Nigam, co-chairman of President Barack Obama's Online Safety Technology Working Group, absolutely fumed about the issue.
"This is just the downright filthiest of society setting up on Facebook in a public way, and the question is, 'Why is Facebook allowing this?' " he told Fox.
CBS News reveals Nigam used to work as chief security officer for MySpace, Facebook's biggest competitor, something Fox News did not report.
Facebook explicitly prohibits posting content that advocates child exploitation.
"I will say that Facebook is very aggressive about booting sex offenders off their site," Steve Rambam, director of the investigative agency Pallorium, tells CBS News.
Of course, that doesn't stop pedophiles from trying.
Facebook officials tell CBS user feedback helps them flag predators. They also have reportedly started an automated system to weed out undesirables.
"This is something we need to be prepared for -- content put up again after we have it taken down," a spokesman for Facebook tells CBS. "It's a constant effort."
NAMBLA spokesman Arnold Schoen lashed out at Fox the day after the story was posted.
"If you really investigated, you would learn that actually we have never set up any pages on Facebook," he told the network. "And we certainly haven't ever used Facebook to connect with our members, to find or exchange photos, to 'hone predatory behavior' or to 'identify, target and reel in child victims.' This is a wild fantasy boogeyman Fox News is holding up for their fans."
Fox News posted his comment in an update to the story, but as of Sept. 30, offered no corrections or clarifications to its original report.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
10-01-2010 @ 9:41PM
Elijah said......and you know what? You're absolutely kidding yourselves if you think it's not happening. Oh, it may not be obvious, but NAMBLA and every other contortion of pedophilia has got their eyes peeled for whatever they can get... on facebook, on myspace or wherever else they can find children to prey upon.
Who cares if the evil 'Fox' reports it? So what. They're already demonized. Once Fox says something, now it's automatically laughed at. But, with that said, Fox has nothing to do with the reality here. Facebook is just as good a place as any for pedophiles to pretend they're just 'good 'ol boys'. Even when they set up a ring of perverts and call themselves something official and 'free-rights-ish' like NAMBLA.
NAMBLA. Wow... you are an entirely new kind of sick.
Reply
10-01-2010 @ 9:39PM
Mom1 said...DISLIKE!!!!
I really don't need the politics on my parent pages! I don't trust CBS News anymore than any other news. Everyone has an angle ... including, apparently, ParentDish. From this article, ParentDish is not a FOX News follower but does watch CBS.
For the record, 4-5 fan sites with 15-25 followers = 60-125 user pages = 5-10 DOZEN pages. If every user page had 2-4 links to something NAMBLA related, it would be hundreds since, anything over 199, make hundred more than one. Technically, FOX was right whether Facebook wants to admit it or not.
Goodbye, ParentDish.
Reply
10-02-2010 @ 6:36PM
Dan said...Oh wow, and CBS never exaggerated a story? Can you say, "Dan Rather"?
Reply
10-04-2010 @ 12:54AM
mom2 said...I agree that NAMBLA is a group needing close supervision, but so do our children! When my daughter was younger, the computer was not hidden away in her bedroom, but in a common area, & I knew every password & site she visited. That may sound a little extreme, but her being on the computer was a privlige and not a right! If we as parents spent as much time checking out what our kids are up to and less time on Farmville or whatever the fad is now, maybe we could block a lot of this. We need to talk to our children. It is our duty as parents to protect our kids!!
Reply
10-04-2010 @ 4:44PM
Alicia said...Um....teach your kids to only accept people they talk to as friends and lock down their profiles so only their friends can see them. It may not be foolproof, but it'll keep the predators at bay. Also, if your kid is under 16 and is on facebook, you should be too, even if you're not friends with them. The biggest issue is when a 12 year old pretends to be 18. I've seen little cousins do it and it terrifies me, because at 20, I know how to fend off spambots and strangers, at 12, they don't and everything online is exciting and "adult." Not good.
Reply
10-04-2010 @ 10:50PM
Susiatnaj said...Thank for your support to me
Reply
10-05-2010 @ 5:46AM
Susiatnaj said...Thank for your support
Reply
10-05-2010 @ 7:48AM
Susiatnaj said...I will change that content
Reply