Study: Enforcement Spurs Rise In Web Sex Arrests 
Associated Press
March 31, 2009

More people have been arrested in recent years for sexually soliciting youths online, but the sharp increase comes from better enforcement, and the Internet remains a relatively safe social environment, researchers said in a new study.  In a report to be released Tuesday, the researchers saw a nearly fivefold jump in arrests for soliciting undercover investigators who posed as juveniles — to 3,100 in 2006, from 644 in 2000, the last time the study was conducted.

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Formal Complaint Against Google Street View
Wales Online
March 25, 2009

While Google’s new mapping service may allow you stroll down a road at the click of a button, privacy campaigners have made a formal complaint about it.  Privacy International has lodged their concerns with the Information Commissioner after claims that a number of people are identifiable through the Street View service.  But a Google spokeswoman insisted that the necessary safeguards to protect people’s privacy “work effectively” – and that they had received “hundreds” rather than “thousands” of complaints.

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Complaint Urges Shutting Down Google’s Street View U.K. 
Digital Trends
March 24, 2009

There’s been an official complaint to the Information Commissioner about Google’s UK Street View, urging closing it down until everything is resolved.  It’s just last Thursday that Google took its UK Street View live, and yesterday came an official complaint by Privacy International (PI) to the Information Commissioner (ICO) about the service, regarding the “clear embarrassment and damage” it has caused to some Britons. Privacy International cited more than 200 reports it had received from people who were able to identify themselves in the pictures, in spite of Google’s assurances that faces and license plates would be blurred.

 
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Google Red-Faced Over Street View Of Naked Toddler
New Zealand Herald
March 23, 2009

 
Google was forced to remove photographs of naked children from its Street View service last night as a row over internet privacy escalated into one about public safety.  The Independent on Sunday alerted the internet search giant after finding images of the toddlers, playing at a family summer picnic in a garden square in north London, captured permanently on the revolutionary mapping system.

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A Push To Strengthen Internet-Safety Laws 
Philadelphia, Inquirer
March 23, 2009

 
Sex offenders would be forced to provide their Internet screen names to New Jersey officials under a package of bills moving through the Legislature.

 
The bills, part of Attorney General Anne Milgram’s Internet-safety initiative, also aim to strengthen the state’s “luring and enticing” laws.  Milgram said her office “combats Internet threats by employing an aggressive, multipronged approach ranging from criminal and civil investigations to cooperative efforts with networking sites and service providers to education initiatives aimed at teachers, school administrators, parents and students.”

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Google Street View Images Removed After Privacy Complaints
The Scotsman
March 20, 2009

SCORES of pictures were removed from Google’s controversial new mapping application today after a glut of privacy complaints.
Street View, launched in the UK yesterday, allows users to access 360-degree views of roads and homes in 25 cities.

The database, which includes photographs of millions of residential addresses, people and cars, has led to concerns about privacy infringement, forcing Google to remove offending pictures.
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Dating 2.0
By Stacie D. Rumenap
GOPUSA.com 
March 17, 2009

 
On weekend get-aways with my college girlfriends, we often look back and laugh at our fashion missteps and dating dramas. Our wardrobe back then was hardly stylish, unless you consider the combination of Docksiders, pegged jeans and baggy sweaters a good choice. We had big hair, wore little make-up–except, of course, on those nights we adorned bright blue and green eye shadow for sorority mixers–and giggled like, well, the schoolgirls we were.

These days, however, even my most embarrassing moments and questionable style choices seem practically quaint. Visit any college campus today and you will find eighteen-year-olds who could pass for late twenty-somethings any day. Enter a high school and it is not much better. Stiletto heels, low-rise jeans and designer bags are today’s uniform for young women, starting at increasingly younger ages. And with these grown-up outfits also come grown-up behaviors.
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Playstation Sex Offender 
Channel 31, Hunsville, AL
March 18, 2009
Police say some child predators are moving off the internet and onto playstations and Xboxes.  The game consoles can link to one another and let friends, or strangers play just about any video game with each other.   A 24-year old Kentucky man was arrested and accused of soliciting and sharing nude pictures of an 11 year old girl using playstation’s online servers.

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Lawmakers Step Up Fight Against On-Line Predators 
WJZ-TV Baltimore
March 18, 2009

Several recent high-profile on-line predator cases have lawmakers pushing for tougher laws to protect children. John Joseph Kovach Jr., 52, admitted to police he was sexually attracted to little girls.

Police arrested him at Mater Amoris Montessori School.

Kovach also worked as a coach at Towson University. Investigators found child porn at his home. Parents are stunned.

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3 To Watch: State Should Pass These Crime Bills Quickly 
Montgomery Advertiser
March 18, 2009
Three bills are making their way through the Alabama House and Senate, and all three need to be placed on the fast track.  One of the bills strengthens laws concern­ing online child predators, another toughens state law for suspects who choose to flee from police, and the third would prevent perpetra­tors of crime from profiting from the notorie­ty stemming from those crimes.

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