Ottawa Sun

By Steve Tilley

July 28, 2008

From desktop computers to mobile phones, Google Maps is one of the slickest and most useful online navigation tools available. But an American watchdog group is worried that Google’s nifty technology could be used by cyber-perverts to scope out neighbourhoods where kids live.

“We wanted to start looking into this issue before we hear of someone going onto the site and using it to abduct a child or rape a child or murder a child,” said Stop Child Predators executive director Stacie Rumenap during a media conference call last week.

VIRTUAL TOURS

The group feels Google Maps’ Street View feature, which allows Web surfers to take detailed virtual tours of dozens of U.S. cities, could allow predators to study the location and layout of playgrounds, parks and even homes where kids live.

The feature isn’t yet available on maps of Canada, although Google has plans to add Street View to its maps of Canada’s 10 largest cities.

“This is not an attack on Google, this is one piece of technology … that unfortunately can be misused,” Rumenap said. Her group has set up the website StopInternetPredators.org to address their concerns, calling on parents to bar Google from their neighbourhoods

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