Comments on: Mail http://www.mailwatch.co.uk/2010/03/09/mail-621/ Watching the Daily Mail Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:38:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 By: TonyB http://www.mailwatch.co.uk/2010/03/09/mail-621/comment-page-1/#comment-227942 TonyB Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:33:26 +0000 http://www.mailwatch.co.uk/?p=4821#comment-227942 From the Independent web site "... in yesterday’s newspaper the Mail carried an apology on page 4 which admitted that, when Williams-Thomas conducted his experiment he had not been using Facebook at all, but an entirely different and so far unspecified social networking site. “In an article by a criminologist yesterday we wrongly stated that he had conducted an experiment into social networking sites by posing as a 14-year-old girl on Facebook with the result that he quickly attracted sexually motivated messages,” said the apology. “In fact he had used a different social networking site for this exercise. We are happy to set the record straight.” http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/facebook-considers-legal-action-against-daily-mail-over-underage-sex-claims-1919747.html From the Independent web site

“… in yesterday’s newspaper the Mail carried an apology on page 4 which admitted that, when Williams-Thomas conducted his experiment he had not been using Facebook at all, but an entirely different and so far unspecified social networking site. “In an article by a criminologist yesterday we wrongly stated that he had conducted an experiment into social networking sites by posing as a 14-year-old girl on Facebook with the result that he quickly attracted sexually motivated messages,” said the apology. “In fact he had used a different social networking site for this exercise. We are happy to set the record straight.”

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/facebook-considers-legal-action-against-daily-mail-over-underage-sex-claims-1919747.html

]]> By: the_voice_of_reason http://www.mailwatch.co.uk/2010/03/09/mail-621/comment-page-1/#comment-227725 the_voice_of_reason Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:09:59 +0000 http://www.mailwatch.co.uk/?p=4821#comment-227725 This kind of hysteria, blaming the contact medium for the actions of a violent misogynist, chooses to ignore the uncomfortable fact that predatory offenders have been able to lure children and naive youngsters for centuries. Why does the DM think the myth of the Pied Piper of Hamelin is still so resonant? Did Ian Brady and Myra Hindley need Facebook/teh Internets to abduct and kill children? The fact is, there have always been predatory adults and naive children. Presumably the parents of he victim in this case either didn't know about her plans, or knew of them and were happy for her to be picked up by the "father" of a teenager they had never met or spoken to. I do not know what they did, and have no intention of speculating. The fact remains that the overwhelming majority of Facebbok users are who they say are, and are not online planning to rape and strangle your children This kind of hysteria, blaming the contact medium for the actions of a violent misogynist, chooses to ignore the uncomfortable fact that predatory offenders have been able to lure children and naive youngsters for centuries. Why does the DM think the myth of the Pied Piper of Hamelin is still so resonant? Did Ian Brady and Myra Hindley need Facebook/teh Internets to abduct and kill children?

The fact is, there have always been predatory adults and naive children. Presumably the parents of he victim in this case either didn’t know about her plans, or knew of them and were happy for her to be picked up by the “father” of a teenager they had never met or spoken to. I do not know what they did, and have no intention of speculating. The fact remains that the overwhelming majority of Facebbok users are who they say are, and are not online planning to rape and strangle your children

]]>