AOL for years now (well since their existence back in 1985 when they were called Quantum Computer Services and then changed the name to America Online, Inc. in 1991) has claimed to be the "safe haven" for kids, a place where parents can breathe easy when it comes to their little ones surfing, chatting and e-mailing. AOL makes endless advertising campaigns about their Parental Control system where a parent can lockout certain online areas, even restrict IMs, chat rooms, message boards, websites, e-mail and online usage time. AOL stands proudly by their TOS (Terms Of Service) agreement/policy and uses "volunteers" to help patrol/monitor chat rooms and message boards. They even give their members the oh so powerful (sarcastic) "Notify" button on their IMs and chat rooms. That way if someone sends you a bad message, you can report their behavior right to the oh so helpful (more sarcasm) AOL staff. Then what happens? Well if you are lucky you get a nice canned, automated e-mail response bounced to you from one of AOL's e-mail servers. They tell you they are reviewing your complaint and the appropriate action will be taken. Yeah right. Don't expect it to even be read by human eyes let alone processed. Now to make my point...
To be fair, pedophiles are everywhere! They are online. They are offline. They are on ALL the ISPs and they are probably even in your neighborhood. Although these days, statistics show that AOL has become the most useful tool for predators to use in order to seek out and contact young prey. Why? Well the answer is simple and makes total sense - kids love the Internet and most kids come home from school and logon to AOL. Within minutes they receive IMs and e-mails from complete strangers. Someone who is looking to engage in sexual acts with a child will search the member profiles for information they like (age, sex, location, interests, ect.) or just contact random screen names that sound like they belong to a child (ex. JessieCool13). They then will use that information to start up a conversation and begun building up the trust before making further advances - sending photos or meeting in person. Like the AOL slogan goes..."it's so easy to use, no wonder it's #1". Pedophiles know this.
So what makes this post so important and different? We've all heard about some AOL members that are labeled as pedophiles, but recently news broke that even AOL EMPLOYEES are pedophiles themselves! Basically the same online service that boosts about how safe they are and how well protected your kids will be with an AOL account, couldn't be farther from the truth. It's sort of like a crocked cop. You grow up being told that a policeman is your friend and he is there to protect and serve you. That whenever you are lost or there is trouble, seek a police officer out and he will guide you to a happy ending. This is much of the same mindset AOL wants the public and more importantly their members to believe is true. Let me make it clear, there are good cops too, but there are also a fair share of corrupt ones. The same can be said about AOL employees, good and bad ones. This applies to every business, not just AOL and the police force. There will always be a few bad apples that will spoil the bunch. This particular case went much like this...
An Internet chat room monitor, hired to keep children safe from sexual predators, seduced a California girl online. He was about to meet her for sex when he was found out by an America Online co-worker, a lawsuit charges from the victim now 19. According to documents filed April 1 in Los Angeles Superior Court, the online relationship began four years ago, when the girl was 15. She met the AOL employee in a children's chat room and confided in him about her parents divorce, her trouble making friends at school and some other problems. Their conversations online and by phone became increasingly explicit. Matthew Wright sent sexual videos of himself, asked the girl to send nudes of herself to him and engage in phone sex. They were preparing to meet on the girl's 17th birthday (which would STILL make her a minor = illegal) when one of the monitor's co-workers became suspicious and prevented the encounter. The lawsuit charges AOL and its parent company, Time Warner Inc., with failing to supervise the employee and of falsely advertising that its online service was safe for children. It also charges the monitor with inflicting emotional distress. America Online spokesman Nicholas Graham said the company fired the monitor and contacted authorities after learning of the situation in April 2003. The man, who was 23 when he met the girl online, has not been charged with a crime at this time.
Now I know what you are thinking. There are people eager to comment to this post and say well that girl's parents should of done this or that or not allowed this or that. I know, I know and I agree. The moral of this story is do not buy into the advertising hype that AOL or any other company or person shoves down your throat. Just because AOL's latest software is called "Security Edition" doesn't mean jack sh*t. It's an advertising gimmick - a way for paranoid, uneducated/computer illiterate Moms and Dads to sign up for the $25 a month service (which by the way is a complete rip-off) and make-believe that their little Suzie is safe from Mr. Perv on the other end of the screen. These days you also need to concern yourself with the ISP employees themselves who are out to lure your kids in, just like the grown guy living in his Mom's basement like a hermit. Of course given his AOL employee/good guy/safe haven status, it makes him all the more of a threat to a naive/trusting child. Pedophiles work off of trust, getting their victim to trust them and this guy had it easy (because of the nature of his job) in reaching his goal. Keep that in mind next time you let your kid get online or tell them to trust a certain person because of what their occupation is.
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