Typically, buy cheapest in online the immune system does not have difficulty fighting off the online order viruses that cause colds, and most people do not experience allopurinol rx any complications. Another sign the cold may be going away clozapine without prescription is if a person feels like resuming their usual activities order discount acomplia online effects or no longer notices their symptoms. These illnesses can be buy ampicillin without prescription worse than a typical cold, but initially, they may appear retin-a to have similar symptoms. Incorporating foods rich in probiotics, such online in uk as yogurt and fermented foods, can help support gut health, buying cheap online alternatives professional contributing to a strong immune system. Green tea has high cafergot non prescription levels of antioxidants, which help protect cells from damage caused norvasc free delivery by free radicals. Many illnesses, including colds and the flu, buy tetracycline cheapest alternatives india are transmitted through contact with contaminated surfaces. Many proactive measures generic celebrex can strengthen the immune system, reduce exposure to germs, and cheap glucophage promote overall well-being. Sinusitis is a condition that can lead aldactone without prescription to congestion and inflammation in the nasal passages, causing pressure in.

I’ve been waiting until I read something intelligent about it before commenting further on the widely publicized story that 90,000 registered sex offenders had been removed from Myspace, mentioned last week on this blog. The Connecticut Attorney General took this big number as proof of what he’s been claiming all along, that social networking sites are a new form of danger to children and need to be regulated and controlled to keep bad people away from unsuspecting, innocent children. The AG’s enthusiasm for trumpeting this statistic is part of a vicious and anti-scientific campaign to discredit the Internet Safety Technical Task Force report (see here and here and here for my earlier comments about this task force and its report). He doesn’t like the facts, so responds by denying them and then erecting a distracting sideshow.

Now danah boyd has done the math and made a few other important observations too. On the math front first: given the number of Myspace members, the density of sex offenders on Myspace is not high; in fact, it’s significantly lower than it is in the general public.

An observation that will surely excite an “even one is too many” response from Blumenthal and his fellow AGs, as though every registered sex offender is pedophile with a record of raping children. Hardly; you can wind up on the sex offender registry for all kinds of reasons, including plea deals in he-said-she-said rape cases involving two college students. (See Chapter 7 of Excellence Without a Soul for the long, sad story of one such case.)

But the most important observation is that mental model of danger is all wrong. It would do far more good to focus on vulnerable children and their Internet behavior than to try to purge the Internet of possible predators. There is a pretty good profile of what kinds of kids get into trouble, and it’s not the sexually innocent 11-year-old children of vigilant parents in suburban America. It’s older and sexually aware kids, kids with troubles, often family troubles, kids who crave affection and attention and explore liaisons in search of something that’s missing in their lives. The sad thing about the AGs’ ranting about Myspace pedophiles is that it distracts attention from the place where child endangerment could actually be addressed — with the children.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 7th, 2009 at 7:04 pm and is filed under Privacy, Social computing, Surveillance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.