Teens engage in 'sinister' Facebook scams, sexting

A couple of practical truths for Facebook and MySpace users: Social networks are not sexual networks. And that voluptuous hottie that just befriended you online may not be who you think she is.

Police say a teenage boy pretending to be a girl in Facebook managed to get 31 boys to send him naked photos and videos of themselves -- not a difficult task I am sure.

This is where it gets crazy: He used the material to blackmail some of the kids for sexual acts.

"The kind of  manipulation that occurred here is really sinister," Waukesha County District attorney said.  

'Sexting' is indeed a parent's worst nightmare. Police are already prosecuting teenagers with child pornography for sending nude self-portraits online. MomsMiami.com explains the trend.

So while parents who read the news on Wednesday were horrified, Facebook executives celebrated the network's 5th anniversary. Yes Facebook is that young, and it has yet to implement some of the security measures that have led its much older competitor MySpace to remove 90,000 sex offenders from their site.

So which one do you think is better for criminals, MySpace or Facebook? It seems like Facebook is becoming more useful for sinister users. You decide. 

Comments

[Andy]

Social networks are not sexual networks? That's it. I'm canceling my Facebook account.

[Lex]

Sorry but this case about the boy pretending to be a girl is getting stupid. Isn't scary enough teen boys or girls for that matter but boys seem inherently more gullible, would send nude pictures and videos of themselves to strangers? To me this is beyond perversion! I think people should either need a parent to give a credit card to prove age and a drivers license number to identify them for their kids to sign onto any of these, or they should not let anyone under 18 on these sites--end of discussion! How many old lonely women trick boys into doing the same? How many old lonely men do? The case seems to be garnering more attention because of the "gay" element but what frightens me more is the exhibitionist element that is down to our "15 minute of fame, reality tv, personal dissociation culture". It is time it all stops and we reign in our kids!