(CBS News About MySpace) CBS News New York 02/06/2006
MySpace: Your Kids' Danger?
Popular Social Networking Site Can Be Grounds For Sexual Predators
(CBS) It all started on the social networking Web site MySpace.com, reports CBS News correspondent Sandra Hughes. A 14-year-old girl began receiving graphic messages from a much older man, asking whether she was "OK with me being 38?"
It wasn't the first time the alleged predator, Robert Wise, trolled the Internet looking for sex, according to Sgt. Dan Krieger of the League City, Texas, police department.
"We assumed her online identity and started chatting with this guy," Krieger explains. "During that point, he made it very clear he wanted to meet her for sex. We were able to find another 14-year-old female that he's actually had sex with."
Wise is now in custody, charged with multiple counts of sexual assault. But the incident is just one of many cases nationwide — and some of them have ended tragically.
In New Jersey, Majalie Cajuste is grieving the murder of her daughter Judy. The 14-year-old reportedly told friends she met a man in his 20s through MySpace.com.
Across the country, in Northern California, friends are mourning 15-year-old Kayla Reed. She was active on MySpace until the day she disappeared.
Police are investigating possible MySpace connections in both murder cases.
The Center for Missing and Exploited Children reported more than 2,600 incidents last year of adults using the Internet to entice children. With numbers like that, you'd think all parents would be hovering over their kids, wanting to know what they're doing online. But authorities say many parents are clueless about their kids' MySpace profiles.
CBS News Technology Analyst Larry Magid had a look at one personal profile on the site, belonging to a 15-year-old girl.
Magid says the girl writes in her description, "Drink a 40, smoke a bowl, sex is good, life is great, we are the class of 2008."
"Now if you were a predator and you read something like that," asks Hughes, "what would it tell you about this young lady?"
"I'd target her, I think," Magid replies.
