News 10 Investigation: Sites that will shock you
News 10 Investigation: Sites that will shock you (Statewide) May 2, 2006 - Your sweet cheerleader daughter or all-American jock of a son may have a secret. And really, it's only a secret from you, because it's out there for the rest of the world to see. WIS has investigated the online world you never knew about. Provocative pictures, strong language and underage drinking can all be found within seconds online. WIS' Kara Gormley found many teens from the Midlands who are under 21 and taking part in the latest internet craze, social networking sites. The biggest one right now is MySpace.com. That's where we found "Lil Sexy." According to her MySpace account she's 18 and attends Columbia High. It says she's on student council and the dance team, but that's not all you'll see when you go to her site. The pictures on Lil Sexy's site are a lil nasty, many objectifying women. The images are out there for anyone to see. Remember they're called "social networking" sites. So what are teens talking about? Lil Sexy tells a guy who claims to be 22 and from Camden that she misses him like crazy, then she starts trash-talking using language we can't publish. "Teddums" from Columbia put a picture of himself chugging booze on his space even though he says he's only 18 in his chat conversation about going to the Citadel. And it was the eye-popping titles of a girl who says she's 18 and goes to Spring Valley that caught our attention with language too graphic to repeat. "Ashleigh" put so much personal information on her site, we were able to track her down at school. We asked a woman in the office to let Ashleigh's parents know about her space. Tonight the picture of Ashleigh in her bikini is gone, and it is now listed as private - blocking the uninvited from getting in. Some of the icons to let people know they're online are even sexual in nature, especially one used by an 18-year-old from Columbia who says she's in high school and calls herself "Cupcake." "I have seen 12-year-olds in bikinis and provocative poses. I have seen 12-year-old boys, no shirt arms up showing their six-pack abs. What's their point? What message are they trying to get across?" says a woman who calls herself "Pat." She's the mother of a Midlands middle school student. Pat wants to hide her identity. Pat's blown the whistle on some of the kids she's seen online, telling their school guidance counselors, "I've seen comments, 'I want a piece of that. Let me lick that.' There's all kind of comments and these are 12, 13, 14-year-olds." When Pat's daughter wouldn't give her mom her password, Pat banned her daughter from MySpace all together, "There was a lot of yelling, a lot of tears, a lot of, 'All my friends are doing it'. I said, 'Well, there's a phone in the kitchen, pick it up and call your friends'." Pat's speaking out because she says most parents don't have a clue what their kids are up to online. She says it's time for them to take off the blinders and use some old-fashioned parenting to tackle this new wave of communicating."Get their password, go in, be part of their conversation. If they won't let you get in on their conversation, don't let them use their MySpace." It's not just sexy talk among kids. Last year the Centers for Missing and Exploited Children reported more than 2,600 cases where adults used internet sites to entice children. Reported by Kara Gormley updated 1:45pm by Chantelle Janelle http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4851670