Online vigilantism?
For the last couple of weeks i've been working at The Observer, trying to make a name for myself at what my old housemate, Marcous Leroux of The Times, would call 'the coalface of journalism'.
A couple of my pieces made it into the paper, more by luck than judgement i imagine, but one that didn't was the controversial new website www.catchaperv.com
The founder of the site enters internet chatrooms posing as an underage girl, waits for the unwitting 'perv' to take the (jail)bait, before donning a policeman's helmet and surprising them by webcam.
A picture of the 'perv' and a log of the chat session is then posted on the website for all to see.
Unfortunately i haven't been able to get Gary, who owns the site, to comment, but i have been having an ongoing debate with a devotee of the site as to the various rights and wrongs of what they do.
You can see our discussion at: http://www.catchaperv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11
But the final word came from the head of the recently-created Child Online Exploitation and Protection Service, Jim Gamble. He said to me: "It is irreponsible when people play at being detective because they may be confusing an ongoing police operation and ultimately, nobody wins."
"Anyone who suspects an individual should report that to us using the mechanisms we have put in place."
One of these mechanisms is a 'Report Abuse' button, which comapanies such as Microsoft have added to their chat software. But MySpace has refused to participate in CEOPS' scheme.
Please don't hesitate to lobby them to get their act together, because the tools for reporting abuse at the moment are frankly inadequate.
For the last couple of weeks i've been working at The Observer, trying to make a name for myself at what my old housemate, Marcous Leroux of The Times, would call 'the coalface of journalism'.
A couple of my pieces made it into the paper, more by luck than judgement i imagine, but one that didn't was the controversial new website www.catchaperv.com
The founder of the site enters internet chatrooms posing as an underage girl, waits for the unwitting 'perv' to take the (jail)bait, before donning a policeman's helmet and surprising them by webcam.
A picture of the 'perv' and a log of the chat session is then posted on the website for all to see.
Unfortunately i haven't been able to get Gary, who owns the site, to comment, but i have been having an ongoing debate with a devotee of the site as to the various rights and wrongs of what they do.
You can see our discussion at: http://www.catchaperv.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11
But the final word came from the head of the recently-created Child Online Exploitation and Protection Service, Jim Gamble. He said to me: "It is irreponsible when people play at being detective because they may be confusing an ongoing police operation and ultimately, nobody wins."
"Anyone who suspects an individual should report that to us using the mechanisms we have put in place."
One of these mechanisms is a 'Report Abuse' button, which comapanies such as Microsoft have added to their chat software. But MySpace has refused to participate in CEOPS' scheme.
Please don't hesitate to lobby them to get their act together, because the tools for reporting abuse at the moment are frankly inadequate.
posted by Rob Davies at 8:03 PM
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