Predators reading teen blogs, too

[TexasStooge]

Some schools ban access to Web sites

By JENNIFER EMILY / The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS, Texas - Teen "Dear Diary" entries are going the way of cassette tapes and VCRs.

No longer are the most personal of thoughts scrawled in diaries kept under lock and key and hidden under a mattress. The musings are now on Internet blogs and blog host sites like xanga.com for everyone to see, including – some fear – child predators who can use teens' intimate thoughts against them.

Such concerns have led school districts from Arlington to Frisco to Cedar Hill to prevent access to Xanga and similar sites on campus. In Plano, students are not allowed to surf the Web. In Irving, school officials say they're doing their best to keep students off the Xanga site.

Police are wary, too. Parents are often oblivious.

Plano Detective Jeff Rich said that in five minutes of searching Xanga, he found personal information about Plano children that a predator could use to get close. He said blogs quickly give predators information that would take weeks or months to gather from talking to kids in a chatroom.

"They can get on there and find out a lot about you and whether you go to the football game on Friday nights or the mall," said Detective Rich, who investigates child abuse and family violence. "It can have a catastrophic effect."

For teens, blogs and their hosting sites create an online social life in which kids can leave messages and pictures for one another, sometimes declaring their love or making fun of the writer.

It's a high-tech way of passing notes, said 16-year-old Laura Lowe, a student at Centennial High in Frisco.

"I think people are trying to let their opinions be known or they want to be a journalist for a day, for a year," said Laura, who's posted on Xanga for 15 months. "I check mine at least once every other day. I've seen people check it once a month, and I've seen people check it every day at least five times."

Font of information

Local kids have everything from the words "sexy" to "whore" in their blog titles. Some post their full names, birth dates, pictures and phone numbers. They write about hatred of their teachers and parents. They talk about feeling overwhelmed, about sex and being hit on.

Mostly, though, their posts are about the blandness of everyday life. TAKS tests. Mall trips. Most sites are set up so music from favorite bands plays when their blog fills the screen.

Xanga officials could not be reached for comment. Callers to the New York-based company are told by a recorded message to e-mail Xanga. Xanga did not return e-mail inquiries.

Detective Rich said teen blogs have been used when investigating "traveler cases," where people travel to meet children for sex. He said the blogs have been helpful when working an abuse case in which the child won't talk with police.

A child's postings can give detectives insight into what the child likes and dislikes, and perhaps even what's going on in the home.

Ian Perrin, 14, started his Xanga site in April. He has only three posts and said he started it because friends at Burnett Junior High in Wylie told him he should. He never tried to access Xanga from school before the ban.

"I didn't even know you could," he said.

Most teens update their blogs more often and can spend hours reading friends' Xanga sites, sometimes posting in the wee hours of the morning.

Students often write when they're home instead of at school.

The Xanga site of one 16-year-old Plano girl says "hot sex = theatre. handcuffs. laughter. punkrock. fashion, citylights && makingout."

The content of the sites led Wylie schools to block them last month. Administrators sent a letter home to parents telling them they should be aware of what their children were posting, the district's spokeswoman, Susan Dacus, said.

Ms. Dacus summarized many Wylie students' sites as: "I'm lonely. I would love to have a date. I'm so lonely." Bloggers also told readers how to find them, she said.

Some more cautious

Laura of Frisco said she'd never make comments like those. Her parents might see it, and she's been warned to be careful. She has a picture of herself on her site, but her face is partially in shadow.

Michelle Freshcoln, 17, a senior at Plano East Senior High, said most of her friends have enough common sense not to put information on the Web that people could use to find them.

Her mother, Helen Freshcoln, who has two other daughters, wasn't aware Michelle had a blog. She doesn't monitor her daughters' computer usage much, she said.

"I didn't even know there was such a thing as Xanga," she said.

Unlike Laura and Michelle, some teens don't edit themselves.

"I've seen pornography, and I've seen inappropriate language before," Laura said. "It's stuff that if I was a mom I wouldn't want my kids to read or see. There's personal information I wouldn't want my teacher to see."

Detective Rich said parents should be aware of what their children post on their blogs.

"Their online life is a whole separate life," he said.

In Irving, it isn't easy monitoring such sites, said Darrell Vaughn, the school district's network administrator. The district, which hands out laptops to high school students, has computer software constantly scanning for Xanga usage.

"Blocking Xanga is like trying to hit a moving target," he said. "According to our reports, the No. 1 of the most accessed URLs was Xanga.com."

Staff writer Russell Rian contributed to this report.