media fueled rumor: Colorado school shooter researched his victims on Myspace

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mdin

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Oh boy. I doubt this is true, but this has the potential for a shiatstorm of epic proportions.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15057589/

Wegener earlier said that officials are checking a rumor that Morrison might have targeted his victims via the Web site myspace.com and looking at the pages for students at Platte Canyon High School.
 

Peggy

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I don't think that finding the shooter looked at Myspace would be surprising at all. Myspace makes it relatively easy to find people by location and school, so once the crazy person decides to target a particular high school it would be a seemingly "logical" next step. In the olden days (say, 5 years ago), he might have perused a yearbook instead.
 

English Dave

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It would be interesting to know where this rumor originated from and if the rumor that the police are actually investigating this is just a rumor or not.
 
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No, It isnt surprising. Too many kids are putting too much information on MySpace and other sources that are way too available by predators. There was a kid here not long ago who was giving out way too much personal information. I believe every parent should take this as a message. Know what your kids are doing online. Only one way to really find out - and that is by some serious conversation. Let them know that blogging about friends and giving out information is just dangerous. I once had a kid in a group I ran. Her blog was a murder waiting to happen. It included names, dates of events, family members names, locations etc. It took me less than five minutes on Yahoo people search to have the names, addresses and phone numbers of every member of her family in the small town where she lived -- up to and including "Grandma" who lived alone and "never remembered to lock her doors". I knew that the whole family was going to be at her dance recital on Friday night at 8. I knew her little brother came home from school and was alone until after 6. I am serious. I finally had to have a conversation with her. When she got b!tchy with me, I called the high school in the town and spoke to the guidance dept. They were horrified. Since the kid and the blog disappeared, I assume it was handled. I pray it was.

MySpace can be a very cool thing for adults but it can spell death for kids who just don't know how to say no to someone who offers them a sympathetic cyber shoulder to cry on and offers to listen to their problems. Far too many kids are being stalked, raped, killed because of their blogs, membership in things like MySpace. You can't even block it from their computers. And if you could, they are smart enough to get around it. Even if they have to liberate Mom's credit card to use to register.

I call it "Superman Mentality", they believe they are bulletproof and this just isnt going to happen to them. Sadly it does.

I wonder what the liability is for Blogging Services and sites like My Space. There sure should be some. Please - tell your children that while it is wonderful that they journal, it is wrong for them to post personal information online in any location.

If Laura Bush wanted an issue to attack, this is it. There should be commercials on TV hourly telling parents to find out what kids are blogging. It would be terribly sad if it cost one kid her life in Colorado and others suffer nightmares for the rest of their lives because what some kid blogged.
 

English Dave

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persiphone_hellecat said:
No, It isnt surprising. Too many kids are putting too much information on MySpace and other sources that are way too available by predators. There was a kid here not long ago who was giving out way too much personal information. I believe every parent should take this as a message. Know what your kids are doing online. Only one way to really find out - and that is by some serious conversation. Let them know that blogging about friends and giving out information is just dangerous. I once had a kid in a group I ran. Her blog was a murder waiting to happen. It included names, dates of events, family members names, locations etc. It took me less than five minutes on Yahoo people search to have the names, addresses and phone numbers of every member of her family in the small town where she lived -- up to and including "Grandma" who lived alone and "never remembered to lock her doors". I knew that the whole family was going to be at her dance recital on Friday night at 8. I knew her little brother came home from school and was alone until after 6. I am serious. I finally had to have a conversation with her. When she got b!tchy with me, I called the high school in the town and spoke to the guidance dept. They were horrified. Since the kid and the blog disappeared, I assume it was handled. I pray it was.

You have way too much time on your hands. But good looking out. :)
 

Sheryl Nantus

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the problem is parents assuming that their kids are adults and aware of the bad things out there - they ignore the kid's online activities, if they even *know* where the keyboard is.

my sister knows exactly where my niece surfs; what sites she visits - everything. Even at eight, she's not going to let my niece do anything without someone in the same room right there.
 

ColoradoGuy

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Bird of Prey said:
Myspace? Doubt it.

It's in the water in Colorado. . . . either that or the majority of towns were built over old Indian graveyards.
Just to give you some perspective on the gun culture in Colorado, in my (former) city, the city council was divided over the question of whether it was legal to ban loaded guns from city parks and playgrounds. The result: a majority believed such a ban to be in conflict with the 2nd amendment.

The water does taste of mine tailings in a few places, though.
 
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English Dave said:
You have way too much time on your hands. But good looking out. :)
No I dont ... but when I run a board, I do feel a responsibility for what goes on there... that's why I shut it down a while ago... I just have this knack of knowing when a kid is headed in that direction by the way he or she posts... It isnt that hard to tell...
 

Tirjasdyn

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Bird of Prey said:
Lead, for sure. . . half of the Springs must be on it.

Hi there, CG. Knew this thread would lure you out. When I lived in Colorado, I drank out of one the oldest nonreplenishable aquifers known: water right off the backs of woolly mammoths. It's true. I think it's what saved me. Probably you too.

Nonreplenishable doesn't mean noncontaminated.

Mines closed for over a hundred years here are still affecting water sources...and if they're not it's the forest service dumping chemicals and non native fish in every lake and river in Colorado or CDOT spraying the roads with stuff they claim dosn't to anything though it washes right off into the water supply.

Besides if you ever has a glass of pop at a restaurant, you've drunk the tap water.

That's the long way of saying you're crazy...you just don't know it yet. :)
 

Alan Yee

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When I mentioned to my mom about talking to people online, at first she asked very suspciously, "How do you know these people?"

When I said they were a bunch of writers, her face and tone changed from suspicious to pleasantly delighted.

I don't really put that much personal information about myself. I haven't posted on MySpace for months, because I got tired of it.

My favorite technique is to change my location in my profile every once in a while, just to confuse people and throw them off. I'm just surprised that other teens think that nothing bad could ever happen to them, or that there aren't really bad and sick people out there.
 
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