You know I pick on MySpace, and Xanga, and once in a great while Facebook, but there’s one name that hasn’t been mentioned on this site so far. One that in my personal opinion is more dangerous than Xanga and MySpace put together. That would be LiveJournal.
Check out this interview on MSNBC with Xavier Von Erck, the director of operations of Perverted Justice…
VAN ERCK: Yahoo! recently has closed down all their teen rooms and is trying to keep teens out of their chat services. But still, they don’t have any moderators, and they can still do more.
MySpace is actually trying to play catch-up now with a staff that tries to eliminate predators from their services.
But there’s also other sites out there that are just as dangerous, such as LiveJournal, which does not have any policies restricting pedophiles from their web site. And in fact, they’ve said so publicly.
CARLSON: They have said out loud, pedophiles are welcome to use this site. Not prohibited from it.
VAN ERCK: Nothing in their terms of service restricts them.
CARLSON: Wow. That’s a little bit over the top.
Well, I can do Mr. Van Erck one better than he did in this interview. Not too long ago myself and a few other crime bloggers went after LiveJournal for allowing pedophile communities to proliferate within LiveJournal. This was the response that I got…
Dear LiveJournal User thetrenchcoat,
As explained in our previous response to you, it is neither against the Terms of Service nor illegal to discuss illegal actions, or to admit to having committed them. As long as the content posted does not solicit illegal activity, it is considered allowable under both the Terms of Service and the ideal of free speech. LiveJournal is committed to preserving as much free speech as possible for its users, as long as that speech does not cross the line into invading other users’ privacy.
Users are entitled to post about topics that may be abhorrent to much of the general population, so long as they do not cross the line into solicitation or instruction of illegal acts. We respectfully suggest, if the posts in this community disturb you, that you simply cease reading them.
Regards,
Morgan
LiveJournal Abuse Team
So basically LiveJournal doesn’t care that there are groups of people congregating within their virtual walls that share their fantasies about having sex with their daughter with other pedophiles. True story.
There are two schools of thought when it comes to these types of situations. The first one is let them operate out in the open so law enforcement can keep better tabs on them. Or drive them back to pre-internet days where instead of a global community of pedophiles there were only pockets of them where it was even more difficult to get to our children.
LiveJournal can either do one of two things. They can clear out the pedophiles from their membership or they can make LJ age restricted to 18+. The choice is theirs. I know one man isn’t going to change their mind but I’m about to become the sand in LiveJournals’ vagina.
Real Crime with Trench Reynolds 
Livejournal has it’s right to protect free speach and no one, including yourself should take it upon themselves to go after them for it. Clearly stating in their T.O.S. that allthough discussing illegal activities past is allowed – soliciting is prohibited.
What you should be attacking are the parents who let their underage kids go online and post things they wouldn’t want the “WORLD WIDE” web seeing.
“We respectfully suggest, if the posts in this community disturb you, that you simply cease reading them.”
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What you should be attacking are the parents who let their underage kids go online and post things they wouldn’t want the “WORLD WIDE” web seeing.
Apparently you haven’t read much of this site.
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Trench,
Great Post. I had no idea that LiveJournal has such a TOS that it encourages such perverts. Later today I will link to this article and hopefully we can draw some attention to it.
The above commenter is a clod. Along with free speech comes a responsibility to practice it in a society that is safe for everyone. If by promoting free speech it is no longer safe to be a child on the internet for fear of being stalked, then safety should triumph free speech.
And BTW, the supreme court has agreed with this idea of safety over free speech. LiveJournal has a responsibility as good netizens to not harbor and promote online perversion.
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Not only that but freedom of speech only applies to reprisal from the government. LiveJournal as abusiness has every right to ban pedophiles from their servers. They just choose not to.
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They can clear out the pedophiles from their membership or they can make LJ age restricted to 18+. BY Trent
The only problem I have with the restricting the age limit to 18, is that there is not a way to do this. On the Internet we can not check ID’s, a nine year old can pass age verification on the Internet. I think that restricting it to 18 is making things way too easy for LJ.
As for freedom of speech, sorry fore-fathers but the world is much different today than what you envisioned when freedom of speech was written. Like anything else over time, things change and need to be re-written with addendums added on et cetera.
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Make it so you need a credit card # to join. That will keep a lot of the underaged kids out but I’d rather have all the pedophiles removed from LJ.
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Yeah I understand the creit card thingie but that is just a loophole, how many kids can not get hold of a credit card whether it be their own parents or the parents of a friend or a stolen one. I know this is the method that all porn sites use is credit card verication, I was referring to credit card verification in my first comment, I should have been more specific.
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I did not know about this. So glad that you are going to be monitoring these pedophile monsters. I had not idea about Live Journal, but I should have figured. Anywhere they can find a place to type and advertise they are all over it.
Several of us today have been researching the links in the Boyloveboy blogspot. I will send you an email of what we are considering. The chatrooms it leads to is more than disturbing. It is an international porn ring. Check this out http://www.boychat.org/treehouse/messages/117779….
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I sent this link to a friend of mine who uses Live Journal. She was wanting to know how recent this email was that you got back?
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This was from back in September of last year.
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It’s not LiveJournal’s job to parent your children, nor is it their job to enforce the law. LiveJournal isn’t encouraging perverts, they’re just saying that they won’t get involved. I hope none of you people have children if you really need the internet to babysit them for you.
Please grow up and move on with your lives.
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I hope none of you people have children if you really need the internet to babysit them for you.
Again, someone who doesn’t read this site much.
LJ might not be encouraging pedophiles but they’re not discouraging them either. And I’m sorry if I offend your precious sensibilities but to me pedophiles aren’t people and shouldn’t be afforded the same rights as the rest of us, but that’s just me.
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There have been some posts about this on http://ljabuse.blogspot.com – you might find it interesting reading.
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