Tyler Dumstorf and MySpace
Well, curiosity may have killed the cat, but I still was motivated to check out Tyler Dumstorf’s web page at MySpace.com. Many news stories have mentioned that he confessed to shooting the two officers on that page. Well, none of them have mentioned that this freshman in high school was listed as being 22 on MySpace.
I don’t believe that government intervention can help in a situation like this, but I do wonder how many incidents it will take before parents and schools ban MySpace from their computers. Without working age verification, none of MySpace’s supposed protections for young people actually work. The children who are most at risk are the most likely to circumvent the feeble verification methods in use at MySpace.
I expect that those who jump the gun have already dashed off to say that I’m blaming MySpace for the shooting. No, don’t be silly. I am saying that, completely unrelated to the shooting, MySpace does not properly protect young people.
