********

really, really

to my correspondent

me

within an hour

hell

Are you associated with a local law enforcement agency? How about a national law enforcement agency? How about a regional, national or international organization that deals with missing and exploited children? Just off the top of my head: I don't even see the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children or Amber Alert linked to your blog, and let's be blunt, that alone is a head-scratcher. Furthermore, I don't even see links to survivor and support groups concerned with these issues. I see zero by way of resources. I find these lack of links on your blog highly suspicious.



See, I ask because I've known people (civilians) who've volunteered for such programs. These are people who have received training from the law enforcement agency they're working with (even if it's only a couple of weeks), willingly slap IP tracking software on their own computers, and volunteer x-number of hours a week, and only sting those who are actually committing a crime by trolling for prepubescent girls and boys under the age of 16.

I do not see the following on or linked to your Web site: Code of Conduct (for yourselves), Mission Statement, Q&A, or any other similar Web page that tells people who you are. I'm not saying give away personal details on the Web, I'm just talking about any information at all beyond links to other blogs that are directly connected to this one (i.e., your personal blogs). I can't even begin to tell who you're targeting or even why.



And by the way, any legit organization involved in tracking down online predators would not only have these documents on-hand, but they would have them up and available for inspection by the the general Web trawling public. Again, the lack of this information makes you highly suspect in my eyes

Where's your guidelines or standards? In short, what, in your mind, makes someone "guilty" or a potential "child predator?"



See, I know plenty of fandom terms that can easily be taken for "predatory code words" to the uninitiated. Same goes for several other specialty interests that are outside the purview of child predation (or the threat thereof) or abuse survival.



See, I ask again because the people I've known who've worked in these programs could actually show me the precise guidelines they operated under. And in every case, they only turned in the IP address. The actual investigation and arrest was performed by a law enforcement officer.



It goes without saying that I see no such guidelines or standards on your website. You should have this information available on request to interested parties, because going by your entries, I can't even begin to tell what your standards are.



If you looked at all around my LJ, you'll find that I am part of a large subcommunity of LJ. Part of that is writing fiction or "fan fiction." Sometimes fanfiction may depict scenes of abuse, predation, rape, incest, and pedophilia. Sometimes these issues are handled tastefully, sometimes they are not, and sometimes they are done strictly for titillation purposes. Going by current campaign against LJ, I can only assume that unless the interests you are targeting are associated with survivor groups, I can only assume that fan fiction writers who lists your "hot button words" in their interests are going to be getting a visit from you and possibly harassed.



this is exactly the case

fiction

fiction

nothing at all

condone

and then advertising that you were doing that

any

any

harder

my LJ

DearI'm taking you up on your offer to ask you a few questions, mostly because your sudden anonymous comment in my LJ linking to your "Warriors of Innocence" site (which I'll get to in a minute) bothered me quite a lot. Whatbothered me is that you made it in response to someone explaining where the whole "an outside pressure group is trying to force LJ to dump some users" rumor started. Since it actually turns out that you may have been the cause of it, and because you unfairly scared half my FList to death over it, let's just say that I'm not in a terribly charitable mood when it comes to you, your Web site, or your cause right now.However, whatbothers me is that you posted your anonymous response(as opposed to, the owner of this here LJ)of your organization being mentioned in my comments. I swear that it was almost like Bloody Mary appearing after someone makes the mistake of looking in the mirror and saying her name three times.It's enough to make me wonder if you had been following that particular commenter around from LJ to LJ. And if you haven't, why thewould you even poke your nose in mine? So, let's just say your timing is seriously making me seriously wonder.And no. I have not unscreened your comment. Nor am I about to unless you answer the following questions:Here's the problem I see with your blog: I can't tell who you people are just going by your entries. Your total lack of linkage to legitimate volunteer organizations and law enforcement concerned with online child safety; your lack of a FAQ spelling out your mission and your goals; and the utter lack of transparency for your organization, I can only conclude that your vigilantes who are trying to shut down speech you don't particularly like, makes you feel uncomfortable, but is not necessarily illegal. Going by at least one entry,Let me make something clear, I don't like child predation or pedophilia or child abuse or incest any better than most human beings. Hell, I won't touch any story that doesn't treat these themes seriously with a 10-foot pole, and the more "titillating" those stories are, the more likely I'm going to complain about them. Loudly. And in public. However, I can tell the difference between "real life" and. Thetells youabout the person writing it. Just because they like writing about a subject you find distasteful, it doesn't mean that they actuallysaid actions in a real-life situation.I also need to bring up one other thing: searching for "predators" on LJ on the basis of their interests listed on the user info pagewas a spectacularly stupid idea. Do you haveidea how fast that information got out and shot around LJ? At the speed of light. Do you haveidea how quickly those lists of interests disappeared from the user info pages and how fast some LJs locked down to only a small, trusted reading list? At the speed of sound.Way to go, guys.You just not only just gave real predators the heads' up and drove them deeper underground (thereby making themfor law enforcement to find), you also scared the panties off a whole lot of innocent people and communities. After looking at your blog, I don't blame them. Because no matter how many links I click, I can't find anything resembling a clear statement of your mission, nor can I find your standards, nor can I discover the law enforcement agency you're allied with.While I'm sorry this email turned rather angry towards the end, vigilantism leaves a very, very bad taste in my mouth, especially when you drag it intoIn either case, I look forward to reading your reply to my questions.Sincerely,Lizbeth Marcs