And yet unlike convicted sex offenders, who are required to stay away from places that cater to children, in this case the police can do next to nothing, because this man, Jack McClellan, who has had Web sites detailing how and where he likes to troll for children, appears to be doing nothing illegal.
But his mere presence in Los Angeles â coupled with Mr. McClellanâs commitment to exhibitionistic blogging about his thoughts on little girls â has set parents on edge. One group of mothers, whose members by and large have never met before, will soon band together in a coffee shop to hammer out plans to push lawmakers in Sacramento to legislate Mr. McClellan out of business.
Female high school athlete's picture goes viral online and, upsetting the student and her family.
"High-profile figures in high-tech are proposing a blogger code of conduct to clean up the quality of online discourse."
"Josh Wolf, a 24-year-old blogger, has spent more than six months behind bars in California -- the longest contempt-of-court term ever served by someone in the media"
"Over the past months, I've heard several journalists make the same comment at various industry forums: That blogs are a "parasitic" medium that wouldn't be able to exist without the reporting done at newspapers.
"I had to laugh hysterically (and groan) today when someone described a blogger as 'world-reknown expert on WordPress'. The blogger had been blogging for 4 months. I know personally that they had no PHP, WordPress, or web design experience prior to beginning blogging. Now that they have the title 'expert', there is no telling who will believe that claim."
"With big corporations now hiring public relations firms to pay fake bloggers to plant favorable opinions of the businesses online, many political bloggers are concerned that candidates, too, will hire people to pretend to be grass-roots citizens expressing views."
"Jim Zumbo, former hunting editor of Time Inc.âs Outdoor Life, had to resign after calling assault rifles âterrorist riflesâ in a blog posting on the magazineâs website. This raises the question: how subjective can writers really be on blogs?"
"Are Web loggers journalists? The question touches on not just legal arguments, such as how elastic shield laws are or should be, but also includes cultural and political overtones. If, for instance, a blogger seeks to claim the privileges of being a journalist, should we expect him to follow the same general rules -- including contacting all sides to the story and verifying facts independently?"
In a discussion the other night at O'Reilly's ETech conference, we came up with a few ideas about what such a code of conduct might entail. These thoughts are just a work in progress, and hopefully a spur for further discussion.