I have been an avid
Court TV fan and Internet junkie for many years, so when I saw
the show, Katie.com, being advertised on Court TV about a 13 year old girl who was the victim of an Internet sexual predator whom she met in a chat room 9 years ago, I had to watch it.
Let me first say that 9 years ago, the Internet was quite different than it is today. It was populated by mostly men. This young child came forward at the risk of ruining her reputation to prosecute this fellow for a crime that most authorities knew little about at that time nor knew how to handle. Three cheers for Katie Tarbox who also wrote a book about her experience titled, "Katie.com".
Image my surprise though when I visited
www.katie.com today all warm and fuzzy with the feeling of a job well done by Katie and discovered that Katie.com is not owned by Katie Tarbox. This domain is owned by a gal in the UK, Katie Jones, who has non the less been a victim herself of unwanted attention ever since Katie Tarbox wrote her book and is now having television broadcasts produced using a domain name that she does not own. I cannot image the personal turmoil Katie Jones has had to endure as well as high bandwidth costs. Perhaps Katie Tarbox should seriously consider monetarily reimbursing Katie Jones for the high website traffic costs she has had to pay for and the public humiliation she has had to endure.
Ironically, Katie Tarbox has her own website,
KatieT.com. In all honestly, I was quite impressed by the show but this domain situation has tarnished that impression. I feel very badly for Katie Tarbox. No child should ever have to go through what she went through, but quite frankly, the Katie who really owns Katie.com is just as much as a victim. I'm surprised that one victim of this crime would cause another to be victimized in any way, shape or form.
The Court TV show also talked about a website that is sort of a vigilante toward this type of crime as they publish information about online sexual predators that they "catch" in the act. This website is "
Perverted-Justice.com - Exposing wannabe perverts on the 'net" but I was unable to reach it today likely due to high traffic congestion. I could not even get to a Google cache.
It is a sad, sad world when folks use wonderful tools such as the Internet that were developed for positive reasons to commit crimes against innocent people. Once I get to the Perverted-Justice.com website, I most certainly will have to comment on its contents. I'd me eager to hear your thoughts as well.
// posted by BasicDeidre on 7/29/2004 11:24:07 AM / Permanent Link
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