I recently read where Facebook has removed 5,500 sex offenders from their site. Not long ago, I had a rather odd experience on Facebook which shows just how vulnerable kids can be.
My profile is open for anyone to see; I really have no reason to hide it. And it shows my real name and all. But for a while I used an avatar that I use on some other sites, one of the young stars of “Billy Elliot.”
One day I received a friend request from someone with an Hispanic name, which I do not remember. Thinking he was a fellow BETM fan, I allowed it. After all, I had not gotten any other friend requests from anyone who wasn’t a BETM fan, so I thought perhaps this was just the friend of a friend.
We had no contact for several days, and then out of the blue he started chatting with me on Facebook’s little chat thing (which I have since turned off). He started asking me questions about my age and where I lived, and he never said anything really overt, but when he learned that I was NOT the kid in the picture, this guy disappeared, not only from the chat but from my friends list. I am talking, within seconds.
It wasn’t until afterward that I even realized what he had been looking for. That is how subtle he was.
Needless to say, I changed my avatar back to 56 y/o me shooting Tinkerbell at Disneyland. Wonder what kind of perverts that will attract? 
Facebook Predators
Alex Rider Books
Okay, yes I admit it. I am prolly too old to read the Alex Rider series. For those of you who don’t know, Alex Rider is a 14 y/o James Bond. The series of books, written by Anthony Horowitz, is for young readers, maybe 10 – 17 or so. Totally preposterous, but really a lot of fun to read them, and as you might expect, quite easy to read.
But I have one huge objection. The books that I have are, of course, the “American” version. For whatever reason, the publishers I guess thought that American kids were too stupid to understand that speeds are measured in kph and money in the UK is in pounds, and that soccer is called football in the rest of the world. So all of those things, and many more, were obviously converted to make it more readable for “stupid” American kids. I really resent this dumbing down of the books!
I am very tempted, when I go to London next, to buy the whole series there so I can read them in their original form!
But they are fun, and if you have a young reader, especially a boy, you should get them for him.
Carbonite Update!
Okay, this backup started on the 27th of January at approximately 4 PM. It is now 9 PM on the 7th of Fenruary, so were are already about 11 days into it, and there is still 10% left. I think it will be done by Monday! Here’s hoping! 