MySpace Posting Leads to Arrest
The reason is the image of a local high school student, holding a gun and allegedly a bag of marijuana. The boy has been charged, but there is much more to this story.
Lesley Van Arsdall Reporting
(CBS 3) BENSALEM Myspace.com, it is a popular and sometimes dangerous website among teens and now there has been an arrest because of the site.
The reason is the image of a local high school student, holding a gun and allegedly a bag of marijuana. The boy has been charged, but there is much more to this story.
“We can not have kids posing with drugs on websites, it would be irresponsible not to check it out,” said Fred Harran, Deputy Director of the Bensalem Police.
While many teenagers who use the myspace website boast about using drugs, one 16-year-old from Bensalem actually showed them.
He posted pictures on the popular website of him posing with a gun, and various drugs, while bragging he made 250,000 dollars a year by selling them. Police found the Bensalem High school student after a lengthy investigation.
“One of our detectives saw this guy and thought he seemed a little bit more real than the next kid and it was enough to launch an investigation,” said Harran.
The teenager has since been charged with possession and many of those who knew him at the high school are shocked.
“He did not seem like the type who would have that stuff on his myspace page, I thought someone was making it up,” said student, David Berger.
“I do not suggest letting a child have a myspace account, more bad than good can come of it,” said Harran.
Police said that almost as troubling as the drugs is the lack of knowledge parents have as to what their children are doing on the computer.
“What's happening now is parents are getting a little bit more savvy, so the kids are staying more savvy than parents,” Harran said.
He added that kids are coming up with new ways to trick their parents.
“Kids will now have two MySpace accounts and they’ll tell their parent, ‘Oh, look at my MySpace account mom, dad, it’s not that bad,’ and the mom and dad will look and think, ‘That’s not that bad,’ well that's just a side MySpace account. They’ll have another primary one which is really what they'll tell all their friends to go to,” he said.
While most students admit to having a MySpace account, they say they are aware of the dangers.
“I think it's a good thing, but can't be a bad thing if people abuse it or use it the wrong way,” said John Cappol.
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