Week 2 - The Dark Side of the Internet

Facebook and MySpace have become two controversially social networks of which one has significantly exceeded the principles of safety. Although I am on Facebook and do not accept friendships from people I do not know, I foresee the many dangers in using it. Facebook asks your status, so as a member you state “What’s on your mind”. But members are not expressing what they are thinking; they are posting what they are doing. A classic danger would be saying you are not home or are home alone. This could bring on a criminal act like breaking and entering, sexual assault or even murder, the victim being someone who is not careful in accepting friendships. A major attraction to these websites, in particular MySpace, is that it’s easy to network a positive or negative image so that others take interest. You can design your space with graphics, pictures and music. I feel this particular website has been the most dangerous these past years. The abuse of MySpace accounts for endless victims of child pornography, rape and even murder.

On Saturday September 19, 2009 a 20 year old man by the name of Richard McCroskey, of Castro Valley, CA. was arrested and is being charged in the slaying of 4 people. He was arrested sleeping at the airport while waiting to take a flight back to California. Not all of the victim’s names have been released but one was definitely identified as Mark Niederbrock, a pastor at a Presbyterian church in central Virginia. He was one of four people found dead at the home of a college professor in Farmville, about 50 miles west of Richmond. Reports claim that on Thursday September 17, 2009 a West Virginia woman called to say that it had been days since she heard from her teen daughter. She stated she thought her daughter could be staying with a friend by the name of Emma Niederbrock. Investigators went to the home, where a man matching Richard’s description told them the girls had gone to the movies. On Friday when the mother still didn't hear from her daughter, police went back to the home to discover the bodies.

Investigators found that on Richard’s MySpace page, someone who goes by Ragdoll, which was Emma Niederbrock, wrote several messages to Richard. On Sept. 7, she made reference to her excitement on his visit to her house. The post states "The next time you check your MySpace, YOU’LL BE AT MY HOUSE!" They became friends because of their attraction to Horrorcore music. Such music sets violent lyrics to hip-hop beats. He had been a fan of Horrorcore genre for many years and on his MySpace web page he recorded songs of death, murder and mutilation as a rapper called “Syko Sam”. His lyrics described him to possess an ax-wielding alter ego fueled with gruesome violence. In the song “My Dark Side”, he raps words like "You're not the first, just to let you know. I've killed many people and I kill them real slow. It's the best feeling, watching their last breath. Stabbing and stabbing till there's nothing left." He was asked how he did it and his reply was that Jesus told him to do it.

Now this really burns me up. Time and time again, I hear of killings with alibi’s that Jesus or God told them to do it, but reflecting on this statement would be another blog for another day. Aside of that, I tried to find him on MySpace but it said the account was deleted. I was successful in finding one of his video’s on YouTube but after I posted this it was deleted as well.

It really is sad that someone could start a website with such good intentions but then it is ruined because society takes it to another level, a destructive one.