An Explanation
As many of you noticed, my blog has been unavailable for a while and today I will explain why: A few weeks ago I wrote about how a young girl was being held as a sex slave against her will. I wrote about the dangers of our young daughters and relatives being groomed both in real life and on-line and the need for the law to catch up with technology in order to protect our vulnerable children.
I also asked a forum that visits here en masse to sign the petition to help change our laws so that those in danger now can be helped, and any potential future victims can be saved from the living hell these girls and their families are going through.
That forum went one better: One person out of the 300 that read the request signed the petition, but others decided that there were simply not enough young girls in danger of falling into the bloodied hands of these groomers and did something utterly, utterly unthinkable….
They spent time, effort and energy googling one of the people who comments on my blog and PUBLISHED THE EMAIL ADDRESS AND NAME OF HIS 11 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER on their forum, plus other details that any pedophile or pimp could use to track her down.
Instead of signing the petition to help these children, they added another child to the list that needs to be protected.
May 4, 2008 at 9:36 am
Wish I could say I was surprised Kate, but I can’t. Enraged yes, disappointed yes, surprised no. Having seen what I have on the net over the past year and the comments and actions of some, mainly forum members, I most certainly am not surprised. I hope this is being followed up by the police and the appropriate action taken. These people/persons deserve to be punish for endangering this child. No question!
May 4, 2008 at 1:34 pm
To whoever was the target of this disgusting bunch, please contact the Internet Watch Foundation and see what can be done.
Pressure should be put on whoever hosts the site to ensure that it is better policed and, if that can’t be achieved, it should simply be closed down. If anything bad were to happen as the result of this sort of thing, I very much doubt the entity hosting the site could afford the legal fallout and therefore I would expect they have a serious business interest in sorting that site out.
May 4, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Kate, I have just seen your update, It is appalling what people will do, for Goodness sake, it makes me so angry what these so called peole will do, and why? they poor family, what they must be going through.
If you still have the petition, I’ll sign it no probs! when I find it..
May 4, 2008 at 8:21 pm
Anna, I have already been in contact with Hostgator and submitted a lengthy report to them, regarding this and other similar incidents. Although they are not prepared to take a proactive stance on the issues I raised, they have confirmed that should a libel suit be instituted at any stage, they would be more than happy to hand over any documentation and/or information required to pursue same.
Kate, keep your head up. As sad as is it is that such misguided and stupid people exist in the world, it is a sign that your and others’ blogs and sites are hitting where it hurts. Keep up the good work!!
May 4, 2008 at 11:12 pm
Hi Kate, so glad your very interesting and thought provoking site is back. What happened is pure evil. These people think they are untouchable while they hide behind their computers. I’m in a vulnerable position here and you know why so I was worried about coming on here to post anything. But then they have won. So if you are prepared to come back on line then count me in.
May 5, 2008 at 12:31 am
Having contacted hostgator’s security division, I was appalled at their total lack of concern regarding this forum’s hunting down of people’s personal information. I wrote to the CEO who effectively said he would do something, but did nothing. Guess money is more important to this company than cyber-stalking and protecting innocent people’s privacy.
Apparently, the people on that forum think they are above the law and because the site is hosted in the US, they can do and say whatever they want under freedom of speech.
Their freedom of speech does not take precedence over others right to safety and privacy. People are systematically being hunted down and any personal info those hate-mongers can find, they post.
Wish they would put their energy into finding missing children. Instead they post information on children so that predators can easily target those children.
These people sacrifice children’s safety for their own personal agendas.
Kate, glad the blog is back.
May 5, 2008 at 9:42 am
Katie, very glad to see you back, and you haven’t let the bullies win!
May 6, 2008 at 9:19 am
Katie – I contacted the owner of the forum in question 3 times and pointed out how dangerous it was to allow the personal details of a young child, together with her home address and phone number to be made freely available on that site. Her response was “The information is in the public domain – it stays”. There was not a shred of humanity or common decency or understanding in her reply. Her forum is known to be frequented by at least one convicted murderer, also a suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann is now a member there. God knows who else is trawling that site for their own amusement or worse. I will be lodging a complaint with the Kent Police about this incident.
May 17, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Hello Kate,
Tonight I have been shocked!! I cant believe how sick people can be. People on sites which support finding Madeleine are being directed by someone we all know from an anti McCann website to an independant help find Madeleine site. This site has been set up to have a laugh at all those who would like to help. and asking for donations to fund searches in the Algarve using manpower funded by donations. I have reported it to the official site.
What to do?
May 17, 2008 at 11:17 pm
My name and my posts from one site now being cut and pasted onto 3A’s. Here we go again. Unless you ever get into this position you wont realise how frightening it is, Shouldn’t this be considered a form of terrorism. The instigator knows the law and is attempting to cause maximum damage using the law to individuals he/she considers to have opposing opinions. Legal terrorism???
May 18, 2008 at 5:26 pm
“You must be a British citizen or resident to sign the petition”
Couldn’t sign the petition, nothing against the petition at all, but I’m not a British citizen.
May 19, 2008 at 4:59 pm
Elemental, don’t worry, it’s the thought that counts. If you are a member of the european union, how about starting a petition of your own.