MySpace Post: What Was Our Point?

On Friday, Sept 15, we received this letter from a reader (who shall remain anonymous since he was mostly polite) in response to our post, Five More Reasons to Get Your Kid OFF MySpace.com:

Everyone at Americans for Truth has the right to their own opinion, a right we all share in this great country. However, Sonja recently came to some disturbing conclusions regarding an innocent blog comparing MySpace to gay.com. Her unsaid, although clear conclusion is that every gay person on MySpace is somehow preying upon children. There are predators on MySpace, but to automatically assume they are only gay is absurd. The fact is, most child predators are \”straight\” men preying on young girls, and to ignore that is simply misinformation. Pedophiles, regardless of their sexual orientation, are a danger to children, so please, don\’t put every homosexual into a group with pedophiles, to do so is not only unfair, but completly deviod of logic. I acknowledge the fact that groups such as yours rarely care about the truth, which makes me realize, PLEASE continue spreading your lies, it will simply make it so much easier for us to win the war against HATE!!!!!!

And we responded as follows:

Good Evening [name omitted],

Thank you for writing, sir. I did not (and would not) imply that “Josh & Josh” are pedophiles, nor would I imply that all/most homosexual men have such a tendency. (Some do.) There was nothing in their post about pedophiles/children, so how could that be my point?

The “Josh & Josh” not-so-innocent post reveals that adult homosexual men are posting provocative profiles and “trashy” photos on MySpace and are using the site to hook up for sex. Thus, my point was:

Any kid playing around on MySpace is vulnerable to accessing the graphic profiles of adult homosexual men, complete with sexually suggestive or even pornographic photographs, sexual dialogue, etc. No child, no teenager, should be exposed to that sort of explicit material. Parents need to wake up and get their kids OFF these websites.

I hope you will re-read the post and see that I made absolutely no suggestion about anyone being a pedophile.

However, if I were to write about homosexual pedophiles (and at some point I may), I could say this much, and I wouldn’t have to “automatically assume” anything: I’ve seen firsthand the MySpace profiles of *some* (certainly not all) adult homosexual men, with hardcore homosexual pornographic photos posted on their MySpace profiles, who are indeed preying upon young boys (just as some heterosexual men are preying upon young girls, which is also reprehensible). That danger presents an even more urgent reason for parents to take responsibility and block these sites.

Best Regards (and No Hate) –
Sonja Dalton

Matthew 18:6-7