Porn Ads runs on Facebook

A Mashable reader writes:

The attached screen capture shows a porn ad I noticed on facebook. I clicked around a bit and about 20-30 page views later it appeared again…This ad is a direct violation of facebook’s own rules.

Since some of you are spoilsports and don’t like boobies on the homepage, you’ll need to click on the image to see the ad in all its glory (NSFW). What an we infer from this? Probably not much, apart from the fact that Facebook lets its guard down a little on holidays. Frankly, MySpace’s dating banners are almost as revealing.

Zuckerberg, put that porn away!

[via Mashable]

Mother Superior: MySpace or school, your choice

The principal at St Hugo of the Hills Catholic School in Bloomfield Hills has banned her students from having MySpace pages.

According to reports, Sister Margaret Van Velzen has sent out an edict instructing students to take down their pages or face suspension from school. Families are expected to support the school's policy, which it says is aimed at keeping the students safe.MySpace has been linked to a number of assaults, some of them sexual, some less so. It does have a minimum age limit - no one younger than 14 is supposed to join- but verifying the ages of everyone on a social network as large as MySpace is next to impossible and, some would argue, not even desirable.

Nevertheless, Sister Margaret has asked various staff members to keep an eye on the MySpace network for anyone transgressing the new rule.

While the move will surely seem draconian and intrusive to the average Register reader, it does have the backing of local police. Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard says it removes peer pressure, which he described as "the biggest factor" in encouraging kids to have pages.
However, not everyone is convinced. Jerry Herron, Wayne State University professor of American Studies argues the move will just give everyone a sense of false security. "A predator who wants to violate children will find a way, electronically or otherwise," he added.
This is to say nothing of setting up a MySpace page under a nickname. But we wouldn't want to suggest anyone actually do that, of course.

The Register's resident grumpy old man, who we consult on occasions such as these, was heard to mumble into his pint: "Too right. Burning CDs? Burning in hell more like. In my day..." at which point we stopped listening
c by register.com

China jails writer for six years

A Chinese writer who published essays questioning the Beijing regime online has been sentenced to six years imprisonment.
Zhang Jianhong, who wrote under the pen name Li Hong, was arrested and charged with "incitement to subvert state power" last September in a crackdown on cyber-dissidents. The punishment was handed down on Monday by a court in Ningbo, in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
Zhang, 48, was founder and editor-in-chief of Chinese language humanitarian website aiqinhai.org, and a frequent contributor to The Epoch Times, a New York-based news organisation which publishes independent reports from inside China in multiple languages. He spent two years in prison for his part in the 1989 student democracy movement which was crushed by the Tiananmen Square Massacre.

The Epoch Times reports that authorities cited 63 articles written by Zhang, many highlighting the plight of jailed lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who had spoken out against Beijing's treatment of followers of the outlawed spritual movement Falun Gong. Campaigners accuse authorities of harvesting organs from imprisoned Falun Gong followers.

Confirming that he will appeal the conviction, Zhang's lawyer told Reuters: "The accusations that Li Hong attacked the government through his essays is total nonsense. All he did was to exercise his freedom of speech guaranteed in China's constitution."

September's arrests included Zhang's fellow dissident writers Yang Maodong and Chen Shuqing, whose fates are unknown.

According to government-controlled news agency Xinhua, via free journalism campaign Reporters Without Borders, the court "showed clemency" in sentencing Zhang to six years because he "expressed remorse" for his writings. The Paris-based charity says China abuses free speech more than any other nation, with at least 32 journalists and 50 other internet dissenters in custody.

by register.com