Daily Mirror uses Pedobear to illustrate ‘vast network of child perverts’ on Twitter
AS the papers salute Mo Farah, the Somalia-born double gold meal winner for Team GB, the Daily Mirror readies its readers to the post-Olympic descent. The paper choses the morning of the final day of the London 2012 Games to leads with the news that paedos are out to get your children:
“TWITTER PAEDOS EXPOSED – Police swoop as we reveals vast network of child perverts”
After sport and bonking, drugs-taking celebs, what tabloid readers next like to look at is a story on paedophiles, especially in the summer months. The number of child rapists is not high. The number of readers who like reading about them – and politicians and hacks who like to talk about them – is huge. What better story than one of peados to illustrate all our fears? Is this interest in paedophiles healthy? No. Is the Mirror just tapping into a subject that it feels will unite its readers in a common revulsion? Yes. Does that story foster mistrust, telling us all that it’s not only strangers you need to be fearful of but every adult, even those in a virtual world behind your computer screen? Yes. From being a nation of winners the Mirror reminds us that we are locked in fear of one another, insular and suspicious. The paper says:
“Vile perverts using social networking site to find victims and trade intelligence”
And:
“Within two minutes of searching we found 20 paedophiles wanting to abuse young children – and 200 in two hours”
Is the Mirror shocked that of millions of twitter users some have an interest in having sex with children? Panicking over paedophiles is the clarion call of the age. The Mirror has just identified a new place where parents and children can feel anxious. The report of the “vast” peado ring fosters suspicion of all adults. The paper tells us:
Twitter is a paedophiles’ playground, with perverts using the site to swap vile images and videos of children, a shocking Sunday Mirror investigation has found.
Grim. But not surprising.
We uncovered disturbing evidence that hundreds of sex offenders are operating on the social networking site and using it to find young victims and trade intelligence.
Did the Mirror find any victims?
After we tipped off police, Scotland Yard detectives carried out a dramatic dawn raid, arrested a man and woman at their flat and seized computer equipment.
Two arrests. And?
The male suspect had been working at the Olympics in London.
And with that the in lid is put on the story of two alleged deviants. The Mirror then spreads the fear:
Every parent will be shocked by our findings.
Parents. Are you shocked? Since the 1980s, we’ve bene told that peadophiles are everywhere. The paper then tells us:
Twitter has 500million users worldwide, including many children who avidly follow their celebrity idols and sports stars.
Whammo! The Mirror has upped the ante. The story of two alleged criminals is now one about celebrity peadophiles, the apogee of the scare story. And it’s rife:
Child protection expert Mark Williams-Thomas, a former detective who led our investigation, said the use of Twitter by paedophiles was “out of control”.
Is it? Is Twitter being overrun by paedophiles? We then get his gem:
Some Twitter profiles even have names that openly suggest child abuse, such as “pedo-bear”.
FNPFGH! Pedo-bear, aka Peado-bear, aka Pedobear, the internet meme invented to, erm, mock paedos?
Pedobear is a cartoon mascot that became a well-known icon through its usage on 4chan to signal moderators and other users that illegal pornographic content had been posted. Due to the widespread nature of its application, Pedobear has been often misinterpreted as a symbol of pedophilia and lolita complex, especially in the news media and law enforcement agencies.
Originくまくま━━━━━━ヽ（ ・(ｪ)・ ）ノ━━━━━━ !!
The character known today as Pedobear used to be simply known as “Kumar” or “Kumā” (bear) on the Japanese textboard 2channel. It originated as an ASCII art image created by ぶる ~ 3, who was instrumental in starting an emoticon-only board on 2ch.[1] One of the earliest 2ch threads with this ASCII was posted on February 27th, 2003.[2] The bear would be posted as a reaction to threads where the original poster would be fishing for attention, as a way to highlight the thread was an obvious troll.[3]
Pedobear is an adolescent joke. (He’s been played by Prince Charles to much laughter.) The lead photo if from 2012, when a Polish newspaper identified Pedobear as a mascot at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. New Mexico police have issed a warning to apprehend Pedobear. The Daily Mirror now says Pedobear is cruising for victims on Twitter.
The paper adds:
Others use pictures of semi-naked under-age girls and boys alongside their names.
Wow! That’s some detective work there, Daily Mirror. Only, how does the paper know that these users are among those “hundreds of sex offenders” it has “exposed“? It doesn’t say. But it does tell us:
The investigation is the first of its kind into Twitter.
Really. Just yesterday the BBC reported:
Twitter’s child protection policies are lagging behind other social networking websites, a watchdog has warned.
The Mirror ends its article with word from one of the elite, without whom there can be no panic:
Former Digital Minister Tom Watson praised our investigation last night. The Labour MP, who has almost 90,000 Twitter followers, said: “This is a remarkable investigation by the Sunday Mirror. It goes to show that all social networks must remain vigilant and actively root out these circles of suspected child abusers.”
The people are powerless. It is the elite who wil protect us all from the peados in our midst…
Posted: 12th, August 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews, Technology Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
