Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 1, 1995 TAG: 9508010076
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: C-4 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: JENNIFER LEUER Seattle Post-Intelligencer
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
They're a new breed of Guardian Angels.
Their mission: To patrol unfamiliar turf where red berets and black boots won't be needed.
``CyberAngels,'' who instead will arm themselves with aliases and personal computers, are set to appear on the Internet in late August. Their target: those who would commit crimes against children and acts of fraud, hate and pornography on-line.
``We're going to have men and women with pocket protectors patrolling the Internet,'' said Sebastian Metz, an international coordinator for the New York City-based Guardian Angels. ``The mix of Guardian Angels with the high-tech computer concept is not really a natural one, except there is such a similar need on the Internet as there was in New York when we started. There is a similar void where the police are unwilling or unable to make it safe.''
Since the project's inception about three months ago on Guardian Angels President Curtis Sliwa's radio talk show, the Angels have received hundreds of letters from supporters who say they also are concerned about fraud and children's safety in their online community.
Many parents now stay beside their children while they are on the Internet, after hearing about such recent cases as a suburban Seattle teen who ran away to San Francisco after receiving a bus ticket from an 18-year-old he met on the Internet.
``If people on the Internet don't conduct some kind of policing ... either the community that is the Internet will become an unpleasant place or very strict Draconian regulations will be imposed,'' Metz said.
The Guardian Angels was started in 1979 by Sliwa in response to the crime problem on the streets and subways of the Bronx. The group, which says it has an international membership of 5,000, is composed of volunteers in red berets who try to maintain safe streets. Guardian Angels use self-defense training rather than weapons to help keep the peace.
The group decided to branch out from streets to cyberspace because of the feedback Sliwa received after he proposed CyberAngels. He discussed the concept during a debate that stemmed from a continuing international conversation among computer users who grapple with concerns about pedophiles, hate crimes and credit-card fraud on the Internet, but cringe at the thought of regulations they say would suppress their First Amendment rights.
``The nation is concerned about this, and it seemed the Guardian Angels' concept - one simply about self-policing - applies itself well to the concept of the Internet,'' Metz said.
by CNB