Pedophile's Educational Site Blocked by Schools
Teachers were using resources from a website created by a pedophile.
TechEye reports that teachers in England, Wales, Scotland, and North and South Ireland were using a website called Sparklebox, a source for teachers that provides educational tools. The problem is that the website was created by a pedophile. Apparently school officials and authorities knew about the site's founder since December, and didn't bother to block the site until just last week. The website has been online since February 2006.
According to the report, Samuel Kinge was originally jailed in Warwick back in January 2005 for possession of child pornography. Over a year later, he launched the Sparklebox website using a different name. Kinge was then arrested again in September 2009 for possessing child porn, but this time was sentenced to 12 months in prison and served an additional 15 year sexual offenses prevention order in January.
Catriona Ruane, a Sinn Fein minister in the Northern Ireland assembly, told TechEye that Sparklebox was available to the entire Classroom 2000 teacher network. However the network consulted with its regional broadband units in England and made sure that "sufficient arrangements were in place to ensure the safety of users." Ruane did not specify the reasons for initially implementing only filters.
The Sparklebox site didn't become fully blocked until a parent contacted a Belfast primary school and presumably complained about its use. Once Belfast decided to block the site, the entire network followed suit. There was no indication that the website in question contained child pornography, or provided hidden links to external pornographic sources.
- Google Launches 'Twitter Killer' for Gmail
- Microsoft Refused to Sell Xbox 360s to Military
- EA Mandates Online, DLC for Every Game in 2011
- China Throws Internet Porn Monger in Jail
- Chinese Company Copies Google; Makes 'Goojje'
- Our Top 12 Favorite Super Bowl TV Commercials
- Artist Uses Floppy Disks to Create Paintings
- VIDEO: An HD Tour of the Space Station
- Samsung Launching AMOLED Phone Next Week?
- Droid Hack Controls Printers, Cameras, Others
- HTC Legend Specs Leaked (The Next Android?)
- LG's TV Manual Shows TVs With Pirated Movies
- EA's 'Project $10' to Squeeze Used Game Buyers
- Iran Giving Google's Email The Boot
- Hulu Working on iPad Support
- Tecmo Recreates Super Bowl XLIV in SNES Style
- Google Making 1Gbps Internet for Ludicrous Speed
- Wireless Cork Mouse Recharges As You Use It
- Google Street View Car Stalked by Snorkel Men
Would that be grand if we could do that too all undesirables?
He received 5 years for stealing a car...again... and then we tacked on 15 more for car theft prevention.
This is a very confusing article. There is an awful lot of missing information. I understand what the individual did. Unfortunately the article does not say why or how the web site is involved.
I dont get the big deal, the site was made by a pedophile but was there some reason the site was blocked other then the person who made it? If that is the only reason....then idk what to say. Although if I was a teacher at one of the schools I would make a site just like it and charge for its use (then get the network to use my site lol).
Holy half-assed articles Batman!
The website appears to be a bunch on brightly colored learning games.
It'd be like saying, "The mechanic at car shop XYZ stole a card when he was younger, so we should never buy a car at that shop. Ever."
The website appears to be a bunch on brightly colored learning games.It'd be like saying, "The mechanic at car shop XYZ stole a card when he was younger, so we should never buy a car at that shop. Ever."
+999999
This makes no sense.
I don't get it? What was so bad about the website?
or how the site was used by school teaches. I thought this thing was going to say something about the teachers using this for social networking to get to other pedophiles
Just looked at the site. I even downloaded content to help my 4 year old with writing, very useful stuff. What he might have done was wrong but this website is very usefull.
way for them to link 2 TOTALLY unrelated things to equal one bad thing.
im sure someone at google has a record for something...should they also ban google because "john in accounting for google has a record of drunk driving."
Just looked at the site. I even downloaded content to help my 4 year old with writing, very useful stuff. What he might have done was wrong but this website is very usefull.
Keep the website. Drop the pedophile off in the North Atlantic. Sorry, but strike two is two too many.
What does him being a pedophile have anything to do with whether using his site it right or wrong?
Somebody probably figures he'll use some of his income for evil, and they don't want to contribute...
This is a very confusing article. There is an awful lot of missing information. I understand what the individual did. Unfortunately the article does not say why or how the web site is involved.
I don't get it? What was so bad about the website?
What does him being a pedophile have anything to do with whether using his site it right or wrong?
My thoughts exactly. Okay the maker of the web site is a convicted pedo, but what if anything did this have to do with the site its self. I would have thought, based on the title of the article, the site had pedo material hidden somewhere or was used to get into contact with kids or something. Sadly nothing one way or the other. If the site was done by a pedo scum bag, and if it had nothing wrong with it other than the author then I really do not see the problem.
So, does this mean that someone that is found guilty of possessing child pornography is now no longer allowed to make money doing something else entirely? I'm sure that will solve all of society's ills.
I dont get the big deal, the site was made by a pedophile but was there some reason the site was blocked other then the person who made it?
I agree... very poorly written article.
I am 100% certain there are some people on assembly lines building cars who are pedophiles... we need to stop driving?
Bank teller is a pedophile... better stop getting money out.
that guy in the van offering candy is a pedophile.. better stop taking the candy?! jk
Kevin Parrish... most of his articles are like this. You would think after all this time with Best of Media, he would learn how to write a decent article by now.
The website appears to be a bunch on brightly colored learning games.It'd be like saying, "The mechanic at car shop XYZ stole a card when he was younger, so we should never buy a car at that shop. Ever."
We got a comedian in Quebec who got arrested last year for child pornography (Jean-François Harrison). The TV network stoped airing and removed all the shows where he performed. It seems that child pornography is the one topic that shows no mercy on the offenders.
Like most of you, I believe that creations should not be associated with the creator's crime. What if we someday find out that Picasso was a pedophile? Burn all his paintings?
sorry to be padantic, but i'm sure the title is spelt wrongly.
Not real shocking considering our " Safe Schools Czar " here is the US has close ties to nambla ( North American Man Boy Love association ).
Most misleading headline EVER. Seriously, that is it for me and this 'computer news' site. I've been coming to Tom's for years, but the slide into tabloid journalism has been annoying, but this is too much.
Thanks for the good stuff over the years, but I'll be getting my tech news somewhere else from now on.
The title is nothing but typical sensationalism. STICK TO TECH NEWS! just because someone used a computer to do something DOES NOT make it tech news. Geez my 5 year nephew could do better than this. You writers and editors should be ashamed of yourselves. Pathetic.
I agree with the comments about the title; I think it's very misleading.
Yeah the title was incorrect. That was fixed.
And now the students will not be as well educated due to one parents idiocy and the school's fear that they will get bad publicity for using a useful website. Idiots win yet again.
OK, so the site founder was a child pr0n creep. Apparently (I have not visited the site) the site is educational stuff. The headline here pulls us in making us think we got some teachers that are the same kind of creeps as the site founder.
WAS the material in any way tied into recruiting children into his lair? Was the site guilty of this? Or as already asked... is this only guilt by association?
IF we were to apply the guilt by association, every lawsuit Microsoft was in and lost for some illegal code would mean we ban all Microsoft products.
Umm... IF we actually applied this to everything, we'd have almost jack.
At least the man has done something good!
Let´s hope who ever "started" maths wasn´t a pedophile.
So what are we expected to do about Polanski work?
The article makes perfect sense if you're in the UK, because the sheer hysteria over pedophiles is at flaming pitchfork levels.
As a result, simple fact that the website creator is a pedophile means the entire parent and teacher bodies will instantly block his site. It doesn't matter if the site was useful, it doesn't matter if the site was legit. Simply by being a kiddie fiddler means he's blocked. Note though he was convicted of possessing child porn - that doesn't make you a pedophile. He's never fucked children, just wanked over videos of them. Not the same thing.
Granted, without being surrounded by this hysteria you won't automatically fill in the blanks in the article, so yeah bad journalism.
OK, I think you lot need some blanks filling in.
I work as a Tech in schools in a county in England. I won't say which county, suffice to say we blocked Sparklebox on 5th January 2010.
Why wasn't it blockwed sooner ? Because there was an ongoing court case, and it could have jeopardised the case had it been blocked sooner, and my understanding is that the Police asked schools not to block so that attention was not drawn to the case. Remember a man is innocent until proven guilty.
Why is it blocked you are asking, when it is just a site that provides links to other sites, and contains only educational resources ? How about BECAUSE THIS MAN MAKES MONEY FROM THIS SITE, AND IT IS THAT MONEY THAT FEEDS HIS FILTHY HABIT. So you say he only looked at these pictures. That is still too much, because people like him are the market for this filth, and if there was no market for it, there would be none of it.
That is reason enough to block his sites. Don't you see the irony, that he uses a website aimed at teaching primary school children, so that he can look at primary school children ?
it is not just child porn, anything that causes you to become a sex offender (even peeing on the side of a building) is enough to ruin your life to a point that you wont get work and any website you make will be blocked, because on one simple reason, when someone is a sex offender, not all details are gives so everyone assumes child molester.
anyway about the article, because of the hysteria over anything that has to do with children, no matter what that person does, the public will see it as some way to get a hold of some child porn and will then treat it as such.
If the different government put even half as much effort into catching people who rob other people for their belongings, as they do into catching people who download child porn, the streets would be much safer and no longer would you have to be scared to answer call on your cellphone in public or do any other normal things.