Facebook User Accused Of Sexual Assault

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Anthony R. Stancl, 18, allegedly posed as a female on Facebook in order to coerce a total of 31 younger male classmates between the ages of 13 and 19 to send him naked photos and videos of themselves.

Stancl, of New Berlin, Wis., was charged Wednesday with five counts of child enticement, two counts of second-degree sexual assault of a child, two counts of third-degree sexual assault, possession of child pornography, repeated sexual assault of the same child, and making a bomb threat, the Sentinel said.

After receiving the photos and videos of the victims, Stancl allegedly blackmailed the boys to perform sex acts on him, which he then photographed.

In addition to the counts of child pornography and sexual assault filed in the criminal complaint, Stancl is also being held for his alleged role in two bomb threats called into New Berlin High School, the Sentinel reported. If convicted on the 12 counts he faces, Stancl could receive the maximum penalty for his crimes, which is 293 years.

According to the Sentinel, Stancl pulled photos of female Facebook users off their profiles and sent them to his victims in order to induce them to e-mail nude photos back to him.

The Stancl incident is just one of a growing number of incidents -- murders or suicides -- that have taken place as a result of social networking. It's not to say that Facebook or MySpace is responsible for Stancl's or anyone else's acts. Instead, it's a reflection of what is happening as social networking practitioners move their lives to a very public life on the Web.

Even with privacy settings, filters and careful consideration of what is put on the Web, nothing is perfect. And more important, nothing is ever really taken offline. In order to avoid occurrences like this and other harmful or violent acts, users have to carefully monitor what information they put online and be a critical consumer of the information they receive, security experts have emphasized.