'Exposing Easton' Facebook Sex Page Under Investigation

Easton Area School District and Easton police looking into now-defunct Facebook page that claimed to chronicle sexual exploits of Easton area teens.

The Easton Area School District and Easton police are investigating "Exposing Easton Hoes," a now-defunct Facebook page claiming to chronicle the sexual exploits of young women from the city. Lt. Matthew Gerould said Tuesday police began an investigation in response to a complaint about the site, which included pictures of women and girls and supposed details about their sex lives. He declined to say what charges the creators of the page could face. "We don’t know what this investigation will disclose," Gerould said. The page collected more than 1,500 likes in less than a week before Facebook pulled it for violating its rules, according to the Express-Times. The Easton Area School District is also looking into the page, said Frank …

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Palmer Man Solicited Naked Photos from Girl, Police Say

Palmer Township man requested naked photos from 10-year-old girl via Facebook, court documents indicate.

Naked Photos of Girl Solicited Via Facebook, Police Say

Palmer Township man is accused of exposing himself to 10-year-old girl, according to court records.

A 50-year-old Palmer Township man is accused of having a 10-year-old girl send him naked photos of herself via Facebook. Court records also say the man, Pierre Gonzalez, exposed himself in the girl’s presence, and in Facebook conversations, encouraged the girl to have sex with him.  The records also say the man previously asked the girl while she was with him if he could see her naked. The girl also said he talked to her about “nasty” things. The girl told police she photographed herself, then transmitted the photos to Gonzalez via Facebook, the records say. Gonzalez appeared Friday afternoon before District Judge Jackie Taschner, of Palmer Township, who arraigned him on numerous charges, including criminal solicitation to commit rape of a…

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Moms Talk

Should Kids be Allowed to Have Facebook Pages?

You don't have to be a parent to know that there are very real dangers for young people lurking on the Internet.

Editor's Note: Mom is tired and she is going on a much-needed vacation. While she's at the spa, Moms Talk is going on hiatus too. Moms Talk is a Patch forum in which we ask members of Patch communities across the Lehigh Valley to weigh in on an issue that affects parents, children of all ages, and, quite frankly, people in general. You don’t have to be a Mom, or even a parent, to have an opinion on our Moms Talk topic of the week. And, we, in fact, encourage people of all genders, ages and life situations to share their thoughts on our weekly Moms Talk question in the comments section below so that our “discussion” can become as broad and, hopefully, as useful as possible. In this week’s Moms Talk, we’re exploring kids and Facebook: You …

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Facebook Fans Name New Klein Farms Cow

When Klein Farms welcomed a new cow recently, it turned to its Facebook fans to suggest a name.

Klein Farms Dairy and Creamery used social media to help name a new member of its animal family. A cow named Edna gave birth to a calf at the end of January and the farm folks posted a photo on Facebook asking for possible names. The post generated 177 comments. The winning name is "Ellie" and friends are welcome to come visit her at the farm's "moo-tel." Another new girl, named "Kupid," was born late Saturday night, according to the farm's Facebook page. The farm is Forks Township, outside of Easton.

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Reasons to Like Palmer/Forks Patch on Facebook

Join the conversation and get the news first at http://www.facebook.com/PalmerForksPatch

It's six months now since I took over as editor of this site and I want to thank all of you for using it as your source of local news, information and conversation for our great communities of Palmer and Forks townships. During this time, our following and readership has continued to grow at a steady pace. We have you, the Patch readers and users, to thank for that. As Palmer/Forks Patch users, you all know what a valuable resource this website is to the community. Another great resource is the Palmer/Forks Facebook Page, which like the site itself, is a place to get news, community information and conversation you can’t find anywhere else. We’d like to ask you to help us reach our goal of getting 1,000 Facebook likes for 2013. And if you …

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DNS Changes Cause Global Facebook Outages, Elicit Flurry of Doomsday Searches

First there was a Gmail outage and then Facebook went down for many users across the world late Monday, which prompted a flurry of twitter trends mentioning 'productivity' and 'the Mayans.'

Midday Monday there was an intermittent Gmail outage and around 5:45 p.m. EST a Facebook outage started attracting attention around the world, according to the website Mashable. Some people could see Facebook without images and others had no access at all. For diehards going through withdrawal, Mashable recommended visiting either the mobile site m.facebook.com or the developer preview site beta.facebook.com. SEJ Search Engine Journal reports there was a "flurry in twitter trends" for the words "productivity" and "the Mayans."  According to Mashable, a Facebook spokesperson sent the following statement explaining the outage. "Earlier today we made a change to our DNS infrastructure and that change resulted in some people being temporarily …

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Fake Facebook Profiles Could Be Criminalized

A proposed Pa. law would make it a crime to impersonate someone online through a social media account like Facebook or Twitter, or through a fake email address or text message.

By Melissa Daniels | PA Independent HARRISBURG — Offending someone online isn’t a crime, but proposed legislation in Pennsylvania would penalize people who take it too far. This week, House Judiciary Committee representatives are scheduled to discuss House Bill 2249, which makes it a misdemeanor to impersonate someone online. But the bill has stirred up free speech debates for its potential chilling effect on online communication — or on pranksters. Now, the bill’s sponsor says specific changes will ensure people who are joking with friends, or exercising First Amendment rights, won’t be prosecuted. The sponsor, state Rep. Katharine Watson, R-Bucks, said the bill is targeted toward giving law enforcement a way to penalize online bullying. …

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Opinion: Can Technology Be Moral?

"You can't wait until after you've released technology to consider the ways in which it may be used, either for moral or immoral purposes," said computer scientist Michael Spear of Lehigh Univesrsity

Do companies have an obligation to prevent the misuse of the products they create? Or should technology's users bear all responsibility for its proper use? As a computer scientist, Michael Spear loves technology. But his wife's background is in ethics, and they often find themselves discussing morality and technology. Together they realized that while Lehigh can teach students to be experts in their professional fields, in college too often students are left to learn ethics on their own. From that realization, Spear has fashioned the seminar, "What Happens Online, Stays Online - Forever," which he presented at the Lehigh Seminar Series, part of Lehigh's First Year orientation program, Lehigh EvoLUtion. Through discussion of several …

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Lehigh Valley Animal Shelters Need Your Vote to Win Chase Grant

The Center for Animal Health and Welfare and the Sanctuary at Haafsville are vying for Chase community grants via Facebook voting.

Voting has begun for the Chase Community Giving program and two non-profit Lehigh Valley animal rescue groups are in the running to win grants: You can vote via your Facebook account: If you have a Chase account, you get two extra votes. You do not need to be a Chase customer to vote on Facebook. 

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