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Dublin: 6 °C Tuesday 18 June, 2013

Gary Glitter Twitter account revealed to be a fake

The account, which had purported to be promoting an upcoming tour from the disgraced former pop star, was revealed to be a ‘social experiment’ aimed at highlighting internet safety.

Image: Andy Mellon via Creative Commons

A TWITTER ACCOUNT which purported to be that of Gary Glitter, the disgraced former pop star, has been revealed to be a fake aimed at highlighting safety on the internet.

The @OfficialGlitter account gained over 15,000 followers since joining Twitter earlier this week. Tweets send from the account described Glitter’s ‘plans’ for an upcoming album, an autobiography and a world tour.

However the man who tweeted from the account now says that the account was a social experiment to highlight internet safety.

In a Tumblr post, the man behind the account, who gave his name as ‘Ben’, said the account was to “highlight the dangers and safety of children using the social  networking sites and to discover and question public morality”.

‘Ben’ cited the fact that there is no legislation in the UK to stop sex offenders from using social network sites or computers, saying:

Twitter have [sic] no age requirement to become a member of their site and although Facebook terms and conditions require you to be 13 or over, parents are allowing their children to access and register on these websites, simply because “their friends do it”, the parents don’t know the dangers about their children being online or quite simply because they don’t care or see any real dangers.

He highlighted the number of supportive comments people made towards the account when they believed it was actually Glitter behind it.

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, was convicted of possessing child pornography in 1999 and served time in prison. He moved to Vietnam upon his release, where he was convicted of obscene acts with children in 2006 and sentenced to serve three years in prison.

Read the full post explaining why the @OfficialGlitter account was set up

Greece classes paedophilia as a ‘disability’

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Comments (13 Comments)

  • Social experiment or trolling?

    Reply
  • Cpm 21/01/12 #

    Ben needs to get out more

    Reply
  • He saw a gap in the market to trick a few people on the internet but it didn’t cause quite the stir he was hoping I’d imagine. Much ado about nothing really

    Reply
  • How could you stop sexual offenders from using the internet like facebook or twitter?
    I don’t think there is any legislation to prohibit this.
    Even if there was it would be ineffective as these sexual predators will always find away to avoid detection.
    It is a my perception to keep a watchfull eye on your childrens activities on the web.
    At least Gary is not the “Leader of the gang” anymore,

    Reply
    • Exactly.. The thing in check for under 18s or under 17s is really thorough indeed – click yes or no!

      So is he suggesting that each of us should have to scan in our passport and send it off to Facebook / twitter in order to create an account? Because thats just bullcrap.. If you fancy using a handle then that is your right. When signing up to a free service online we should not be required to submit ID.

      Parents should just do their job and monitor their kids.. I’m sorry, but you chose to have them, now do your job and raise them.
      (my 13 yr old niece has a Facebook, and she’s not allowed to add apps or friends without mum and dads approval, how’s that?)

      Reply
  • He’d be on BEBO

    Reply
  • Saw it during the week. It had about 100 followers. But 15000. That’s a lot of sad acts

    Reply
  • This sounds harsh but any adults or children that be friend gary glitter on Twitter real or fake are a bit silly

    Reply
  • howzat 22/01/12 #

    Experiment yeah right dweeb

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  • thats far from funny as little children all over the world have and are being abused. their life torn away from them and their innocence demolished like an old derelict building. shame on you my friend

    Reply
    • The name jerking jester is because i have motor and verbal tourrettes. Basically i twich and make funny sounds so eample “jerking = motor tourrettes and jester = because sometimes i make a really unusual sound and makes people laugh. so i do apologise if me not letting my disability keep me from having a life.

      Reply
    • Im kind of curious why people disliked my reply saying that person should be ashamed of themself. im guessing those that disliked it are pedos themself. oh and by the way ive been physically, sexually and mentally abused from the ages of 6 to 18 by three people so i have a right to be offended by any smart remarks made by silly small minded people

      Reply

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