Katie.com: My Story |  | Author: Katherine Tarbox
Publisher: Plume
Category: Book
List Price: $13.00
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Rating:  110 reviews
Sales Rank: 720397
Media: Paperback
Reading Level: Young Adult
Pages: 208
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.5
ISBN: 0452282535
Dewey Decimal Number: 362.764
EAN: 9780452282537
ASIN: 0452282535
Publication Date: June 1, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
"Our lips met... I felt a few stray whiskers... and suddenly I realized that this was a grown man who was giving me my first real kiss... Something inside me snapped. Now I didn't want this at all. But I couldn't speak." Fourteen-year-old Katherine Tarbox wasn't sure how things had gone so wrong. She had planned to slip away during a school trip to meet 27-year-old Mark, whom she had corresponded with on the Internet for the last six months. Instead, she discovered that "Mark" was actually Frank Kufrovich, a man in his forties with a history of pedophilia. Katie.com is Katherine Tarbox's true story of how Kufrovich used the Internet to manipulate and molest her, and how she fought back by prosecuting him under the Communications Decency Act of 1996 and sharing her experiences so that other teens might avoid a similar situation. The saddest thing about Katie's memoir are the reasons she sought company on the Internet in the first place. Over and over she states that her mother was a workaholic who had little time for her. She was growing apart from her childhood friends and her oldest sister and confidante was always away at school. Like most teens, Katie was searching for someone or something to connect with--a search her own parents tragically didn't seem to recognize. Articulate, strong and brutally honest, Katie.com should be shared between adults and teens alike, not only as a warning against Internet dangers, but also as a reminder that a computer can never be a replacement for a caring, listening parent. (Ages 12 and older) --Jennifer Hubert
Product Description
Katherine Tarbox was thirteen when she met twenty-three-year-old "Mark" in an online chat room. A top student and nationally ranked swimmer attending an elite school in an affluent Connecticut town, Katie was also a lonely and self-conscious eighth-grader who craved the attention her workaholic parents couldn't give her. "Mark" seemed to understand her; he told her she was smart and wonderful. When they set a date to finally meet while Katie was in Texas for a swim competition, she walked into a hotel room and discovered who-and what-her cyber soul mate really was.
In Katie.com, Tarbox, now eighteen, tells her story-an eye-opening tale of one teenager's descent into the seductive world of the Internet. Tarbox's harrowing experience with her online boyfriend would affect her life for years to come and result in her becoming the first "unnamed minor" to test a federal law enacted to protect kids from online sexual predators.
In an age when a new generation is growing up online, Tarbox's memoir is a cautionary tale for the Internet Age.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 110
 Important Book, But Do Not Buy This Book January 3, 2005
Matthew Desario (Los Angeles, CA)
18 out of 29 found this review helpful
The publishers changed the title of the book from "girl.com" to "katie.com" weeks before publishing because "girl.com" was an adult site. Apparently, if it negatively affected their sales, they could be convinced to market a different title.
Unfortunatley, they picked a name "katie.com" that they do not own, nor have the offered to purchase it, nor have the offered to change their marketing scheme or title. Imagine if Penguin named their next book "The Rapist's # was ###-###-####" where your number was on the title of the book. Wouldn't that be horrible? Wouldn't you hope that a huge company would have the decency to do something about it, even now?
I know that lawyers at Penguin make all the decisions, but some of you are probably nice people. Some of you remember the difference between what you can get away with, and what is right. And what about the people who make the decisions. I am the owner of an IT firm here in Los Angeles and sometimes the right decision isn't the one my books, accountants, or legal counsel tells me. That's the reason I am the owner, the founder, the spirit behind the company. How difficult would it be to slap a huge disclaimer on the front cover of the book. You are telling me this wouldn't actually attract interest in a 4 year old release?
Allan Lane founded that company almost forty years ago. He printed books that were controversial and aided the public good. I bet if someone brought this to his attention, even if they couldn't enact change themselves, he would appreciate that type of leadership and initiative.
I pay people to surround me with reality checks. In the end, it's my vision that matters, not my pride. Anyone who assits me in making my reputation stronger and more valuable, they become a stronger and more valuable asset to me themselves.
I would never purport to give anonymous advice.
[...]
Happy 2005 to all.
God Bless the Tsunami victims.
Katie.com April 5, 2006
Mal Russo (Florida)
0 out of 8 found this review helpful
Katie.com was a very good book in my opinion. I think that Katherine Tarbox was very brave for writing about the troubles she experienced when she was younger. I don't know many people that would be brave enough to do that. Me, personally, I would be too afraid. She took on her situation full speed ahead. Instead of dwelling in the past she moved on. She moved on to become a wonderful author and possibly a role model for young girls everywhere. Yes it is bad that she had to experience such a truamatic event, but in a way it just made her a stronger individual. She can know look back at what happened to herself and think, "I've been through that. I made it and just look at me now." Seriously though, many people would just stay in a little whole and not come out for the rest of their lives. Those people are not cowards, they are just afraid that they will be judged for their actions. Katie was judged yes, but she proved to those people judging her that she wasn't afraid of them or the person that helped bring her up to point of her life.
What All Readers Should Be Aware of... January 17, 2005
Jocelyn C. Smith (Washington, DC)
13 out of 41 found this review helpful
First of all, I was impressed by this book, and recommend it to any parent or teenager. As someone who is exactly the same age as Katie Tarbox, this books speaks to me, and I can well recall my own experiences at that age, the vulnerabilities, and imagine what it must be like to live in that position.
But I am disturbed by the number of readers who called this book a 'sob story' and Katie 'stupid' either because this young woman had the courage to write her story, or because she was wealthy, or because she was not raped. Also those who slap her down for her writing style are also over the top.
1) 1995 was a different world for 13-year-olds. The Internet was new, a novelty to our generation, and it is all too believable that an intelligent, well-educated girl with absent or even mostly-normal parents could fall into a pedophile's trap. After all, 13-year-olds give never-have-I-ever information to friends face-to-face all the time. The predator's sexual questions might not have seemed that dangerous to a naive child. That's the essence of childhood, the reason she is the victim, NOT to be blamed. I am appalled by the number of people who called her stupid--on this review board alone!
2) The readers who criticized this girl's writing style and her "cashing in" on her experience are out of line and off the mark. For one thing, teenagers' lack of experience often does lead to certain grammatical/syntax errors that in no way diminishes the weight of their message to an INTELLIGENT reader. And another thing, this young girl did a HUGE service to children and parents by telling her story and publishing it, and she deserves to be recognized for it, not condemned. The idea that a victim of sexual molestation must suffer and recover in silence is outdated and sick.
3) Speaking of outdated and sick, the people who would belittle Katie because she "was not raped" should ask themselves if they would feel the same way if it were their child? If it were their child kissed and necked by a 41-year-old, if it were their child fondled under her clothes and pushed onto a bed by a predator? Would they still say, "you weren't raped, get over it?" I think not. Those who think it makes a difference are incredibly insensitive.
All in all, the naysayers have shown a profound ignorance of youth, the internet culture, and humanity in general, while Katie Tarbox deserves nothing but praise for the way she has chosen to recover from her ordeal. She has done so in a way that serves as a profound warning to teenagers and parents everywhere.
Oh, and about the domain name issue: it has nothing to do with the substance of this book. That Jones woman is the one who is printing "sob stories." I'm not saying she should give up her domain name, but the whining posted on her website was silly. SHE is the one who should get over her "ordeal." And the people who condemn Katie Tarbox for using the title "Katie.com" ought to remember that a teenaged girl writing her experience is unlikely to be familiar with Copyright Law and domain names. I thought it was a rather profound title, unlike the one it was replaced with.
In closing: Go Katie! Write on, and don't let the naysayers discourage you (but judging by what you've already overcome, somehow I doubt you will.)
Katie.com February 28, 2006
A Customer
1 out of 13 found this review helpful
I know there are a lot of negative comments about this book, but I personally loved it.
I went on a once in a lifetime trip to Antarctica and instead of watching the scenery, I read this book.
Its a very touching book, and I recommend it to ages 13 and up.
It teaches you how to be safe on the internet, and not to trust people so easily.
Katie.com May 4, 2005
2 out of 16 found this review helpful
Katie dot com was a great book! I think every teenager should read this book to let them know that there are some sick people out there. And you should'nt get in contact with anyone in a chatroom. This book taught me lots of things that I needed to know, like what not to tell people in a chatroom. I go into chatrooms all the time and people always talk to me asking for my asl and some personal imformation. This book helped me with that. Now i never no into chatrooms. I would really want to meet Katie and talk to her about her experence because the book was not enough.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 110
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