New Social Media "My Virtual Neighbor" Reduces Neighborhood Crime By 80%!

HOUSTON, Sept. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- My Virtual Neighbor is the first social network site proven to reduce crime in communities live on it by 80% as neighbors interact, claims founder Amit Mehta.

"As the first social network service focusing on forming ties and encouraging interactions based on common interest, it helps people to get to know each other and keeps everyone well informed on what was going on in and around their neighborhood in real time," says Mehta, who is also behind Moblize.com.

According to Mehta, My Virtual Neighbor concept is the cornerstone of the highly publicized "National Night Out" program which lets criminals know that neighbors are organized and fighting back. Something policing experts have known and encouraged for a long time – increasing communication between neighbors (people who live nearby you) is a great crime deterrent.

Case studies conducted on block 3000-3099 Sage road, communities, located in Houston, Texas Galleria area, have shown that after 10 weeks of MVN's release, crime rates dropped by over 80% in the area. Source: HPD reports block 3000-3099 Sage Road http://www.houstontx.gov/police/cs/stats2.htm

Being different from social media sites like Facebook and Yahoo groups, Mehta said My Virtual Neighbor is now showing positive impact in society by reducing crime in communities.

With its sight set on neighborhoods this new site is now defining a new kind of relations that get people to know new people who are interested in creating stronger communities.

Another point of interest here is that My Virtual Neighbor includes enhanced privacy controls and verification mechanisms to build trust with your neighbors, unlike Yahoo and Facebook groups, giving people greater sense of security knowing that here (at My Virtual Neighbor) they can be moderators themselves as opposed to someone else watching over them.

My Virtual Neighbor, according to Mehta, is focused on creating "our" network based on common interest, for instance, neighborhood versus Facebook which is "my" network.

"There's no mistake about it, we have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that the site not only help reduce crime, but it has proven to build ties with new people - people you don't know, but who share a common interest in your neigborhood or community," said Mehta.

Unlike Facebook  that relies on an odd notion of friendship… yes, we know those people that we connect with but are they friends? Only the ones we speak to anyway. Now that a social network that's revolved around neighbors - people who feel certain guilt about not knowing each other better, we are now looking at a more interesting dynamic – and a network driven by an unmet need.

"What more could we do if the folks in our communities could easily connect and communicate? The answer lies with this new social network, My Virtual Neighbor, whose aim is to find out what happens when.

SOURCE My Virtual Neighbor