posted July 26, 2007 01:56 PM         

MySpace finds 29,000 sex offenders on website, more than 4 times previous total.

GARY ROBERTSON

Source: http://technology.sympatico.msn.ca/MySpace+finds+29000+sex+offenders+on+website+more+than+4+times+previous+total/NewsandOpinions/ContentPosting.aspx?isfa=1&newsitemid=36030024&feed name=CP-TECHNOLOGY&show=False&number=0&showbyline=True&subtitle=&detect=&ab

North Carolina's Roy Cooper is one of several attorneys general who recently demanded the News Corp.-owned website provide data on how many registered sex offenders were using the popular social networking site, along with information about where they live.

After initially withholding the information, citing federal privacy laws, MySpace began sharing the information in May after the states filed formal legal requests.

At the time, MySpace said it had already used a database it helped create to remove about 7,000 profiles of sex offenders, out of a total of about 180 million profiles on the site.

Cooper's office said Tuesday, however, that now the figure has risen past 29,000.

"I'm absolutely astonished and appalled because the number has grown so exponentially over so short of time with no explanation," said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, who also had pressed the company earlier for sex offender data.

MySpace declined to comment on the figure, focusing instead on its efforts to clean up its profile rolls.

"We're pleased that we've successfully identified and removed registered sex offenders from our site and hope that other social networking sites follow our lead," MySpace chief security officer Hemanshu Nigam said in a prepared statement.

Cooper is pushing for a state law that would require children to receive parental permission before creating social networking profiles, and require the websites to verify the parents' identity and age. For example, social networking sites would have to compare information provided by a parent with commercial databases. Sites could also force parents to submit credit cards or printed forms.

Cooper is working with law enforcement officials in other states in pressuring MySpace to use age and identity verification methods voluntarily. Based on media reports, Cooper's office found more than 100 criminal incidents this year of adults using MySpace to prey or attempt to prey on children.

Most recently, a Virginia man pleaded guilty Monday to kidnapping and soliciting a 14-year old girl he met on MySpace.

"All we're doing is giving parents the right to make a choice whether their children can go online," Cooper told a state House committee considering the bill on parental involvement and verification. He said the measure would lead to "fewer children at risk, because there will be fewer children on those websites."

Advocates for Internet companies and privacy issues testified against the proposed restrictions, saying the broad parental verification standards would be found unconstitutional because they prohibit free speech or impede interstate commerce. The experts who testified also said Cooper's idea isn't foolproof, because children could fabricate their parents' information and purported consent.

The parental verification requirement "makes promises to consumers that cannot be kept. It is dangerous language," said Emily Hackett, executive director of the Washington-based Internet Alliance, whose clients include Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, Yahoo Inc. and VeriSign Inc. "There is no way to eyeball a user."

The bill has already passed the North Carolina Senate. Now it goes to a House subcommittee for more consideration.

State Senator Walter Dalton, a Democrat who is a primary sponsor of the bill, acknowledged that it won't stop all sexual predators from getting on social networking sites. But he said it addresses a problem that shouldn't be ignored, Dalton said.

"There is obviously a compelling state interest to protect our children from sexual predators," he said.

posted July 26, 2007 03:15 PM         

Yeah and these sexual predators use Yahoo Chat rooms, Yahoo IM, MSN chat rooms, MSN IM, and the like as well as many other forums out there. They got to super markets and prey on lil kids ... bowling alleys, malls, theaters, parks, schools, churches .... the list goes on.

I agree they must be stopped ... but come on ... blaming a website is as ridiculous as blaming misspelled words on my pencil. They are everywhere .... not just on myspace. I'm sick of hearing about how myspace has "caused" this or that. Parents need to take responsibility ... keep their "children" away from such sites, be more stict instead of allowing their children to do what ever they want online, monitor them and their online activity, when caught let them face the consequences. It's easy to monitor someones online activity without watching over their shoulder. Browse ur history when they get offline. (that's if you cant trust ur kids to be telling you the truth)

Anyone notice Myspace is the first to step up to the plate and clean up their site of these sick twisted individual?

posted July 26, 2007 03:21 PM         

Just that if myspace actually have had parent control, then I really wouldn't be comming across webpages of 14 year old girls having... non-so-14ish pics and messages posted upon their pages. I am all up for developement room for a child but there are limits.

posted July 26, 2007 03:44 PM         

MY MY MY, ME ME ME
it's for your EGO
and as long as you
are operating from
ego, you will not
Master yourSelf!

gosh, sounds like
I'm judging, I know
alot of you have
a MYspace and I LOve
you just the same.
I just think it's
a bit much! Too
exposed for my
taste!

Being here in LL,
is Wonderful and
fulfilling for me.

Sorry if I offended
anyOne..it's just
what I think of it..
ignore me, please!
hehe

posted July 27, 2007 12:14 AM         

quote:

---

I agree they must be stopped ... but come on ... blaming a website is as ridiculous as blaming misspelled words on my pencil.

---

As much as I kind of don't care for MySpace, I have to agree with this statement. MySpace can't monitor everyone that comes on (even though it tries) so its kind of up to the individual to learn how to be a damn parent and be more vigilant instead of blaming everyone else for their poor disciplining skills.

posted July 27, 2007 04:25 PM         

seriously...thought they'd be way more. anyway I quit myspace when I found out my computer became my life

posted July 31, 2007 10:26 AM         

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posted July 31, 2007 07:16 PM         

lotusheartone - no one is offended. U have a good point. I have never seen myself having a MySpace page until someone, as I said above, said I "needed" to.

Dulce Luna - U are funny (humour not strange) the spanking of kids bit got me laughing.

Sexual Offenders... I do not understand them. I mean... is it because they are really messed up, or is it our society that is making them seem evil, because what if our society accepted relationships between old and underage, would it be still a "wrong" thing to do?