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MySpace evicts sex offenders
Source: Agencies |
February 5, 2009, Thursday
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ABOUT 90,000 sex offenders have been identified and removed from the social networking Website MySpace, company and law enforcement officials said on Tuesday.
The number was nearly double what MySpace officials originally estimated last year, said North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, who along with Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has led efforts to make social networking Websites safer for young users.
Cooper said he wasn't surprised by the updated numbers, and demanded that MySpace, and rival online networking site Facebook, do more to protect children and teenagers.
"These sites were created for young people to communicate with each other. Predators are going to troll in these areas where they know children are going to be," Cooper said. "That's why these social networking sites have the responsibility to make their sites safe for children."
The attorneys general received agreements last year from MySpace and Facebook to push toward making their sites safer. Both sites implemented dozens of safeguards, including finding better ways to verify users' ages, banning convicted sex offenders and limiting the ability of older users to search for members under 18.
MySpace executives said they were confident in the technology they use. The company uses Sentinel SAFE, a database with the names, physical descriptions and other identifiable characteristics of sex offenders that cross-references against MySpace members.
The number was nearly double what MySpace officials originally estimated last year, said North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, who along with Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has led efforts to make social networking Websites safer for young users.
Cooper said he wasn't surprised by the updated numbers, and demanded that MySpace, and rival online networking site Facebook, do more to protect children and teenagers.
"These sites were created for young people to communicate with each other. Predators are going to troll in these areas where they know children are going to be," Cooper said. "That's why these social networking sites have the responsibility to make their sites safe for children."
The attorneys general received agreements last year from MySpace and Facebook to push toward making their sites safer. Both sites implemented dozens of safeguards, including finding better ways to verify users' ages, banning convicted sex offenders and limiting the ability of older users to search for members under 18.
MySpace executives said they were confident in the technology they use. The company uses Sentinel SAFE, a database with the names, physical descriptions and other identifiable characteristics of sex offenders that cross-references against MySpace members.
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