MySpace To Aid In Search For Missing Kids

Social-Networking Site Will Distribute Amber Alerts To Members In That Area

(CBS/AP)  The social-networking Web site MySpace.com will now distribute Amber alerts to members notifying them of missing children in their communities.

MySpace, a News Corp. unit, is teaming with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to distribute the alerts, which are triggered by law-enforcement officials.

The online alerts, which will begin Tuesday, will be sent to all users in the ZIP codes where it was issued. They will appear in a small text box at the top of a user's portfolio. The user can click on the box for more information, including a photo of the missing child and a description of the suspect.

It makes sense, says CBSNews.com technology analyst Larry Magid, who is also a member of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's board of directors.

"Teens are often the first one to know if another teen is missing and are more likely than adults to know kids who might show up as missing, so it's great to be able to reach teens where they hang out," Magid said.

The alerts were named for Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old girl killed in Texas in 1996.

MySpace also announced two safety features designed to protect members' privacy.

The site will now require people signing up for an account to provide a working e-mail address and verify their identity by responding to an e-mail sent to the listed address. This is a practice common with other online services, but MySpace has been hesitant thus far because of fears the confirmation messages might end up mistakenly in spam filters.

The site, open only to those 14 and over, will also offer a tool to prevent any member under age 18 from being contacted by adults, and vice versa. The tool, however, is optional and relies on self-reported ages.

MySpace recently said it was developing software that will allow parents to learn of their child's use of MySpace and be notified of usernames, ages and locations they use in their personal profile pages.

The software, code-named Zephyr, will run on the family's home computer but will reveal this information even if the child logs on from another computer, reports Magid. It will not reveal the actual content of the child's profile, e-mail or instant messages nor where they signed on from. It will alert the parent if the child changes his or her user name, age or home town.

[Jasonian18]

lol sounds about right myspace is so bad they are helping stop or slow down kid problems yet they still have their unsafe unsecure site up lol it really isn't wise at all/.

[hollylwood]

Absolutly want to have ANY Amber Alert sent to my Myspace page. I hope that the Amber Alert system will continue to use the most popular and most traveled areas, TV, Tech, and Real Estate opportunities.

[tres_marie]

I don't think this is going to be helpful. Myspace is just adding this to up its image. If you read the article carefully it says, "The site, open only to those 14 and over, will also offer a tool to prevent any member under age 18 from being contacted by adults, and vice versa. The tool, however, is optional and relies on self-reported ages."
Most of the child/teen predators lie about their age anyway... few, few teens - even on MySpace - would accept messages from creepy-looking adults. There are safer blogs out on the Internet, and most teens have to sneak on to get a MySpace anyway. Little sixth graders in my school district have their own pages - 11/12 year olds! Still with the "relies on self-reported age." When I went against my parents to get one (all my friends at the time pressured me to), I found it difficult to use and I felt so unsafe, even though I made my page pretty restricted. I lasted not even two months, and shut my down. It's not worth the risk!

MySpace just needs to be shut down already!!!!

[allgood34]

People need to get off of MySpace and start taking responsibility for the upbringing of thier children. If parents GET INVOLVED in their children's lives instead of letting the TV, the internet and the gaming systems raise their kids then these kids may be a bit more leary of the predators on the internet. Online predators cannot obduct children thru the wire so educate children on the dangers and get involved with their activities and interests and the threat of online predators will be greatly reduced. Getting involved may also reduce the risk of these predators being able to interact with children in real life as well.

[pskalerts]

This is nothing new or unusual. Project Safekids has been providing Amber Alerts on My Space and all other social networking websites for quite some time now. My Space is the "Predator's Playground". It is an attempt for them to basically get some free PR only. They will ultimately been pretty unaffective as the way that they are set up for distribution.
Scott
Project Safekids
http://www.projectsafekids.org