MySpace Boots 90,000 Sex Offenders

N.C. Attorney General Demands That Much Larger Facebook Follow Suit

(AP)  About 90,000 sex offenders have been identified and removed from the social networking Web site MySpace, company and law enforcement officials said 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 Web sites safer for young users.

Cooper said he wasn't surprised by the updated numbers, and demanded that MySpace and rival online networking site Facebook - which claim to have more than 280 million users combined - 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 user's ages, banning convicted sex offenders from using the sites and limiting the ability of older users to search members under 18.

Blumenthal, who received MySpace's updated numbers Tuesday through a subpoena, said the information "provides compelling proof that social networking sites remain rife with sexual predators." A preliminary number of sex offenders found on Facebook was "substantial," but he said the company has yet to respond to a recent subpoena.

MySpace executives said they were confident in the technology they use to find, remove and block registered sex offenders. The company uses Sentinel SAFE, a database it created in 2006 with the names, physical descriptions and other identifiable characteristics of sex offenders that cross-references against MySpace members.

"Sentinel SAFE is the best industry solution to ensure these offenders are removed from social networks," Hemanshu Nigam, the company's chief security officer, said in a statement Tuesday.

MySpace, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., has more than 130 million active users worldwide.

A spokesman for Facebook, which claims more than 150 million active users, said Tuesday that protecting its users has always been a priority.

"We have a policy prohibiting registered sex offenders from joining Facebook," said spokesman Barry Schnitt. "We are glad to be able to report that we have not yet had to handle a case of a registered sex offender meeting a minor through Facebook. We are working hard to make sure it never happens."

Still, Cooper said more should be done.

"Technology moves forward quickly, and it's important for these companies to stay ahead of the technology," he said. "And they're not moving fast enough for us."

The push for better restrictions came during a time when social-networking Web sites were seeing exponential growth, with most of it coming in the form of younger users. But along with the younger members came sexual predators who would lie about their age to lure young victims.

Blumenthal and Cooper, who co-chair the State Attorney General Task Force on Social Networking, have led the charge for tougher restrictions to be placed on who joins online social-networking sites.

The Internet Safety Technical Task Force report, commissioned by the attorneys general in 2008, researched ways to help squash the onslaught of sexual predators targeting younger social-networking clients. Enhancing Child Safety & Online Technologies, a report by the task force submitted to attorneys general in December, noted was no surefire way to guarantee online child safety.

The task force also played down fears of Internet sexual predators who target children on social-networking sites. While citing other dangers such as online bullying, the panel said cases of predators typically involved youths well aware they were meeting an adult for sexual activities.

But Cooper said the danger posed by sexual predators online remains.

"Our law enforcement officers investigating these cases tell us that predators are soliciting children on the Internet and in social networking sites," Cooper said. "We're working to provide more law enforcement to protect our kids, but social networking sites and technology companies must do their part as well."

[atherepist]

I study sex offenders and would like to warn that pedophilia is not contained in one lifestyle. To say gay people are dangerous to children is just ignorant. There is no clinical or legal statistics to back that up. Making such a serious comment directed towards a group of people when the issues needs us to all be well informed is really making light of a very dangerous problem. Remember most children are not molested by a stranger. It is someone they know and trust. Educate yourselves so we can all work together and help the children stay safe

[spiritwalk]

How did this get to be about cell phones? The story is about on-line predators.
Posted by Boston1954

-----------------------------------

I stopped asking those kind of questions when an article about Amish in a bus crash turned into an manic tirade against Sarah Palin.

Blogs are only bare walls and bloggers graffiti markers with electronic spray paint.

[boston1954]

How did this get to be about cell phones? The story is about on-line predators.

[mdalerwill]

Posted by antoniof123 at 09:13 AM : Feb 04, 2009

Yep, you''re right. My parents let me have a tv in my room, let me decide what I wanted to watch, and let me have my own phone line in my room (no cell phones in those days). They even let me speak up for myself whe I felt I was being wrongly judged or disciplined, which many people would classify as "back talking". And just look how I turned out. No arrest record. No discipline problems. No illegitimate children. A tax-paying professional. What a shame. On the other hand, I have a relative who had the exact same philosophy of child-raising that you seem to. Control (not monitor) their every move. She ended up with three ex-cons for children. It must be the best way to go.

[avigil2]

I think their are about another 10,000 more of these gay homos on these sites, get them off to. - Posted by libssuckk

Listen up your redneck bigot. Being ga-y and pedophilia have nothing to do with one another. Most se-x offenders are white straight males who pry on children for their own sick gratification. Please get a clue.

[mrnrgmizer]

"Our law enforcement officers investigating these cases tell us that predators are soliciting children on the Internet and in social networking sites," Cooper said. "We''re working to provide more law enforcement to protect our kids, but social networking sites and technology companies must do their part as well."

I''ve always believed that the internet is not...I repeat is not a toy for children to play online, and chat with friends and future friends....The Parents should be totally responsible for the actions of the children, including who they are chatting with online.
The crimes online are not real crimes, they are virtual crimes...crimes that don''t exist...be real people if a person is soliciting your child online, take the kid off.
Don''t allow children to play in an adult world.

[sly_64]

Actually, If I need a "house" phone, I''ll just leave my cell phone home. Then it''s a "house" phone.

[erasmus606]

Very soon, no one will have a "house" phone any longer, they are a waste.

Posted by sly_64 at 10:56 AM : Feb 04, 2009

There ain''t nobody going to take my "house" phone away from me!:)

[erasmus606]

It''''s an unfortunate situation but it is what it is, and I do what I have to.

Posted by sly_64 at 10:54 AM : Feb 04, 2009

I''m not for cell phones, but you are right, you do what you have to do. And it sounds like you are making a great effort to be a good dad, which is more than some do.

[sly_64]

I can also monitor every single text message and phone call sent and/or received by my kids. Every one of them, on-line.

[sly_64]

Very soon, no one will have a "house" phone any longer, they are a waste. That''s where technology is going now.

[sly_64]

And by the way, they never even asked for cell phones, I just got them cell phones so I can keep in touch. It''s an unfortunate situation but it is what it is, and I do what I have to.

[sly_64]

1. Kids DO NOT NEED cell phones, they want one. Sly-64 are you trying to tell me your kids don''''t have a phone at their house you could contact them on? Or is a cell EASIER for kids who runaround all the time?

2. Lets be honest, yes predators are disgusting and deserve to be busted and sent to jail. However their are plenty of stories of young men and women (children really) taking nude or partially nude pictures of themselves, drinking, whatever and putting them on the web. So, these "kids" are not that naive.

3. It is the parents responsibility to know what their kids are up to. Not the goverments, that is the problem. The goverment is suppose to provide national defense, infrastructure, and executive guidance/diplomacy. Not make sure we have healt care, not police the internet, not pay for our family planning. Do we need them to wipe for us to?


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Posted by shortyinmo

What I AM saying, is that I rarely communicate with their mother, other than e-mail, and no, I don''t even have their home phone number. A stepfather lives there. I do not have a LAN line and I see no reason to get that type of phone. If I had their number and called there I would never get through.

[erasmus606]

Hey parents my 12 year old son tried to set up and account my wife and I took it off. The Internet is great for kids to study and go to some sites but don''''t be idiots take some responisbility and get your kids off those sites they don''''t belong.

Stop letting them have TV''''s in their rooms take away the stupid cell phone. Why does a 12 year old need a cell phone. Don''''t give me we need to stay in touch my 12 year old is not allowed that far from me. In fact my wife and I know at all times where he is. In fact we know where the 20 year old is at all time.

God you people are morons for letting your kids be the boss of your house they are kids for crying out loud.


Posted by antoniof123 at 09:13 AM : Feb 04, 2009

Finally, parents with a brain!

Great post.

[shortyinmo]

1. Kids DO NOT NEED cell phones, they want one. Sly-64 are you trying to tell me your kids don''t have a phone at their house you could contact them on? Or is a cell EASIER for kids who runaround all the time?

2. Lets be honest, yes predators are disgusting and deserve to be busted and sent to jail. However their are plenty of stories of young men and women (children really) taking nude or partially nude pictures of themselves, drinking, whatever and putting them on the web. So, these "kids" are not that naive.

3. It is the parents responsibility to know what their kids are up to. Not the goverments, that is the problem. The goverment is suppose to provide national defense, infrastructure, and executive guidance/diplomacy. Not make sure we have healt care, not police the internet, not pay for our family planning. Do we need them to wipe for us to?

[spiritwalk]

This is total hypocricy on MySpace''s part.

Any male who has had a MySpace account knows that on your log-in page MySpace runs video ads for dating. The videoes are of young girls, who are supposed to be 18 but look much younger, slithering on beds.

They cater to sexual predators, that is their market base and they know it and they are out to make as much profit off it as they can.

They are doing this for publicity to get the heat off them for the moment, but the know perfectly well that most of these people will be back on MySpace with new aliases within 48 hours...and they want them back. The sexual predator is their bread and butter and they will keep serving them the fresh young meat they come looking for.

[inhaled_not]

Yes count on the government to protect your kids for you. Never mind that scientific studies have shown that the online "predator panic" is a complete myth CBS and other drive by media''s cannot shock people into watching their broadcasts or visiting their web sites by publishing the truth.

We the People now reads we the "sheeple"

[sly_64]

I would never be able to talk to my kids if they didn''t have cell phones.

[kdd0720]

Posted by sly_64 is completely right, as it is the parents'' responsibility to teach their children. And why do they need cell phones and facebook and myspace pages? Whatever happened to calling from a home phone and making plans with friends. It''s all the peer pressure that parents seem to comply with - not the children. What is wrong with saying "no" and mean it.

[billnterrac]

pardon the grammar issue - I am still working on my coffee... :)