Legal Research

MySpace, States Agree On Changes To Fight Sexual Predators

By David Badertscher, PLL

Source: Crime and Justice News, January 15, 2008.

"The social networking site MySpace reached agreement with 49 states on changing its Web site to help ward off sexual predators, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer. Authorities across the U.S. have been wrestling with how to combat the growing use of the Internet by online predators, and they have sought greater controls at networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook."

"MySpace will add several protections and participate in a working group to develop technologies, including a way to verify the ages of users. Other social- networking sites will be invited to participate. MySpace also agreed to allow parents to submit children's e- mail addresses to MySpace to prevent anyone from misusing the addresses to set up profiles; make the default security setting "private" for 16- and 17-year-old users; pespond within 72 hours to complaints about inappropriate content and devote more resources to classify photographs and discussion groups; strengthen software to find underage users, and create a high school section for users under 18 years old. MySpace is the nation's largest social-networking site, with more than 100 million users."

Philadelphia Inquirer

Full post as published by New York Supreme Court Criminal Term Library on January 15, 2008 (boomark / email).