MySpace: 29,000 Sex Offenders Were Registered on Site

[Ming]

MySpace: 29,000 Sex Offenders Were Registered on Site
High Number Likely to Spur Calls for Age Verification for Social Networks
By Jeremy Mullman

Published: July 24, 2007

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- MySpace has identified more than 29,000 registered sex offenders on its social network -- more than four times the number it claimed to have found in May, according to the North Carolina attorney general's office.
The new number of sex offenders on MySpace figures to boost identity-verification advocates who have been arguing for age- and identity-verification requirements for social-networking sites.

In the wake of several sex offenses that are alleged to have been traced to contacts on social-networking sites, MySpace earlier this year began checking its registered-user list against a database of registered sex offenders. In May, the News Corp.-owned site said it had found 7,000 users.

MySpace said the 29,000 names have been deleted from its servers.

But a document authored by Attorney General Roy Cooper distributed today in a hearing in front of the North Carolina state House of Representatives -- which is considering a bill, already passed by the state Senate, that would require parental consent for children to join MySpace -- put the number at 29,000.

"That number includes just the predators who signed up using their real names, and not the ones who failed to register or used fake names, or who haven't been convicted," wrote Mr. Cooper, who is one of several attorneys general working to slap restrictions on social networks. Attorneys general in Connecticut and Massachusetts have also been lobbying for reforms on MySpace and other sites.

The new number of sex offenders on MySpace figures to boost identity-verification advocates who have been arguing for age- and identity-verification requirements for social-networking sites.

'This is horrifying'
"On the most basic level, this is horrifying," said John Aristotle Phillips, CEO of Aristotle, a technology consulting firm that has developed age-verification for sites including Anheuser-Busch's pioneering Bud.TV. "You have 29,000 convicted sex offenders milling around with kids on a website, and it's just the tip of the iceberg because these are just the people who were stupid enough to use their real names."

MySpace has argued in the past that age verification is ineffective.

"It isn't perfect," Mr. Phillips conceded. "But it can at least reduce the anonymity that sex offenders require to commit their crimes."

I can't believe that registered sex offenders would actually sign up using their real names...

[Japher]

they wanted to project that the were honest; kids dig that

[Colon™]

29,000 out of almost 200 million registered users...

[Ming]

Originally posted by Colon™
29,000 out of almost 200 million registered users...

That's only the ones that were stupid enough to sign up using their real names.

[mrmitchell]

"That number includes just the predators who signed up using their real names, and not the ones who failed to register or used fake names, or who haven't been convicted," wrote Mr. Cooper

This is the kind of thing a good writer like Laz could rip to pieces. All I can say is DUHHHHHH.....

[Colon™]

Originally posted by Ming


That's only the ones that were stupid enough to sign up using their real names.

Who says they had a profile on Myspace to prowl on kids in the first place? The very fact they used their real names may indicate they weren't of the intention to break the law. If you won't allow them on a networking site with 200 million users, the vast majority of which are adults, then why would you allow them in any other human environment?

[b etor]

[Lorizael]

They've either served their time or they haven't. Sex offenders who aren't safe should still be locked up. If the government sees fit to release them, however, then they're supposed to be citizens like the rest of us.

[b etor]

Originally posted by Colon™


Who says they had a profile on Myspace to prowl on kids in the first place? The very fact they used their real names may indicate they weren't of the intention to break the law. If you won't allow them on a networking site with 200 million users, the vast majority of which are adults, then why would you allow them in any other human environment?

wrong

[Colon™]

Have you actually checked or are you just basing yourself on anecdotal evidence amongst your friends list?

[Lorizael]

No, b etor is basing her information off of the secret FBI database she has access to. I'd trust her/him/it.

[CrONoS]

Is sex offenders are exclusively paedophile?

Do I am a sex offenders If I got caught paying LordSheMale for sex?

[DanielXY]

Hmm, Is it even legal to ban people of a site just for the reason they are on a list of convicted sex-offenders?

I mean they didnt commit any actual crime... and as I read it there isnt any evidence they prepared to do so. The fact that they used their real names speaks certainly against it at least...

[Japher]

They hold the right to refuse business to anyone

[Jon Miller]

I wonder how many we have here?

I think that one member was one because he had sex with his 17 yearold girlfreind.

JM