Privacy, Security & Virus Information

MySpace Has 90,000 Less Perverts Now

MySpace has taken the pro-active step of booting off 90,000 sex offenders off its website.

Their decision follows a call from U.S. state attorneys general for MySpace to make available a list of sex offenders on its database. Richard Blumenthal, state attorney general in Connecticut, who is a leading light behind a move to get sex offenders barred from social websites, told news agencies that he was not surprised that 90,000 users had been identified and thrown off. He believes, along with his professional colleagues, that social websites are littered with sexual predators and that the situation is getting worse. Furthermore, that unless the situation is taken seriously, then children and young users will continue to be at great risk.

His words seem to have a ring of truth about them, especially considering that a year earlier, MySpace had estimated that only half of the eventual 90,000 barred were sex offenders. And two years previously, in 2007, the number of sex offenders barred in a similar exercise was 29,000. In that exercise, MySpace was helped by security company Sentinel to match data on convicted sex offenders with user profiles, and establish a database of those that should be barred.

But MySpace arch rival Facebook has been criticised by some by not being so good at spotting offenders on its list of users. Facebook disagrees, saying that it has its own complicated systems that identifies potentially threatening users. It says that it does not allow investigation from external firms such as Sentinel, preferring its own measures to control its users.

But website TechCrunch called Facebook’s confidence into question, taking a list provided by Sentinel and cross-referencing it against a list of Facebook users. The result was 8,000 potential matches. After this revelation, Facebook did its own investigate and barred a total of 4,000 users.

The obvious discrepancy between the TechCrunch number and the Facebook number was blamed, by Facebook, on flaws in the external investigation, which confirmed the social website’s contention that only they can monitor and control their user list.

Facebook state that they are working closely with the office of Richard Blumenthal and will, like MySpace, continue to try and get their sites free of sex offenders.

But for many people the really alarming thing might be the sheer number of sex offenders on social websites. And these are the ones that have been identified and removed. How many have yet to be identified and removed?

It can only be hoped that MySpace and Facebook continue their efforts to rid cyberspace of yet more perverts.

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