MySpace Under Attack - Age Verification Issue
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said he has met with the founder of the popular Web site www.MySpace.com and challenged the company to make the site safer for teens who used it.
Now Blumenthal has gone a step further.
This week he sent MySpace a list of what he described as "practical steps" the site should take. Among them is providing parents with free software to block the social networking site from home computers.
Blumenthal said he also wants the social networking site to raise its minimum age for creating a MySpace profile from 14 to 16, to remove pornographic images and to beef up security on the site in an attempt to weed out pornography and catch possible sexual predators.
"Every day that passes with these problems is another day children are at risk," Blumenthal said Tuesday. "Time is not a friend in our effort to protect children."
MySpace has millions of users who create their own Web pages with pictures and text. Teens and adults use the pages to discuss their lives, interests and views about sex and romance. Users can leave messages on each other's pages.
Some experts say pre-teens often lie about their age and create MySpace pages. Even some users who meet the age standards reveal too much about themselves — including their schools, cell phone numbers and sexy photos. That makes them vulnerable to sexual predators, who often pose as teenagers when striking up online conversations.
In recent months, Connecticut has been at the center of a national debate over MySpace. Two out-of-state men were arrested this month and charged with molesting two Connecticut girls whom they met on MySpace. Middletown police also reported that seven local girls had been molested by MySpace users.
In the Danbury area, officials in Bethel, Danbury, and Newtown — among other places — have held information sessions for parents about the possible dangers of MySpace.
In the past, MySpace has indicated a willingness to discuss making the site safer. But on Tuesday, MySpace — owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., which also owns the Fox News Channel — responded to Blumenthal's call for change with a prepared statement that defended current policies.
It said, in part, that MySpace is "dedicating a third of our workforce to policing and monitoring our site on a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week basis to make sure our age requirements are met and that inappropriate images are not posted to the site. The accounts of users who violate these policies are closed."
MySpace said its workers review "every image hosted by our site – more than 1.5 million every day – using our dedicated customer care team as well as algorithms and search engines to identify and purge inappropriate material."
In February, Blumenthal said he met with MySpace co-founder and CEO Chris DeWolfe and company lawyers to discuss how to make the Web site safer for children.
Blumenthal would like to see MySpace ban anyone under 16 from the main Web site. He suggested MySpace create a separate site for 14- and 15-year-olds.
He also said he wants MySpace to require users to log in and verify their age before viewing profiles. And he said he wants only users 18 or older to be permitted to view adult material.
Is there a realistic way to get a person's real age?
"There are means of verification that exist that are feasible and affordable," Blumenthal said.
These include credit card and social security numbers.
Bethel Police School Resource Officer George Bryce said he believes the age issue is one of the biggest challenges for MySpace and other social networking sites. He said he knows some Web sites where people can verify their age with a credit card.
Bryce said he likes the idea that "instead of just throwing his hands in the air, he (Blumenthal) is actually doing something. It is a good positive step forward to help protect the kids."
Other experts say no age verification system is foolproof.
"A lot of kids fake their ages," said Ethan Mable, Danbury Youth Bureau detective. "Predators fake their ages."
Mable said he sees the importance of age verification — he just wonders if kids will find a way around it.
"Measures like that might feel good, but time will tell," he said.
Parry Aftab is executive director for a non-profit organization called WiredSafety.org, which devotes itself to educating parents and children about Internet safety.
She said she agrees with Blumenthal that Web sites, such as MySpace, should offer free software for parents to explain how the sites work and to block them if that's what the parent wants.
"It's not just MySpace; it's everyone's responsibility," she said.
MySpace officials said they have partnered with WiredSafety to improve site safety.
"MySpace posts a link to a set of safety tips prepared by WiredSafety on every page of our site," the Web site said in its statement.
Blumenthal said he would like to see MySpace increase staffing and employ additional filtering software to block nudity and sexually explicit images. He also said MySpace should hire a security director that is independent from the corporate hierarchy and reports directly to the Board of Directors.
"They can do better, with more staff and more affective technology," he said.
In their statement, MySpace officials said they work with hundreds of law enforcement agencies at the federal, state, and local levels to address potential issues.
Mable said he has worked with MySpace officials and found them cooperative. He said he hopes the safety measures MySpace is taking set an example for other sites.
http://news.newstimeslive.com/story....category=Local
Wouldnt it be ironic if it was actually a non-adult site that brought about the age verification issue rather than a porn site.
I wonder how MySpace will address this?
Regards,
Lee
