MySpace, a social-networking hub and one of the most popular sites on the Internet, on Tuesday admitted that it has deleted 29000 convicted sex offenders from its Website, which is more than four times the number cited by the company two months ago.
MySpace.com owned by one of the world's largest media conglomerates, News Corp., said it had identified and removed the profiles of the offenders, as part of its efforts to fend off pedophiles that are using the site as a way to reach underage users.
"We're pleased that we've successfully identified and removed registered sex offenders from our site and hope that other social networking sites follow our lead," MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam said in a statement.
In May, MySpace had removed the profiles of around 7,000 sex offenders, out of a total of about 180 million user profiles on the site, after matching them with Sentinel's registered sex offender database that contains the names and physical descriptions of convicted sexual predators.
The latest figure, which has quadrupled since software designed to search sex offenders out began running in May, was first released by the attorneys general from Connecticut and North Carolina, two of several US states whose officials have been forcing MySpace to provide them with the number and names and addresses of sex offenders using this portal, as well as the steps it has taken to warn users about sex offenders and remove their profiles.
MySpace initially denied to comply with the request by attorneys general from eight states to hand over the names of registered sex offenders who use the social networking Web site, insisting that the federal and state laws prohibit the site from revealing the identities of sex offenders to U.S. state attorneys general. However, it later began sharing the information in May after the states filed formal legal requests.
The Website, which currently has about 180 million user profiles and is adding 320,000 profiles per day, has become a common target of child protection advocates after the reports and lawsuits filed by so many victims of predators accusing it of failing to protect underage users from sexual predators.
This most widely-known lifestyle portal allows users to create online profiles with photos, music, and personal information, including hometowns and education. Company's policy prevents children under 14 from setting up profiles, but it relies on users to specify their ages. The site attracts about 60 million unique visitors monthly in the United States.
Last year in December, MySpace announced it was deploying new technology from Sentinel Tech Holding Corp. that will build a database containing the names and physical descriptions of convicted sex offenders.
According to MySpace, the technology, dubbed Sentinel Safe, helps the company to block convicted sex offenders from accessing the popular lifestyle portal. This automated system, which was launched in early May, matches MySpace user details with the database and helps the company to identify and remove any matching profiles from the community.
http://www.themoneytimes.com/article...id-107017.html
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