MySpace finds 29,000 sex offenders on its site
Associated Press
Guardian Unlimited
The number of sex offenders found on MySpace has risen four-fold in two months. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images
MySpace.com has found more than 29,000 registered sex offenders with profiles on its website, more than four times the number cited by the company two months ago.
The figure was released by the attorney general of North Carolina, one of several US states whose officials have been pressing the popular social networking site, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, to provide data on how many registered sex offenders were using the popular social networking site and information about where they live.
MySpace initially withheld the information citing federal privacy laws, but the company began sharing the information in May after the states filed formal legal requests.
At the time, MySpace said it had already used a database it helped create to remove the profiles of around 7,000 sex offenders, out of a total of about 180m profiles on the site.
"I'm absolutely astonished and appalled because the number has grown so exponentially over so short of time with no explanation," said General Richard Blumenthal, the attorney general of Connecticut, who has also pressed the company for sex offender data.
MySpace declined to comment on the figure, focusing instead on its efforts to clean up its site.
"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's chief security officer, Hemanshu Nigam, said in a statement.
North Carolina is pushing for a state law that would require children to receive parental permission before creating social networking profiles, and require the websites to verify the parents' identity and age.
A Virginia man pleaded guilty this week to kidnapping and soliciting a 14-year old girl he met on MySpace.
Advocates for internet companies and privacy issues testified against the proposed restrictions, saying the broad parental verification standards would be found unconstitutional because they prohibit free speech or impede interstate commerce.
Associated Press
Guardian Unlimited
The number of sex offenders found on MySpace has risen four-fold in two months. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images
MySpace.com has found more than 29,000 registered sex offenders with profiles on its website, more than four times the number cited by the company two months ago.
The figure was released by the attorney general of North Carolina, one of several US states whose officials have been pressing the popular social networking site, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, to provide data on how many registered sex offenders were using the popular social networking site and information about where they live.
MySpace initially withheld the information citing federal privacy laws, but the company began sharing the information in May after the states filed formal legal requests.
At the time, MySpace said it had already used a database it helped create to remove the profiles of around 7,000 sex offenders, out of a total of about 180m profiles on the site.
"I'm absolutely astonished and appalled because the number has grown so exponentially over so short of time with no explanation," said General Richard Blumenthal, the attorney general of Connecticut, who has also pressed the company for sex offender data.
MySpace declined to comment on the figure, focusing instead on its efforts to clean up its site.
"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's chief security officer, Hemanshu Nigam, said in a statement.
North Carolina is pushing for a state law that would require children to receive parental permission before creating social networking profiles, and require the websites to verify the parents' identity and age.
A Virginia man pleaded guilty this week to kidnapping and soliciting a 14-year old girl he met on MySpace.
Advocates for internet companies and privacy issues testified against the proposed restrictions, saying the broad parental verification standards would be found unconstitutional because they prohibit free speech or impede interstate commerce.
