Texas AG: MySpace safety plan is smoke and mirrors
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Only state attorney general not to sign on with social network's proposed online kid protection measures writes open letter to the site's CEO.
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New York&#39;s attorney general and state legislative leaders presented a bill on Tuesday aimed at protecting people from sexual predators on the Internet, aand Facebook, MySpace, and Yahoo backed the effort.In a press conference, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver announced legislation they called &quot;groundbreaking&quot; in its proposed restrictions and controls of sexual offenders&#39; online activities.&quot;Today I believe we&#39;re proposing the most comprehensive, smartest, toughest law in the nation to keep people safe online, especially minors,&quot; Cuomo said.The Electronic Security and Targeting of Online Predators Act (e-STOP) responds to the widely documented use that sexual offenders make of the Internet, in particular social-networking sites, to stalk and victimize people, particularly minors.Specifically, e-STOP would require convicted sex offenders to register their e-mail addresses, instant message screen names, and any other online identifiers with the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services. That data would then be made available to social-networking companies and other online services so that they can then block access to sexual offenders and remove them from their sites.The bill also calls for allowing sentencing courts and the state&#39;s Parole Board to restrict the online activities of sex offenders who used the Internet to commit their crimes, victimized a minor, or are considered highly likely to repeat their offenses. In particular, the bill would ban many sex offenders from using social-networking sites.There are more than 627,000 registered sex offenders in the U.S., about 25,000 of whom are in New York, according to Cuomo&#39;s office.State attorneys general have been very vocal about their concerns over online safety, in particular of minors who are preyed upon by sexual offenders on social-networking sites, which are widely used by teens.The attorneys general have often criticized Facebook, MySpace, and other sites for, in their view, not doing enough to protect minors, but the two sides have recently seemed to get on better terms and have rolled out several joint security initiatives, partnerships and agreements.The e-STOP bill is needed to help social-networking companies keep their sites safer and will complement these companies&#39; in-house security efforts, Cuomo said.MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam agreed and said laws need to keep up with the times and technology. &quot;We hope [e-STOP] becomes a model for other states to follow,&quot; Nigam said.&quot;As Facebook and other Internet companies do our best to exclude [from our sites] those who would do our users harm, we need help from the government,&quot; said Chris Kelly, Facebook&#39;s chief privacy officer.Ideally, legislation like e-STOP would get enacted widely in U.S. states and also at the federal level, Cuomo said.
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A new police tool on the Internet has prompted hoax sites on MySpace.com, and the popular networking site is shutting them down.  At least 16 police or sheriffs&#39; departments appeared to have profile pages on MySpace to seek investigative tips or deter predators, but USA TODAY found that at least six were fakes.
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ALBANY, N.Y. -- MySpace reached an agreement with legal authorities in 49 states on changing its social networking Web site to help prevent sexual predators and others from misusing it, state officials said Monday.
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News Corp.'s (NWSa.N) MySpace said on  Tuesday it will offer in the next 30 days a technology to  identify and block convicted sex offenders from the popular  online social network.
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AUSTIN, Texas - A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the social networking Web site MySpace filed by the family of a 13-year-old girl who says she was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old man she met online.
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Tool makes it a snap to match domains to MySpace accounts We've been hearing for years that MySpace and other social networking sites can represent a gaping chink in an otherwise hardened corporate network. Now a London-based security consultant has created a tool that proves it.â¦
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Top global social networking site  MySpace.com plans on Monday to unveil a campaign to educate  parents, schools and teenagers about Internet safety as it  moves to protect many of its young users.
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In a Jan. 14 story about an agreement by MySpace to protect youngsters from online sexual predators, The Associated Press erroneously quoted Parry Aftab as saying that 20 percent of teens have met someone online whom they had never met in person. Aftab, executive director of Wiredsafety.org, a children's Internet safety group, estimates that 20 percent of teens have made contact with someone online and followed up with a face-to-face meeting.
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Two U.S. senators said on Thursday they would introduce legislation that would potentially protect users of popular social networking sites like News Corp's MySpace from registered sex offenders.
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By Anonymous  Lawmakers in several states are exploring ways to make social networking siteslike MySpace, Friendster, Xanga and others-safer tor kids.
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The social network will require age verification and use technology to block sexual predators from gaining access to the site.
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A closer look at the privacy issue It has recently been reported that Attorneys Generals from about a dozen US States, including Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Mississippi, Maryland, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania have demanded that News Corporation's social networking site MySpace voluntarily deliver a list of all sex offenders who have registered for or used the MySpace social networking service.â¦
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Social networking website MySpace says it will release tools to identify and block US sex offenders from its site.
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(InfoWorld) - Stepping up efforts to keep sex offenders off MySpace.com, the popular social networking Web site has partnered with an online identity and background verification company to build a U.S. national sex offender database and dedicate staff to checking the database against MySpace profiles. Sentinel Tech Holding Corp. will build a searchable database containing information on sex offenders in the U.S. who are registered with various federal and state law enforcement agencies. The database, which will be frequently updated, will include details such as name, age, physical appearance and distinguishing features like tattoos and scars. MySpace staff will monitor the site 24-hours-a-day for sex offenders who are on the list. They'll remove any matching profiles that they find. MySpace has been lobbying for new legislation that could help it take the program one step further. The company wants a law that requires sex offenders to register their e-mail addresses in a national sex-offender database. The law would stipulate that the use of an unregistered e-mail constitutes a parole or probation violation, forcing offenders back to jail. If such a law is passed, MySpace can more easily identify sex offenders that have profiles on its site, the company said. MySpace has been criticized for enabling profiles by registered sex offenders. Earlier this year, journalists around the country began cross referencing sex-offender databases with MySpace profiles, finding matches and publicizing their results. MySpace responded by hiring a chief security officer to oversee safety and law enforcement affairs and introduced an advertising campaign to promote online safety. MySpace still faces some thorny issues. For example, most sex offenders aren't legally forbidden from creating a MySpace page so it's unclear if MySpace will receive some backlash for removing profiles.ADVERTISEMENTNEW IT SERVICES FROM IBM: EASIER TO BUY AND IMPLEMENTDiscover a simpler, more cost-effective way to get the solutions your company needs to grow more flexible and efficient.
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The social-networking site MySpace.com has donated technology it helped develop to identify and block sexual predators from online communities.
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By ANNE MARIE APOLLO  Two women were asked to resign from their jobs at the Clay County Clerk's office this week and three others were suspended three days, accused of spending too much time chatting it up on the popular social networking site MySpace.