In the past I’ve been very critical of MySpace, for two reasons. (A) The site’s stated policy is to allow anyone 14 and older to create a page with personal information and (B) in the past, sex offenders have used the site to find victims. (Disclosure: I am a site member.)

This story is encouraging, but it won’t solve the problem. MySpace is working to exclude sex offenders from joining with technology.

Here’s how it works:

“MySpace is teaming up with Sentinel Tech Holding to build and deploy within 30 days a database that will contain the names and physical descriptions of convicted sex offenders in the United States. An automated system will search for matches between the database and MySpace user profiles. Employees then will delete any profiles that match.”

Let’s assume, for the sake of argument, they can make it so no sex offender can get around the technology. (Even though perverts could use fake names and fake pictures.)

So assuming that against all evidence, the fact still remains that a bunch of 14-year-olds will have information on MySpace, and you don’t have to be a member to access their sites. In some cases perps are believed to have “researched” teens on the site without necessarily contacting the future victims.

Also, from the story:
“The News Corp. site, however, won’t be using Sentinel’s technology to verify the ages and identities of users to ensure they’re not adults posing as teens — a change urged by many lawmakers and law-enforcement officials.

“Cardillo said his service would be ineffective for such a purpose given the site’s large teen population. Children don’t have public records the same way adults do, he said, so the technology can’t rule out whether an adult is posing as a teen online.”

So let’s be honest about what this will do. It will leave up teenagers’ personal pages, and continue to allow pedophiles to pose as fellow teens. It will just knock out those perverts stupid enough to use their own names and photos in the process.

I’d rather make things difficult for some perverts than none, so it’s a step in the right direction. But it doesn’t mean MySpace is managing its site with sound policies.
Robert VerBruggen blogs at http://robertsrationale.blogspot.com.