MySpace Removes 90,000 Sex Offenders From Site
News of the number of sex offenders using MySpace runs counter to a report released by a task force of state attorneys general earlier this month that downplayed the threat of sexual solicitation of children on the Internet.
Social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook have been under pressure to do more to protect children and teenagers online. The fact that 90,000 registered sex offenders had profiles on MySpace "provides compelling proof that social networking sites remain rife with sexual predators," said Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal in a statement Tuesday.
MySpace provided the list of registered sex offenders on its site in response to a subpoena from Blumenthal and North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper. Blumenthal said his office would examine the list and identify any Connecticut sex offenders with MySpace profiles and determine if they have violated any terms of probation or release.
Three weeks ago a report from the task force created by 49 state attorneys general to look into the issue of sexual solicitation of children online determined that the problem was overblown. The task force looked at scientific data concerning sexual predators and concluded that children and teenagers were unlikely to be propositioned by adults on the Internet. The report found that "cyberbullying" among children was a more serious problem.
But Blumenthal was among a number of state attorneys general who disagreed with the report's conclusions. Yesterday the Connecticut official said the subpoena response from MySpace bolstered his position. "Nearly 100,000 convicted sex offenders with MySpace profiles powerfully refutes the recent task force report—based on outdated and incomplete data—falsely downplaying the threat of predators on social networking sites," Blumenthal said in his statement.
"This just confirms what we in law enforcement already know—that child predators are using social networking sites to prey on kids and that we must keep pushing these sites to clean up their act," North Carolina's Cooper said in a statement.
MySpace issued a statement from Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam pointing to the Sentinel SAFE sex offender database it created in 2006 to cross-reference with MySpace profiles as proof the company is working to find and remove sex offenders from the site.
MySpace, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., has more than 130 million active users worldwide. Privately owned Facebook claims to have 150 million active users.
The Connecticut attorney general said his office is waiting for Facebook to respond to his subpoena. "Recent reports also indicate substantial numbers of convicted offenders with profiles" on that Web site, he said.