MySpace deletes 90,000 sex offenders
Social networking site MySpace has deleted the accounts of 90,000 users in the United States it has identified as sex offenders.
Social networking site MySpace has deleted the accounts of 90,000 users in the United States it has identified as sex offenders.
The site, which has a total of 130 million users, was responding to a call from state attorneys general in the United States to provide a list of offenders on its roster.
MySpace and rival networking site Facebook have committed to making their sites safer for the growing number of young users who log on.
However, the 90,000 sex offenders found on MySpace is a figure nearly twice that predicted by MySpace officials last year in a preliminary estimate.
Connecticut attorney general Richard Blumenthal, who is spearheading efforts in the US to make social networking sites safer for children, said he was not shocked by the number.
It provides compelling proof that social networking sites remain rife with sexual predators.
MySpace removed 29,000 users identified as sex offenders from its site in 2007 after working closely with security company Sentinel to develop a database that matched user profiles to data on convicted sex offenders.
Facebook does not use the Sentinel database, but employs its own innovative and complex systems to proactively monitor the site and its users, according to a statement.
However, Facebook`s measures to keep sex offenders off its site have been called into question.
An investigation by website TechCrunch cross-referenced a list provided by Sentinel against Facebook users and found more than 8,000 potential matches.
In its own investigation following TechCrunch`s find, Facebook disabled more than 4,000 accounts with user IDs associated with those on the list.
Facebook has been asked to provide a roster of sex offenders for the state attorney general, but has not yet done so.
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) receives around 500 reports of sexual abuse a month from children and young people online.
Eleven per cent of those reports come from social networking sites, said a CEOP spokesperson.
However, over 60 per cent of our reports come from online instant messaging facilities such as MSN messenger.
Grooming is known to take place in an online chat environment, and considering many social networking sites now have that application, it is important that they adopt a reporting function and adhere to the social networking guidelines issued by the Home Office last year.
Earlier this week Greater Manchester Police warned women not to meet up with a Facebook user after the body of a woman was found at her home.
The badly-burnt corpse of Clare Wood, 36, was discovered in the bedroom of her home in Salford, Greater Manchester, last week.
Detectives said George Appleton, 40, who lives nearby and is understood to have been in a relationship with the mother-of-one, could attempt to communicate with women via Facebook or dating websites.