MySpace banned 90,000 sex offenders

 

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By Stuart Turton and Reuters

Posted on 4 Feb 2009 at 08:14

MySpace has identified and barred 90,000 registered sex offenders from using the site over the last two years, according to a new report.

The "shocking" number was revealed to a task force of US attorney generals looking into sex offenders' use of social networking.

The figure is 40,000 more than MySpace has previously acknowledged, and was only divulged as a result of a subpoena from the investigative body. The social-networking site says it has turned over the details of those barred to the investigators.

"This shocking revelation, resulting from our subpoena, provides compelling proof that social networking sites remain rife with sexual predators," says Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.

"Almost 100,000 convicted sex offenders mixing with children on MySpace is absolutely appalling and totally unacceptable. For every one of them, there may be hundreds of others using false names and ages."

Two years ago, MySpace commissioned background-verification firm Sentinel Safe Tech Holdings to create a database of sex offenders after reports that some of its teenage users were abducted by sex predators.

"We can confirm that MySpace has removed these individuals from our site and is providing data about these offenders to any law enforcement agency including the Attorney General's in Connecticut," MySpace's Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam said in a statement.

Blumenthal's office says it is awaiting a response to a similar subpoena issued to Facebook, though Blumenthal says he expects the site to host "substantial numbers of convicted offenders."

Facebook claims it is working with Blumenthal's office but has "not yet had to handle a case of a registered sex offender meeting a minor through Facebook."

"Unlike MySpace or other social networking sites, Facebook has always enforced a real-name culture and has developed and deployed social verification and powerful privacy rules that allow people to interact in a safer and more trusted environment," the statement says.