According to a Yahoo! News article, MySpace.com has discovered that nearly 30,000 of its accounts belong to registered sex offenders— a significant increase from its last census four months ago. Several attorney generals, including Roy Cooper of North Carolina, insisted that MySpace disclose information on the amount of sex offenders registered with the site as well as their location. The article stated that “after initially withholding the information, citing federal privacy laws, MySpace began sharing the information in May after the states filed formal legal requests."
Illegal solicitation of minors via the Internet is a serious concern in need of attention from state officials and parents alike. Addressing this matter, Cooper is “pushing for a state law that would require children to receive parental permission before creating social networking profiles, and require the Web sites to verify the parents' identity and age,” the article said.
Since its initial creation in August 2003, MySpace has become one of the most popular social networking sites; in the past four years, the site has acquired over 180 million user accounts. MySpace provides a great social environment to meet, communicate and share common interests with others, but like any virtual community, it must be protected and its users-- especially minors-- must have assured safety. With each proposed protection law, we can help make MySpace a safer place for everyone.
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