MySpace turns over details of North Carolina Sex Offenders

CNN bring us the news that MySpace have just handed over the details of more than 2,100 convicted North Carolina’s sex offenders who were registered on its site, and has now removed them.

MySpace did this in response to a subpoena from General Roy Cooper, the North Carolina state Attorney, who has requested the same details from Facebook. North Carolina passed a law last year banning sex offenders within the state from social networking sites where children are members, making it a felony offence.

"It's no secret that child predators are on these Web sites," Cooper said in the statement. "Turning over information about these predators to law enforcement helps, but MySpace, Facebook and other social networks need to do much more to protect kids online." MySpace is apparently developing technology aimed at finding and removing sex offenders, and Cooper is pushing Facebook to do the same.

But, Cooper's office said, "the information provided by MySpace does not include sex offenders who have not been convicted, are not registered or may be using aliases on the site. Cooper remains concerned about other sex offenders on the site who may be lying about who they are, and is continuing to ask MySpace to do more to protect children on the site."

Sex offenders on social networking sites is not a new issue. Last month, Newsweek magazine reported that Facebook said it had removed 5,585 convicted sex offenders from its site between May 2008 and January 2009. MySpace also announced it had removed 90,000 sex offenders in a two-year period, the magazine said.

Last June, the Texas attorney general's office said it had arrested seven convicted sex offenders who violated their parole conditions by creating MySpace profiles, according to an article on the TechNewsWorld Web site.

We would love to know whether registration on a social networking site open to minors could be made an international offence? Whether some kind of routine sweep for names and known aliases could be made a routine regular practice? Whether details of suspected groomers and abusers (not yet convicted) held by reporting authorities could be added to this list, in order to gather evidence against them and better protect children?

CCN Story