MySpace Hands Over Sex Offender Data
Last week, the attorneys general of seven U.S. states demanded from MySpace a list of all registered sex offenders with profiles on the site. Though MySpace initially balked at the states' request citing privacy concerns and technical hurdles, it is now turning over the information.We're talking about kids getting abused here, so what took so damn long? After the states sent an initial letter to MySpace demanding the information, some in the group filed subpoenas or took other legal action against the social networking monolith. These legal filings, MySpace claims, were necessary steps to allowing the release of user info under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.
As for technical hurdles, MySpace claims to have developed a system called Sentinel Safe, which allows lists of registered sex offenders to be crosschecked against the site's list of users. MySpace has already used the program to remove 7,000 profiles and has pledged to open the system up to law enforcement agencies that want to do their own policing of MySpace.
So, it seems for some time MySpace has had the technology to remove sex offenders from its site. It was simply covering its ass from a legal standpoint before helping law enforcement make it a safe place for kids to hang out online. Nice one, MySpace.
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From AOL News
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