MySpace.com isn’t going anywhere even though Facebook.com has been growing significantly. There is a great number of people who have profiles on MySpace and have a huge list of friends. 
MySpace has been in the news before due to MySpace private profiles being unsecure.
Today, they are in the news because they got the word out that they have kicked out 90,000 registered sex offenders off their site.
Sex offenders targeting people/kids though Internet is nothing new. But, it’s great to see one of the mammoth site that was once a haven for these kind of nefarious people, has been taking some positive action.
TechCrunch quotes some data from Sentinal, a security technology firm that helps social networks like MySpace, beboe, MyYearbook, WePlay etc. to identify sex offenders.
Sentinal provides the software Sentinal SAFE that is a database of more than 700,000 registered sex offenders in the U.S. Off the booted 90,000 sex offenders (from MySpace), Cardillo, CEO if Sentinal has found 8000 of them in Facebook without much effort.
In favor of facebook, they did signed a deal with 49 state attorney generals to identify and remove profiles of all registered sex offenders.
But, its disturbing to learn that anyone can find some of these offenders in the National Sex offender Registry and match them up in Facebook. I am sure this bad press for Facebook will definitely get them to act swiftly.
Interesting post. One can only hope that as Facebook continues to grow, especially in the face of Microsoft’s involvement, that they too will begin inplementing the safety measures that the much larger Myspace has.
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I think it is great that these sex maniacs are being barred from prowling around looking for more victims. I don’t think a “sex offender” better known as a sex abuser ever gets better and is cured. These people should never be allowed to be in a position of influencing children into meeting them offline.
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Great job myspace. I wonder how many non US sex offenders did they miss. I think it’s only US where these sex offenders information is available.
A tip of the hat to myspace, good job.
hi K,
90,000? 700,000? Wow. Those numbers either stun me or make me think the definition is a bit too broad. Either way, I think this post reminds us how important it is for parents to stay involved with their kids and what they’re doing on the internet, and to teach them common sense. This world keeps changing, but basic parenting requirements don’t. ~ Steve, the trade show guru
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It’s a good move, however, I am surprised that they didn’t do this a while ago. Surely they must have had some idea that they had 90,000 sex offenders signed up.
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Seems like the largest amount of effort is going towards the smallest amount of threat. Less than one percent sex offenses come from the internet. Most, better than 90 % will be neighbors or FAMILY that offend. There is actually a larger chance that YOU will offend YOUR child than a registered sex offender on the internet.
90000 sex offenders? they are a lot!!
i mean, pervert people!
great job myspace!
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Great job indeed. But 90000 is far cry from all the sex offenders in the world. But at least that’s a great start!
what if you were a sex offender but changed your ways? are you not allowed to register in such websites then? i know it was a good move to remove the offenders but on the other side of the coin, there are also people who can change their ways
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That was a commendable job for My space, kudos! I hope other social sites will follow suit, too.
Way too many. How may sex offenders have accounts on different system. How many cheated facebook and still have their accounts there. We can only guess….
Yes it is incredible how many of them are on My Space, I reported a profile there of a child molester who was obviously looking for boys and did not even try to hide it, the Internet all around is a breeding ground for these sickos.
I reported a profile there of a child molester who was obviously looking for boys and did not even try to hide it, the Internet all around is a breeding ground for these sickos.thnaks
Good job for MySpace, because I dont want to watch those sickos anywhere..
And this is a bad side of Internet. We should all teach our kids how to avoid this situations.
Its better to be precautions..
As gswallow noted, sex offending is more a problem of the prysical world, than virtual. Moreover, kicking those 90000 “people” will not prevent them to register another fake account. But something has to be done, and MySpace does what it can.
It’s a sad sign of the times that this many sick people need to get booted.
I wonder if they got everyone perfectly or if they hit some innocent people by accident. It’d be unfortunate to lose the account because of someone else’s mistake.
I have a question.
Lets say that someone was arrested and prosecuted and convicted of a sex offense for having sex with someone under the age of 18 when THEY themself were 18 (so an 18 yr old having sex with a 17 year old for instance– boyfriend/girlfriend not strangers also). The parents of the 17 year old are the ones who call the police for the 18 year old. Well, long story short, the 18 year old does time, gets put on the offender registry for 25+ years and has his/her life disrupted by a ONE YEAR difference in age (or even two year but close to the same age as themself). There are ALWAYS exceptions to the rule, and there are ALWAYS stories of what happened too. Does this person deserve to be banned from Facebook oy MySpace because of this?? Should society shun this person (because once you’re on the registry it would become way harder to find work, or move, etc) instead of helping re-integrate them in society? All in all, I don’t believe we should judge EVERYONE just because they are on the registry. Although it IS more fair to ban everyone because people just don’t know than to find out the true story. It’s just kinda sad.
And then there are the people who really ARE dangerous…how do we even know? We should ban the drug users from being on myspace! or the people who sell alcohol to minors! Or how about a registry or a ban for people that killed other people! The only way to truly feel safer (honestly) is to keep people who you don’t know….CLOSER to other people so they are ALWAYS watched. That way, at least, you dont add to the problem.
Sorry for the longish rant, but I had a family member who experienced discrimination based on this tale that I told. They realize what they did was stupid, but they did their time. paid their debt to society, and are now banished/prevented from participating in many things WE all take for granted. Sigh.