MySpace Deletes Sex Offender Profiles

[A Midnight Dreary]

LINCOLN (KPTM) - Social networking website MySpace has deleted 146 profiles that belong to about 112 registered sex offenders in Nebraska.

Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning says the company removed the profiles during the first half of this year.

MySpace gathers sex offender registry lists from states, compares those lists to users on its site and deletes offenders' profiles.

Bruning says MySpace deleted nearly 250 profiles last year. Bruning credits pressure from the attorneys general of all 50 states for MySpace's move.

"This is part of our on going efforts to help protect children on the Internet," Bruning says.  "Keeping sex offenders off social sites is a critical step to keeping our kids safe online."

Bruning also says a bill is in the works making it a crime for sex offenders to use social networking sites like myspace. That bill is part of the Attorney General's legislative package for the coming session.

The state has also created a site specifically geared toward Internet safety, http://www.safekids.ne.gov/. 

http://www.kptm.com/global/story.asp?s=8848236

[oohsofaabulous]

Well, I suppose it isn't a bad idea, but it won't stop the problem. You can be anyone you please on the internet. Deleting "their" profiles doesn't mean you have gotten rid of all "their" profiles.

[sbsweetypie]

[quote author=oohsofaabulous link=topic=15764.msg972276#msg972276 date=1218955866]
Well, I suppose it isn't a bad idea, but it won't stop the problem. You can be anyone you please on the internet. Deleting "their" profiles doesn't mean you have gotten rid of all "their" profiles.
[/quote]
Exactly what I was thinking... you can have whatever fake identity you want, use fake IP addresses ect. Too bad, but at least they are trying, I guess.

[Nomad]

[quote author=sbsweetypie link=topic=15764.msg972278#msg972278 date=1218956011]
Exactly what I was thinking... you can have whatever fake identity you want, use fake IP addresses ect. Too bad, but at least they are trying, I guess.
[/quote]

The effort's definitely there, but it's really difficult to enforce it as you've all said.  Even if it did work and somehow all registered sex offenders were removed from the internet - that still doesn't solve the problem of the offenders who haven't been caught.

The best defense against internet predators is the education of these children by their parents.