Tech Shout!

MySpace, the popular social networking utility has actually put out a number of sex offenders lurking within its site, and the number is not small. MySpace has found over 29,000 registered ‘predators’, and according to officials this number is four times the number they found only two months ago.

According to Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Attorney General, who requested sex offender data from the company, “I am absolutely appalled because the number has grown so exponentially over so short of time with no explanation.”

MySpace is a site that is very popular with teens but is obviously feared by parents. In the past, the site was even sued by angry parents over child sexual abuse.

“We’re please that we’ve successfully identified and removed registered sex offenders from our site and hope that other social networking sites follow our lead,” said Himanshu Nigam, chief security officer of MySpace in response to the alarming number of offenders.

MySpace is so popular with the youth that it has a total of approximately 180 million profiles on the site, most of which are children.

North Carolina attorney general Roy Cooper is trying to get a law passed that required children to have parental permission before they can create a MySpace profile. If this law is passed, it would certainly help to curb the rising incidents of child molestation caused by perverts who are registered on this site.

Also, under this law, the adult would have to be identified by submitting personal information before their child can have access to creating a profile.

Cooper said, “All we’re doing is giving parents the right to make a choice whether their children can go online.”

MySpace chief security officer Nigam also added, “We’re pleased that we’ve successfully identified and removed registered sex offenders from out site and hope that other social networking sites follow suit.”

It sure is good that MySpace has managed to take down 29,000 sex offenders, but is that enough. What do you feel?