In a deal announced today with 49 state attorneys general and Washington D.C., MySpace has put into place new measures to protect minors from sexual predators. (Texas is the lone holdout). The site, owned by News Corp., has agreed to independent monitoring and to work on age-verification technologies. It also agreed to, according to the WSJ:
• Allow parents to submit a child’s email addresses to MySpace to prevent anyone from misusing the addresses to set up profiles.
• Make the default setting “private” for 16- and 17-year-old users so they cannot be viewed by adults they don’t already know.
• Respond within 72 hours to complaints about inappropriate content and devote more staff and resources to classify photographs and discussion groups.
• Strengthen software against underage users.
• Create a high school section for users under 18 years old.
This is the latest in a series of moves MySpace has taken over the past few years to address the problems of sexual misconduct arising from use of the social network.
How long before the attorneys general ask other social networks such as Facebook and Bebo to sign onto similar agreements as well? Putting such protections into place is the price of being a responsible social network.
Update: For more, read this post on where FaceBook, Bebo, and Google’s Orkut need to catch up.
or.. join a ’social network’ (i vomit in my mouth a little every time i hear that term these days) that’s for ages 18+ so you don’t have to hang out with your 14 year old nieces and nephews. but that’s just crazy talk!
-mike
Bebo’s for British people. They’re called solicitors over there.
It’s clear that there will have to be a threshold of American users met before they require any other company to do the same as myspace. They did this in response to a problem, not as legislation.
Good step by MySpace.
This had to be done by Myspace sooner or later.
MySpace should partner with http://www.imbee.com the secure social network for kids and tweens. At least that way users under the age of 13 will have a decent option instead of going on to MySpace. Maybe that will help.
This is a good start and I applaud MySpace for taking steps to keep their space safer. However, asking a parent to add an email address of their child is somewhat ridiculous. Email addresses are cheap and disposable. A lot of parents don’t even know their kid’s email and even if they do a child can easily get a new email address in seconds. A lot of parents don’t even know if their kids have a MySpace page. You would be startled at many of the emails we get at IMSafer from parents who are amazed at what they find about their kids online behavior. Kids have multiple MySpace pages, parent safe pages, and the page they use with their friends. The steps taken by MySpace certainly are a step forward, however, it’s a marathon and a few steps are a long way from really solving the problem. Basically this agreement with the AG’s says hey, “we’ll work on it”. Looks like a PR strategy, not a real set of solutions to stave the issue.
The bigger the social network gets, the more problems they will have.
Mmm, instead of the TSA we get the MSA and a “no-profile list.” Odds on when the first problem with this plan comes up? Maybe some band will sue for not being able to create a profile with which to promote themselves, causing loss of professional standing. It’ll be something.
Won’t be long before FaceBook does it as they’ll look irresponsible now .. especially if TechCrunch are working the story too.
MySpace has led the industry in protecting minors. This looks like an interesting move and I hope it does more than satisfy the AGs and people who really don’t understand safety issues.
I fear that the email list and age verification systems will actually work to inadvertently create false sense of security amongst parents and the people who really need to protect their children.
We may have had a conversation in the Energy Room about this at one point.
Sexual predators should be towed behind a wake-boarding boat without a wake-board or a life jacket, right into the Amazon river, where hopefully, a school of man-eating piranha relieve them of of most of themselves.
Nice.
To the latin adolescents I recommend metroflog to them. But is unique responsibility of the parents controled the material that our children are handle in Internet.
I do not understand what prevents a 35 year old man from creating a MySpace profile that says he is 15 and working his way in. Wouldn’t he know exactly where to go if there is a high school section?
Michelle There is alot wrong with a 35 year old man from creating a myspace profile he is oviously to old to be trying to get at some 14 or 15 year old femle RAPE hello think about unless you are just like that person and want to end up like him and be a sexual Preditor.
I completely agree with Michelle. While these changes may assure government bodies that “the thing is taken seriously” and “something is being done about it”, the truth is that they provide little or no help to this issue. The internet and social networks within are just another means of communication, and the best way would be to increase awareness between minors of these issues, preferably by an online “pop-up div” (unblockable) campaign. The real issue is whether MySpace and others are willing to take a risk of being “labelled” by putting out such a campaign. The best option would be if a number of major social networks would agree to put out a campaign simultaneously. Let’s hope they do.
There is alot wrong with working on myspace. Because the simply fact that people now days dont know how to control there needs for sex. Then they go and find a child or teenage that is younger then them and they try and make friends and lower them into thier little trap. But Myspace is more for 14+ at least that is what it says on the sign up. Maybe these pervs should learn how to control thier hormones and maybe none onf this would happen. None of this oh Myspace is a bad place. Tell all these diffrent adults to keep their Times and Sexual talk all to them selves and maybe this internet world would be a better place for everyone to hang and be!!! JUST LIKE THIS WORLD SHOULD BE
-Thank You,
i think myspace has alot of problems and they need to fix it
I don’t think My space is doing enough. I have reported two people that are twelve years old on My Space and they have done nothing about it. Had they even checked it out they would have noticed not only did they say they were twelve but also gave their real name addresses and schools they attended. I think it’s a very dangerous place for kids.. a great place for some but horrible for kids and too much porn sites that also was reported and yet nothing was done.