MySpace agreed on Monday to take extra steps in preventing more online sexual crimes from commencing including searching for a better age-verification system. MySpace will implement its promise to form a group of industry professionals to improve the safety of users especially of those under age along with other social-networking sites.

Sites like MySpace and Facebook have grown exponentially in recent years with an estimation of 110 millions and 61 millions active users likewise. With teenagers making up the majority of such huge online community, these sites opened its door to potential sexual predators who usually sign on as a young user to attract youngsters and for cyber bullies to prey for their easy victims.

The most recent case on Monday, highlighted two girls no older than 15 being lured via MySpace to the home of a couple who allegedly plied them with alcohol, engaged them in group sex and encouraged the girls to dance in a strip club.

A 15-year-old girl from Texas was allegedly lured to a meeting, drugged and assaulted in 2006 by an adult MySpace user. And in the same year, a 13-year-old girl in Missouri hanged herself after receiving mean messages on MySpace she thought came from another teen that actually were sent as a hoax.

Things were getting out-of-hand; law enforcements and parents began to doubt the safety measures of these sites.

Monday’s announcement did not touch on the specifics steps about how improvements would be carried out and as far as it is concerned, age-verification technology is difficult to implement and predators are good at circumventing restrictions.

Over the last two years, MySpace has implemented over 100 safety and security innovations including a new technology detecting links to pornography sites. The technology redirects people who click on such links to MySpace’s home page.

Myspace too is creating a database where parents can submit children’s e-mail addresses to prevent their children from setting up profiles so that parents can let MySpace or other relevant sites know that they do not want their children to be on it.

MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam thanks the attorneys general for their concern and constructive suggestions. “We are happy to work further with the states to develop and deploy strategies to protect kids online,” said Nigam

MySpace is positive about curbing the problem they best they could with the help and cooperation of parents and the other industry’s players as he address this issue as an industry-wide challenge

Pic: Yahoo! News

Similar posts: