MySpace Agrees to Provide the Names of Convicted Sex Offenders On Its Site

May 21, 2007 -- (Boise) – Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden announced today that MySpace has agreed to turn over the names and other information of convicted sex offenders from Idaho who have registered on the popular social networking Internet site.

“I believe it is critical to receive this information to assess any threats by sexual predators to Idaho’s children,” Attorney General Wasden said. “Once my office receives this information, and we have an opportunity to examine it, we may determine that it would be appropriately referred to law enforcement.”

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Attorney General Wasden and attorneys general from seven other states sent a letter to MySpace on May 14 demanding that the company turn over information about sex offenders. MySpace has confirmed that Sentinel Tech Holdings has already identified thousands of registered sex offenders as members of its website. MySpace has deleted these users from its site but has preserved information about them and will provide it to the attorneys general.

MySpace will continue to search its site for registered sex offenders and will give the states information about all offenders found on its site. Wasden commended MySpace for taking this important safety step.

“I am concerned that sex offenders may still be using the MySpace site and will try to avoid detection by using an alias and misrepresenting their age,” Wasden said.

Attorney General Wasden has made Internet safety a priority. He has also been part of a group of attorneys general who are pushing social networking sites to do a better job protecting children from threats, such as sexual predators and inappropriate content.

Last week’s letter, written by eight attorneys general, including Wasden, is just the latest part of this effort. At the urging of the attorney generals in the past, MySpace has previously taken other steps to improve safety on its site such as screening profiles for inappropriate content and making certain profiles private. The attorneys general are continuing to urge MySpace to require parental permission for children to be on its site, among other safety steps.

Source: Idaho Attorney General