Recently, MySpace purged thousands of profiles believed to be owned by registered sex offenders. One of the profiles belonged to Jessica Davis, a college senior at the University of Colorado. There is one problem with this, Jessica is not a registered sex offender, nor has she ever been convicted of any crime that comes close. The biggest thing she has even been convicted for was a driving offence in Florida.
To fight online predators, MySpace teamed up with Sentinel Tech Holding to develop technology that would link MySpace users via their profiles to several local sex offender registries. They were doing this mostly because of safety, they said. Later, several Attorney Generals in eight states (Idaho, Mississippi, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Georgia) sent letters requesting any information MySpace may have discovered in their searches. MySpace complied, and sent the list of over seven thousand names to the Attorneys General.
Speaking to ABC News, Davis explained that last week she was attempting to update her MySpace profile to announce a recent engagement. When she was unable to login she skipped the update and read her email. This is where the frustrations started. In her email she noticed a letter from MySpace. “It has come to MySpace's attention that you are a registered sex offender in one or more jurisdictions,” the email said. “MySpace is committed to removing registered sex offenders from its site, and will take all necessary means to block or remove anyone it determines to pose a threat to its users.”
Using an email address provided for appeal, she sent her own letter and demanded that corrections be made to her account and status. The subject “You have got the wrong person,” was sure to draw attention but her letter pointed out what she seen as the obvious. “I want to inform you that I am NOT a sex offender, let me repeat my self (sic), I am NOT a sex offender. You have the wrong person and I'm horrified and appalled at such an accusation,” wrote Davis. “I would like to know where you got this information and would like this matter cleared up ASAP.”
The response came days later and pointed out that there was no record of removed images or profiles, “If it was removed by MySpace it was because of a violation of our terms and conditions -- which can include a number of things (underage, inappropriate images, cyber bullying, spam, etc). Please review our terms for further assistance,” the letter from MySpace concluded.
Davis went to ABC News after she read a story about MySpace collection the information, and subsequently handing it over to the Attorneys General as requested. Fearing the worst, and getting no help from the social networking site, she went straight to the one source who might offer some help, the press.
ABC News, using her Social Security Number, last known addresses, birth date, and full name searched the same databases MySpace used. Jessica was clean, and the only thing close was the name Jessica Dawn Davis a registered sex offender in Utah, somewhere the Colorado Davis has never lived (The Colorado Davis has no middle neame). The removal of the MySpace profile might be related, but there is no way to know.
Calls to Sentinel Tech Holding who helped develop the MySpace list, by ABC went without answer. The only statement reported was from MySpace who said they are “investigating the matter.” This is not what Jessica wanted to hear. "I do plan to go into law and I want to go into the public sector and I don't want to have to explain this to people that there's this Web site MySpace and they screwed this up," Davis said. "I don't want to have defend my innocence." She might not have too.
ABC talked to the Attorney General’s office in Colorado where Jessica lives. Nate Strauch, speaking to ABC on behalf of Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, said it is unlikely that Davis would be added to the state's sex offender database just because of her MySpace designation. “The attorneys generals wanted to know which sex offenders have MySpace profiles so they can know whether those MySpace pages violate the terms of probation,” Strauch explained. “The real question would be why would MySpace have her listed as a sex offender?”
They do not have her listed. A search for Jessica’s name on the MySpace list also came out clean. Now what happens? No one is sure of that, least of all Jessica Davis, recently engaged, and without her MySpace profile. What can be said about the list sent to the Attorneys General? How many other false names are on it? MySpace would not comment on if this was a single issue or if more than one person has claimed to be falsely accused.
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