Tech News
By Stevie Smith Jul 25, 2007, 15:25 GMT
MySpace throws out 29,000 sex offenders
And Also
Similar articles
- New Neilsen technology to help media producers curb online video piracy
- Assessing potential employees via social network sites could be illegal
- Watchdog warns against the dangers of social networking
- Facebook's purchasing Beacon causes a ruckus
- Social networks: Millions warned against falling to online fraud
Latest Headlines in Tech
- 1. Dutch workers urged to give up email - for 24 hours
- 2. Call of Duty racks up 3 billion dollars in sales
- 3. Call of Duty racks up 3 billion dollars in sales
- 4. Call of Duty racks up 3 billion dollars in sales
- 5. Google removes offensive image of Michelle Obama
Older Talkback
- I dont like sex offenders either. but trying to shut down myspace or juping on the bandwagon in hopes of altering myspace. Is the lazy parents route. Its the parents responsibility. Cant you control your kids? im seeing this more and more with many things out there where parents have no control over thier kids or dont disipline them i see you parents in the mall and in the stores. kick thier ass if they dont listen they are your kids cut the internet off buy a internet control program. very ridiculous subject this is. probably generated by soccer moms and vegan dads who have way to much time on thier hands.
Jack&Fina
This is ridiculous. People can become labelled a 'sex offender' for all sorts of frivolous stuff. The worst sex offenders--the ones who abduct and rape little kids)--are generally in prison, where they do not have MySpace accounts. The remainder, who have served their sentence, are rarely dangerous. Kids under 14 aren't supposed to be on the site anyway. This is just media-driven hysteria that erupts from time to time.
I think MySpace is right in doing what they have done. I think some in here try to trivialize the offenses that get people listed but in my opinion these folks are the lowest of the low. The impact that they have on society as malignant as the so called murderers someone listed above. Their crimes have an incredible way of breeding future offenders in that most offenders were also victims at some point. If there is any little thing that can be done to help break the cycle in anyway (like the MySpace action) then we need to do it. It's certainly a step in the right direction.
My, my. Only 29,000? They must have been using a coarse sieve indeed.
I agree with jack its the parents fault always control your kids!!!!!!!!!!
Sure makes a lot of sense to me. Tv show 'To Catch A Predator ' shows that about 2% of people caught in the stings are Registered Sex Offenders. That leaves about 98% of not yet caught sex offenders to molest children . Sure makes My Space safe.
Murder's aren't going after Kid's Most murders are crimes against people you know not strangers that you meet on the web. Were sex offenders have shown repeatedly that they will go to any lengths to have sex with minor's. which unless you know or have been around the victims of sex crimes you would also realize that the damage done can be as bad if not worse then murder. Also these site's then become playgrounds for sex offender's to hunt and lure there next victim. Further more the number may seem large but it's only about 10% cause now they will just use false names and alternate email addr. so it is almost pointless until ip trackers start keeping track of known sex offenders
Since when (and on what planet ) is molesting children a greater level felony than taking another persons life? ? ?
If people don't want their child on MySpace, there are plenty of free internet filters that allow parents to block certain websites,monitor their child's surfing habits, tracks the amount of time, and require a parental password to enter certain sites. Most internet service providers offer free parental control software. I think parents should take a more proactive approach to their child's internet habits. There are plenty of websties that parents can visit to learn more about how to keep their child safe on the internet and to learn instant message and text acronyms. Parents need to get to know the Internet and any services their child uses. They need to sit down and have their child show them what he or she does online, and become familiar with the sites and services that are available online. They should find out if their child has web-based E-mail accounts or instant messaging accounts, such as those offered by AIM, Google, Hotmail and Yahoo!® , and learn their user names and passwords.
Children would be much safer if their parents would become part of the child's life. Even off the internet that is important. We would not be hearing about Adam Walsh if his mother hadn't left a 6 year old child alone in sears while she was doing something else. Today she would be charged with child neglect.
I couldnt agree with you more.
The fun thing is that News companies, TV stations like FOX that are owned by news corp are advertising MySpace and the fact that registered sex offenders are using the site at least once a week in some news.
seems to me that they are out there to make money and actually don't care who is on the website and who is not, nothing but empty stupid nonsense talk about the issue.
When you build a candy store, people who REALLY like candy are going to show up.
Despite their best efforts, MySpace will never be able to rid the site completely of sexual deviants. It is up to the parents of the users to make sure their children are not being preyed upon online.
Ok, so list every single one. We have a right to know as much as they apparently have rights to exist. Tolerate no more. Accept only what you would tolerate in your own family as if it is one of your own violated. As long as we condone the notion that it always happens to someone else, we are powerless and can really only blame ourselves for not taking a stand. For once, step up to the plate and demand zero tolerance. Take action. It's not rocket science.
I love how everyone on this page commenting somehow equates sex offender with being a pedophile. The two are not synonymous terms.
Margie, as i pointed out earlier regarding 'To Catch A Predator' only 2% of people attempting to meet children for the purpose of sex are registered sex offenders. That leaves 98% of not yet caught sex offenders able to contact children. If the figure is correct that 29,000 registered sex offenders have been banned from my space, then that leaves 1.4 million uncaught offenders still online. If you can figure a way to ban the 1.4 million uncaught offenders, then the internet will be safer.
The problem still comes from the lack of parental interest in what their children are doing.Would you let your children play in the middle of a 4 lane highway? It's time for parents to start realizing that the internet is a super highway. It's child neglect for parents to allow children to travel the super highway alone without some supervision.
yeah, because pedophilia and rape are easily comparable with violating parking restrictions. You're an idiot.
forget about it,that comment made no sense. Do you not believe parents should be part of their child's life. I will not resort to name calling to retaliate for yours.
Okay. Let's play with the numbers a little bit.
There were 29,000 profiles belonging to sex offenders on MySpace, out of some 600,000 in the U.S. population. In other words, assuming one profile per individual, about 5% of registered sex offenders have MySpace profiles—that is, 1 profile per 20 offenders.
From Wikipedia, there are slightly more than 100 million profiles on MySpace. (This article claims 180 million, so Wikipedia's figure may be old or significantly underestimated.) Assume that these mostly belong to individuals from the U.S. and Europe. Again from Wikipedia, there are about 300 million people in the United States, plus 725 million in all of Europe. Thus—again assuming one profile per person—about 10% of that population has a MySpace. Or, there is 1 MySpace profile per 10 individuals.
This is, of course, a very rough estimate which undoubtedly fails to take into account any number of factors. Nevertheless, it looks like registered sex offenders in the U.S. are significantly less likely to have a MySpace profile than the general population. With a little bit of rational thought and calculation, it can be shown that this is far from an 'exploding epidemic of sex offender profiles,' and merely a reflection of the large number of registered sex offenders in the U.S..
And, of course, no evidence is cited that any of these 29,000 profiles were actually being used to victimize 'children.'
But, of course, rational analysis doesn't make the news—only moral panic. As a result, we get utterly irrational policies like the proposal to require parental permission and verification before any minor can create a MySpace—which, more than likely, will do more to prevent children in abusive households from forming the online social connections that will help them recognize their situation and escape it than to stop any children from being victimized online.
nleseul, I honestly don't know the answer to protecting children being abused by family member or friend of family, which accounts for about 90% of cases. It's pretty obvious that Megan's and Jessica's laws didn't prevent the rape and murder of Christopher Barrios. Actually the residency laws put the 6 year old child in harms way.Christopher's father is a registered sex offender as well as Edenfeld and the residency laws in georgia put both of them in same trailer park. As far as the 29,000 banned, they could have monitored their conversations and taken appropriate action if any of them made contact with children. That would take care of the small percentage of RSOs that act out against children. No idea how you handle the other 98%
Your Talkback on this Story