Government Technology
Government Technology: State & Local Government News Articles

MySpace to Turn Over Sex Offender Data to States



Print
Comment

May 21, 2007, By Gina M. Scott

MySpace has agreed to turn over names and other information about thousands of registered sex offenders the company has identified on its Web site. The company's decision to disclose the data comes only days after the Attorneys General of eight states, on behalf of the larger group, wrote a letter to MySpace seeking the information. The letter also asked how many sex offenders MySpace has identified, how many profiles have been removed, as well as what steps the site has taken to purge them, and to alert law enforcement and users who communicated with the offenders.

Company officials had originally refused a request for the information issued on May 14.

"I am pleased that MySpace has heeded our demand, now by subpoena, to provide information about convicted sex offenders and confirm steps to remove them from the site," Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said.

In December 2006, MySpace hired Sentinel Tech Holdings to check the site for registered sex offenders. The Attorneys General wrote MySpace after receiving information that Sentinel's search disclosed thousands of offenders with profiles. The company confirmed Sentinel Tech Holdings findings and says it has deleted these users from its site but has preserved information about them and will provide it to the Attorneys General.

"We must keep barriers between predators and children and this information will help us do that," said North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper. "Parents know that sex offenders interacting with children is a bad idea, whether it happens on the Internet or in a neighborhood." Cooper is pushing a new North Carolina law to require parental consent and ban sex offenders from social networking sites like MySpace. That measure was unanimously approved by a North Carolina Senate committee last Tuesday and a vote by the full Senate is expected as early as this week.

MySpace will continue to search its site for registered sex offenders, and will give the states information about all offenders found on its site including their e-mail and IP addresses. The data can be used to look for potential parole violations by offenders who may be barred from using a computer or contacting minors and in ongoing investigations that may involve these offenders.


If You Liked This Article, You May Also Like...

Related Products and Services


Latest Government Technology News


Industry Solutions for Government

Read real world deployments of technology in government from our sponsors.

View All Industry Solutions

Marketplace


This section
brought to you by:
Ca - Transforming IT Management

Identity and Access Management Survey
Take the survey to:
  • Win 1 of 10 $25 Amazon Gift Cards!
  • Download the Center for Digital Government's: I Am Who I Say I Am whitepaper
Take the Survey Now!

SF Health Plan

  Yes! I would like more information about CA's solutions for Government.

Security Management

The Evolution of Identity and Access Management IAM has become a key tool in the organization’s security and risk management efforts. Many Govt. organizations however, are not realizing the potential of a fully evolved IAM solution. This paper helps them achieve that goal.

How can a comprehensive IAM solution help me reduce security risk and achieve easier compliance? Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions help you manage users and their access to your IT resources while acheving more effective compliance.

IT Governance

IT Governance: Making the Difference in Cities, Counties and States Project and portfolio management helps government respond to old and new challenges. Featuring case studies from California Department of Agriculture, New York City, and Oakland County, Michigan.

CA Information Governance Solution Brief The CA Information Governance solution helps you solve an array of challenges with unique offerings including federated records management, email management, retention management and business process automation.

Enterprise Management

IT Network Management: State and Local Governments Face New Challenges Network and voice management tools help agancies get optimum performance from today's increasingly complex networks.

Success Stories: San Francisco Health Plan San Francisco Health Plan helps more people access affordable healthcare by simplifying IT management

Success Stories: Social Services Agency, County of Santa Clara County of Santa Clara improves the quality of social services with simplified IT management

CA Network & Voice Management Solution Brief Integrated, fault and performance management for end-to-end service assurance of multi-vendor, multi-technology converged networks.

Risk Compliance and Best Practices

Key Trends in the IAM Market and how CA's R12 Suite Addresses these Trends Identity and Access Management (IAM) has been a major force in the enterprise IT marketplace for years now.This paper will address the question: What's driving interest in IAM solutions?

Network and VoiceManagement for Evolving Business IT management specialist CA provides a foundation for delivering the value of unified network and voice management

A Vision for Dynamic Business Service Management By applying new levels of consolidation, automation and insight, dynamic Business Svc Mgt delivers improved service levels and cost controls

Deploying the CMDB for Change & Configuration Management The Configuration Management Database (CMDB) plays a critical role within the ITIL framework.

The Changing Face of Network Management Automated NCCM tools reduce the downtime and degradation caused by configuration changes.