Sexual predators prompt MySpace to take safety measures

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Social networking MySpace announced on Monday it would take new safety measures to prohibit online sexual predators and bullies.

The new measures would include searching for ways to better verify users' ages to protect youngsters from online sexual abuses, MySpace said.

The online hangout would also create a task force of industry professionals to watch over its operations, and other social-networking sites would be invited to participate, according to the announcement.

MySpace has been under mounting pressure from law enforcement and parents to ensure online safety for youngsters since the venue has become a place for sexual predators who lie about their age to lure young victims and for cyber bullies who send threatening and anonymous messages.

MySpace, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., has more than 200 million registered users worldwide, with teenagers making up a large part of its membership.

It was estimated that 20 percent of teens have met someone online they had never met in person, and there are numerous examples of sexual abuse arising from MySpace encounters.

MySpace's move was welcomed by enforcement officials, but was met with skepticism from some experts who hold that MySpace and similar sites cannot eliminate the problem because age-verification technology is difficult to implement and predators are good at circumventing restrictions.

Parry Aftab, executive director of Wiredsafety.org, a children's Internet safety group, said the agreement was a good first step but could have unforeseen consequences.

"There's no system that will work for age verification without putting kids at risk," she said. "Age verification requires that you have a database of kids and if you do, that database is available to hackers and anyone who can get into it."

On the same day, attorneys general from 49 states said they would join MySpace in its safety operations.

"We thank the attorneys general for a thoughtful and constructive conversation on Internet safety," MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam said in a statement. "This is an industry wide challenge, and we must all work together to create a safer Internet."

The only state not joining the agreement was Texas, where the attorney general said he cannot support the effort unless it takes action to verify people's ages.

"We do not believe that MySpace.com - or any other social-networking site - can adequately protect minors without an age-verification system," Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said. "We are concerned that our signing the joint statement would be misperceived as an endorsement of the inadequate safety measures."