Social networking site bans 90000 sex offenders
By Shalini Singh

While the internet entertains and enriches us in many ways, it has dark, evil crevices where sexual predators and pedophiles lurk.  How many such sexual predators with evil intentions join social networking sites like Facebook?  No one was sure till America’s leading social networking site MySpace revealed that it has banned 90 thousand sex offenders over the last 2 years.

In Jan, 2009, techgoss had published an article quoting the findings of 49 US State Attorney Generals investigating sexual solicitation of children online.  These Attorney Generals felt that there is really not a significant problem. The Internet Safety Technical Task Force was charged with examining the extent of the threats children face on social networks like MySpace and Facebook, amid widespread fears that adults were using these popular Web sites to deceive and prey on children. The US State Government top legal officers “concluded that the problem of bullying among children, both online and offline, poses a far more serious challenge than the sexual solicitation of minors by adults.”

But the problem of sexual solicitation seems to be worse than what the experts are telling us.

Now America’s most read tech blog Techcrunch has revealed that: “Responding to a subpoena from Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, MySpace today is handing over the names of 90,000 registered sex offenders who have been identified and blocked from the social networking site over the past two years. Kicking sex offenders off the site has been a big priority for MySpace. A year ago, it struck a child protection deal with 49 states, which put in place a series of safety measures such as policing the site for predatory content and removing any known sex offenders (which it had already been doing on its own). As a result of its efforts, MySpace says that 36 percent fewer registered sex offenders are now trying to become members.”

According to the Techcrunch report MySpace uses software it helped to develop called Sentinal SAFE to run its member profiles against a database of more than 700,000 known sex offenders. The technology ties together all the various state sex offender registries. It compares 120 different points of identification—including name, date of birth, photo, scars, and tattoos—to make a positive match and block those members from registering again. The Sentinal software is how MySpace identified those 90,000 blocked sex offenders.

(Techgoss had run the following story on Jan 14, 2009)

Kids safe on net
By Shalini Singh

Every parent in our professional and personal circle keeps a watchful eye on what their children are doing on the internet.  Some kids are only allowed to visit child friendly sites and the older ones are told that parents are monitoring computer logs to ensure the 15 year old young man is not distracted by soft porn website Savitha Bhabhi.  While the internet has done much to enrich and entertain us as a family, it has dark crevices hiding sexual predators and pedophiles that can attack anytime.

But it seems that the internet may not be such a dark and dangerous places for children at all.  A New York Times report published today quotes the finding of a task force of 49 US State Attorney Generals investigating sexual solicitation of children online, that there is really not a significant problem. The Internet Safety Technical Task Force was charged with examining the extent of the threats children face on social networks like MySpace and Facebook, amid widespread fears that adults were using these popular Web sites to deceive and prey on children.

The New York Times report which is recommended reading says the US State Government top legal officers “concluded that the problem of bullying among children, both online and offline, poses a far more serious challenge than the sexual solicitation of minors by adults.”

Naturally, not everyone feels that the investigation by so many leading legal officers reveals the true nature of the threats to the children online. Indian parents will continue to be cautious about their children’s visits online.