Attorneys General Dismiss MySpace Privacy Claim on Sex Offender Profiles

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 17, 2007 - 12:02pm.

San Francisco - Several of the seven state Attorneys General who this week demanded information from MySpace on registered sex offenders with profiles on the network, are not satisfied with MySpace's response that federal law prohibits the company from divulging member information without a court order, CNET News.com reported.

While MySpace said Wednesday that it deleted "a few thousand" profiles created by registered sex offenders, the company cited the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 in refusing to turn over subscriber information to the attorneys general.

"The vague reference by MySpace to federal privacy laws certainly failed to justify a complete refusal to cooperate -- or insistence on a subpoena for all information," Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement. "If MySpace wants a subpoena, we will seek one."

"It's outrageous that MySpace chooses to protect the privacy of predators over the safety of children," said North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper.

"We will take action to require MySpace to give law enforcement and parents the information we need to protect our kids."

Meanwhile, Wired News, which discovered profiles for over 700 registered sex offenders on MySpace, reported on Thursday that five of nine of those profiles it checked after MySpace's announcement that it had deleted several thousand such profiles were still intact and active.

http://tinyurl.com/2d87ux (CNET)

http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/05/myspace_sex_off.html

Published in DMW Daily, May 17, 2007

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Comments

how many people in this

Submitted by anonymous (not verified) on May 18, 2007 - 7:09pm.

how many people in this world have e-mail addresses obtained with false information? it is a joke to think that the amount of money that is being spent on all this is doing little more then making people feel good. i know of several sex offenders and preditors with myspace accounts as well as e-mail adersses. but there are millions out there who are not under any such law or lable. lets not forget that the internet is world wide. and some countries dont have the attitude of the U.S. could you try to find something better to do with all this tax money like actualy do something for children. i know this may sound off base but why not try teaching them and the parents how to protect themselves? i know we all want the government to protect our children so that when something goes wrong we have someone else to blame, but hay they do a great job of it. just like the whole give kids condoms in school so long as you tell them that sex is bad first. stop blaming the law! there was nothing wrong with the laws prior to all this witch hunting. if a person is going to break the law they are not concerned with how many they break to obtain their goal. here is a good way to protect your children regardless of all laws in any country. it really simple and costs nothing. GET INVOLVED IN YOUR CHILDS LIFE!!!! that way you will leave very little room in their lives for the people that shouldnt be there.