San Francisco - A glitch in News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) MySpace website has for months allowed users to view the pictures on profiles whose owners, including 14 and 15 year-olds, had deemed them as "private," Wired.com reported. The report details several instances where groups of self-proclaimed pedophiles or voyeurs have used the glitch to access and share such private pictures online.

The glitch has even resulted in the creation of ad-supported websites that automate the process and make it even easier to access pictures on private MySpace accounts.

"If kids are doing what they think they need to do, and are still having their photos picked up by slimebags on the internet ... then these are serious issues," Parry Aftab, executive director of WiredSafety.org, told Wired.com.

"If any site promises that, in doing something, your information will be private ... and it turns out that's not the way it works, that could seen as consumer fraud under the FTC Act and 50 states' worth of consumer-protection laws."

The revelation comes in the same week that MySpace announced a plan -- backed by the Attorneys General of 49 states -- to beef up privacy for younger users of the site, and after MySpace launched a well-publicized initiative last year to remove the profiles of sexual predators from its site.

Related Links:
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2008/01/myspace

http://www.myspace.com