How Safe is MySpace?

(2 of 3)

The FBI says arrests of Internet predators more than tripled from 2001, to 1,649 last year, and there have already been more than 1,000 arrests so far this year. Experts note that even with this increase--attributed in part to more resources being thrown at the problem--the number of online-predator arrests is still small compared with the overall arrests for sexual assaults against minors, which in 2000 was estimated to be 65,000 nationwide. Even so, that same year a survey conducted by the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire found that nearly 1 in 5 kids had received unwanted sexual solicitations over the Internet. And a March 2006 survey partly funded by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reported that 14% of teens have actually met face to face with someone they had known only through the Internet. Lately, there has been news almost every other day of someone getting busted for having sex with a kid he met on MySpace. And the newsmagazine show Dateline has turned online sting operations into the hit series "To Catch a Predator," which has led to the arrests of at least 96 men.

MySpace has long had certain protective measures in place, such as a prohibition against posting last names, street addresses and phone numbers. But the suit filed last week against Solis, MySpace and its parent company, News Corp., which bought the site last summer for $580 million in cash, notes that even though new members have to submit their name, gender and date of birth, "none of this has to be true." Indeed, while MySpace maintains that it prohibits anyone under 14 from joining the site and anyone 18 and older from viewing profiles of those 17 and under, Solis and the girl both managed to thwart these restrictions. Solis, who has no prior criminal record, says he hopes the charges against him get reduced to injuring a child.

After the lawsuit was filed, MySpace, which removes pornography as well as obviously underage users from its site, announced additional restrictions, including preventing members under 16 from being contacted by users 18 and older unless they know the kids' full names or e-mail addresses. That, of course, won't keep out (or keep safe) people who lie about their age. "The big question," says Randy Barnett, a contracts and cyberlaw professor at Georgetown University, "is what could MySpace do to effectively prevent the misuse of its website, short of not providing the service at all?"

Several state prosecutors have suggestions. Massachusetts wants the minimum age on social-networking sites raised to 18. North Carolina is calling for a 24-hour waiting period to allow screeners to review changes to users' profiles, which would make these dynamic sites a real drag. Connecticut, meanwhile, has talked to Defense Department vendors to see what technology is available to screen content for key terms that might raise a red flag. The one issue all the states seem to agree on is the need to verify users' ages.