MySpace and the Internet Safety Technical Task Force Report

January 23, 2009

By Jennifer Hull

In response to recent recommendations issued by the Internet Safety Technical Task Force concerning online safety for youths, Aristotle CEO John Phillips, a member of the Task Force, has issued his own statement on the subject. Phillips was encouraged with the Task Force report, but expressed disappointment that the recommendations did not go far enough in dealing with registered sex offenders on popular social network sites that attract millions of young Web users.

Internet Safety Technical Task Force Concern with Social Network Sites Such as MySpace

One recommendation of the Task Force calls for in-depth research on the activities of registered sex offenders who have signed up on social network sites that attract young people - such as MySpace. More than 50,000 registered sex offenders have been identified on MySpace as of June 2008 - each of them using their real names. Studying the records of these offenders - how they used MySpace, what kind of searches they did, how many underage friends they have on the site - will provide invaluable knowledge on how to better protect children from predators in the social network climate. The Task Force report learned that MySpace is destroying the records of registered sex offenders using its site, rather than making this data available for research.

Call for MySpace and Others to Release Records on Registered Sex Offenders

Phillips expressed disappointment that the Task Force not only failed to identify online user authentication/verification tools for making social network sites such as MySpace safer, but also failed to establish specific and objective criteria to evaluate technology safety solutions going forward. He believes the Task Force has created a false sense of security for parents by overstating preliminary and exploratory research findings about sexual predation online, and underestimating the risk to minors on the vastly understudied area of predation on social network sites.

Online Risk for Young Internet Users on MySpace and Other Social Network Sites

Phillips feels the Task Force should have recommended giving families the tools they need to protect their children, including notice to the user and to the parent the instant the site has information that a child has been contacted by a registered sex offender. According to Phillips, to date MySpace has made no effort to alert minors (or parents of minors) who were previously contacted by one or more of the known predators, although, according to Hemanshu Nigam, Chief security officer for MySpace, "We think it's really important to collaborate and partner with those that are also thinking about the safety and security of the community."

Phillips urges all concerned parents and teens to email MySpace and demand notification if they have been contacted by a sexual predator.