MySpace Adds Protections For Minors

MySpace.com, the most popular teen hangout on the Web, added on Wednesday protections for minors, a move that followed by a couple of days a Texas lawsuit filed by a 14-year-old girl who claimed she was sexually assaulted by a man she met on the site.

The social-networking site, which has posted tremendous growth over the last year, has become the focus of child advocacy groups that fear MySpace.com has become a favorite of sexual predators. Concerns over the safety of teens on the site have sparked a federal proposal to bar schools and libraries from allowing children to access MySpace.com and other similar sites.

In trying to allay the public, MySpace.com, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., put in place Wednesday added security for 14- and 15-year-old members, new options for privacy settings for all members and restrictions on ad placements to teens.

"MySpace is committed to innovating new product features to heighten online safety, particularly in the area of 14 to 15 year olds," Hemanshu Nigam, chief security officer for MySpace.com, said in a statement. "In addition to technology innovation, MySpace remains dedicated to a multi-pronged approach that also involves education and collaboration with law enforcement, teachers, parents and members."

MySpace.com recently hired Nigam, a former federal prosecutor against Internet child exploitation for the U.S. Department of Justice, to oversee its child protection measures.The added security features include preventing a person 18 or older from contacting a member under 16 years old, unless he knows either the email address or first and last name of the minor.

In addition, MySpace members of any age have the option to allow only friends within their private network to view detailed information on their profiles, such as personal interests and friends. Members can also restrict contact to people within their own age group.

Finally, MySpace.com vowed to make sure advertising that reached minors was appropriate to the age group, and said it would place ads that promote safe Internet behavior.

Parry Aftab, a U.S. lawyer specializing in Internet privacy and security law and head of WiredSafety.org, said MySpace.com's latest features were "a good start, but I need to see more."

"This is a step, and every step is good," Aftab said.

But how effective those steps will be remains to be seen, Aftab said. Even though MySpace.com says it won't target minors with inappropriate advertising, it's difficult to see how that can be accomplished for everyone when there's no way to verify the age of members. The same problem exists when MySpace.com says it won't allow adults to contact minors, since sexual predators can lie about their age."It's clearly a problem, but I'm not sure there's an answer to it," Aftab said.

It remains to be seen whether the additional measures would help in MySpace.com's defense against the lawsuit filed Monday by the Austin, Texas, girl. The $30 million suit claims the 14-year-old was sexually assaulted by a 19-year-old man she met on MySpace.com, which the suit accuses of failing to do enough to protect minors against sexual predators, the Reuters news agency reported.

The suit is not the first time MySpace.com has found itself the center of child sexual abuse cases. In March, two men arrested in Connecticut were charged with having illegal sexual contact with two girls they met through MySpace.com, according to Reuters. One girl was 11 years old and the other was 14.

The minimum age for MySpace.com members is 14, but verification of age remains difficult, officials with the site have said.

Incidents involving minors who use MySpace.com have sparked a public outcry that led to proposed federal legislation from Rep. Michael Fitzpatrick, R-Penn. Called the Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006, the bill would bar schools and libraries from allowing minors to access social-networking sites and chat rooms without parental consent.MySpace.com has become the focal point for dangers the Web poses to minors as a result of its phenomenal success. In April, the site grew 367 percent from the same month a year ago to 38.4 million users, making it the top social-networking site in the nation, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. The use of such sites in general have soared over the last year, with nearly half of all U.S. Web users visiting the top 10 social-networking sites.