MySpace shares its database of sex offenders

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

MySpace, a popular Web network, has announced the decision to provide its database to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). The database is comprised of about 50 U.S. state registries on convicted sex offenders. NCMEC hopes that its use of the national database as well as the support of authorities, MySpace and other on-line communities will contribute to the efficient work of the center.

At present time the data contained in the MySpace database is gathered by a number of state authorities. The site, in conjunction with Sentinel Tech Holdings Corp., a company involved into background verification, has amplified a technology that united all the registries. It is claimed that the technology will assist police in keeping track of about 600,000 convicted sex offenders.

MySpace and Sentinel Tech Holdings Corp. has been involved in developing the database since December, 2006. The database has been used for identifying, blocking or deleting the accounts of convicted sex offenders on the MySpace service. The database contains special software tools to match photos and allows authorities to cross-reference photos or characteristics of sex predators against registered offenders.

MySpace's provision of its database, however, has not proven sufficient for some critics of MySpace who allege that the network fails to protect minors from adult predators. A member of a coalition of prosecutors from 39 U.S. states, which is demanding MySpace verify the ages of all of its members, has stated that the provision of the database is not sufficient protection for minors using the website. The member threatened unspecified legal action if MySpace continues to refuse to verify its members' ages.

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