Site to give data on sex offenders

MySpace, the social networking website owned by News Corp., is providing state attorneys general with information on registered sex offenders who created pages on the site before they were identified and removed.

The company will speed up the delivery of information to the attorneys general so they can pursue any individual who may have broken the law, Los Angeles-based MySpace said Monday. The company initially resisted demands for the information last week from eight state attorneys general.

Authorities are seeking information on thousands of sex offenders identified as MySpace users. In addition to names, the authorities want to read messages sent by offenders to determine whether any have solicited minors for sex, Mississippi Atty. Gen. Jim Hood said.

Names and other data on sexual offenders were sought by attorneys general from Connecticut, New Hampshire, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, Mississippi and Idaho. Similar information will be requested from Facebook.com, another social networking site, Hood said.

“We will continue to make demands,” Hood said. “We know there are thousands of sexual predators patrolling social networking sites.”

The company has deleted about 7,000 profiles set up by registered sex offenders, said Mike Angus, MySpace’s general counsel. The company has retained information about the offenders and their messages and will share the e-mails with authorities, he said.

MySpace initially delayed providing information because of legal requirements, Angus said. In some states, privacy laws let companies release data only after a civil subpoena has been issued, he said.

“It was always part of the plan to provide this information to law enforcement,” he said. “Each state has its own process.”

There is no agreement yet on a request from the attorneys general that MySpace institute rules for age verification or parental consent, Angus said.

One problem is that there are no records, such as a driver’s license, the company can use to verify the age of most minors, he said.

The company is developing technology that will help parents find out whether a child has set up a MySpace profile, said Hemanshu Nigam, the company’s chief security officer. The technology, code-named Zephyr, will be shared with other social networking sites once it is operational, he said.

MySpace began deleting registered offenders from the network after developing a technology with Miami-based Sentinel Technologies Inc. that lets the companies compare user data with offender lists.