MySpace Agrees to Boost User Safeguards

By Tulsa World, Okla.

Jan. 15–OKLAHOMA CITY — Attorney General Drew Edmondson and the attorneys general for 49 other states announced an agreement Monday with the social networking site MySpace.com that should help protect kids from Internet predators.

Under the terms of the agreement, MySpace will work with attorneys general to lead an Internet Safety Technical Task Force, which will work to develop age and identity verification technology.

“We as parents and members of the law enforcement community have to adapt with the everchanging technology,” Edmondson said. “As technology becomes more prevalent, so does the opportunity for predators to utilize it as a tool to track and victimize our children.

“Today’s agreement should lead to further protection for our kids.”

MySpace also agreed Monday to develop policies that will allow parents to submit their children’s e-mail addresses to a list to prohibit them from setting up a My- Space account.

Under the agreement, profiles for users younger than 16 will be set to private so that no strangers can get information from their profile; users can block anyone who is older than 18 from contacting them; and people

who are older than 18 cannot add anyone who is younger than 16 as a friend in their network unless they have their last name or their e-mail address.

The private setting will ensure that only users who are approved by the profile’s owner will be able to view and post comments to that profile.

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