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Plan to Let Parents Track MySpace Profiles Met With Skepticism

Posted on: Thursday, 18 January 2007, 06:00 CST

By Greg Toppo

A plan by the popular social networking site MySpace.com to let parents monitor the basic personal information their children give out was met with skepticism by officials considering legal action against the site.

MySpace acknowledged Wednesday that it plans to offer parents a free software download that would allow them to track a child's MySpace user name, purported age and location. The move comes in response to concerns about teens pretending to be older than they are -- as well as reports of a few dozen who have been molested or even murdered by adults they met online.

The most popular of several social networking sites, MySpace had 55 million users last month in the USA, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, which tracks Web traffic.

The download is expected to be available in beta form this spring, MySpace officials say. The plan was first reported Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal. MySpace didn't reveal details about the software, saying that it is "in the early stages of developing" it.

In a statement, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal called the plan "a shortsighted and ineffective response to a towering danger to kids." He said users "can easily evade" the software.

Blumenthal and North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper co-chair a task force of 34 state attorneys general that is considering a lawsuit against MySpace over safety. The group has asked the site to raise its minimum age from 14 to 16 and make users verify their age.

Cooper says the notification software "really doesn't do enough" to protect children. "You've got 10-, 11- and 12-year-old kids who are on the site -- that's a problem. Parents are lulled into thinking that this is a safe site for children ... but they are a mouse click away from predators and porn."

Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace's chief security officer, wouldn't comment on the task force but says the new software is being developed in response to parents' concerns. "They want to be able to have conversations with their teens about safety and security."

He says MySpace is constantly implementing safety features such as reviews of offensive material and a registry that allows it to keep convicted sex offenders off the site.

Cooper acknowledges that safety may have improved but says the site is often inappropriate for children. "It's either going to be a site for children or a site for older people," he says.

It remains to be seen whether parents will find the software helpful -- or whether teens will abandon MySpace once it begins sharing information with their parents.

"If you don't trust your kids, it's a very helpful thing," says Elanna Binder-Taylor of Woodstock, Md., whose daughter, Ryland Taylor, 14, uses MySpace. "I'm at the point where I do trust Ryland."

Binder-Taylor often talks with Ryland about Internet safety, especially when she reads about unsavory MySpace incidents.

Ryland, who likes her privacy, says the move definitely would sour her on MySpace.

"It's a thing I do with my friends," she says. "It's just like going out with my friends. Would you tell your parents everything you did and said?" (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

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