Facebookhas removed 5,500 sex
offenders from its social networking website since May last
year.
It follows news from Myspace that it had removed 90,000 sex
offenders from its website in the last two years.
The two websites were asked by a US attorney general to
implement a range of safeguards, including better ways to verify
users' ages and limiting older users' ability to search the
profiles of those under 18, the
Associated Press reported.
Facebook said it had found the offenders through a mixture of
user reports, working with law enforcement agencies and using the
national sex offenders' register.
Facebook's chief privacy officer said the company has proposed a
system in the US that will check available outlets in real time to
block sex offenders at the beginning of the registration process.
At the moment, the policy is to remove offenders when they are
identified.
