A war of words has erupted as UK children's social network
provider
Intuitive Media has challenged claims by MySpace that it has
adequate measures in place to
keep children safe online.
MySpace has reported purging 90,000 sex offenders, but Robert
Hart, chief executive of Intuitive Media, said the fact that it
took it two years to purge known names of sexual offenders listed
in the public domain is outrageous.
"More worrying is that those websites can simply not protect
against the offenders that have not yet been caught trying to
sexually solicit children," he said.
MySpace claims it is doing everything it can to keep sex
offenders off the site. The company said it uses a "best-of-breed
solution" that is continually updated to deal with an ever-changing
environment.
According to Hart, when there is a mix of children and adults on
a networking website it is almost impossible to police their
interaction, particularly when most sites cannot authenticate the
age of users.
Without foolproof identity and
age verification and various well thought out mediation tools,
social networks are not safe for children, said Hart.
He acknowledges that social networking service providers have an
important role to play in keeping children safe, but said parents
need to be aware of what their children are doing online and
children need to be
taught safe internet behaviour.
This week, authorities in the US state of Texas announced the
30th arrest of a sex offender accused of using MySpace in violation
of his parole by the state's cybercrime units.
The latest arrest coincides with MySpace handing over the names
of the 90,000 registered sex offenders found on its site to the
Connecticut Attorney General's office to comply with a court
order.
Four others have been arrested on suspicion of using the
social-networking site to meet and sexually proposition undercover
agents posing as minors under the age of 15, the Texas Attorney
General's office said in a statement.
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