Myspace Tries To Root Out Sex Offenders
“Stepping up efforts to keep sex offenders off MySpace.com, the popular social networking Web site has partnered with an online identity and background verification company to build a U.S. national sex offender database and dedicate staff to checking the database against MySpace profiles. Sentinel Tech Holding Corp. will build a searchable database containing information on sex offenders in the U.S. who are registered with various federal and state law enforcement agencies. The database, which will be frequently updated, will include details such as name, age, physical appearance and distinguishing features like tattoos and scars. MySpace staff will monitor the site 24-hours-a-day for sex offenders who are on the list. They’ll remove any matching profiles that they find. MySpace has been lobbying for new legislation that could help it take the program one step further. The company wants a law that requires sex offenders to register their e-mail addresses in a national sex-offender database. The law would stipulate that the use of an unregistered e-mail constitutes a parole or probation violation, forcing offenders back to jail. If such a law is passed, MySpace can more easily identify sex offenders that have profiles on its site, the company said.” — InfoWorld (US)
A year or so ago Supervert (creator of PervScan) registered a MySpace account. The intent was not really to use the service, since Supervert has enough web presence that it doesn’t need “my” space much, but rather to prevent others from causing confusion by using Supervert’s name. However, some people stumbled on Supervert’s account, submitted friend requests, and the thing took off from there. Gradually Supervert came to see that, though MySpace is technologically a crappy site, its popularity alone gives it value. People who wouldn’t normally send you an email will befriend you on MySpace, seemingly just because you’re there.
Not long after accumulating a good number of friends, Supervert’s account suddenly disappeared. Poof! Gone! There were no warnings or communications from MySpace, who also ignored several tech support requests. It was possible the site was hacked somehow, but odds were that MySpace, taking note of words like sex, fetish, perversion, and necrophilia in Supervert’s profile, simply decided to cancel the account without warning. And in Supervert’s case, it was easy to be phlegmatic about it: when you traffic in perversion, you get used to this sort of thing. Besides, MySpace did not prevent Supervert from re-registering.
It does not take Nostradamus to predict that such acts of censorship will be happening with greater frequency. In the first place, MySpace is owned by the notoriously conservative Fox News. In the second place, it’s a private service and therefore has no obligation to allow everybody in the world to be a member. In the third place, sex crime — particularly involving minors — is a hot-button topic today, and MySpace is not wrong in principle for wanting to minimize the opportunities for predators to find their prey via its service.
However, it remains disturbing to think that an immensely popular and therefore powerful service can develop its own sex offender database. Can a private company have a private definition of the meaning of “sex offender?” Who, according to Fox News, is a sex criminal? Will they draw their information exclusively from court records? Or will they decide that the thousands and thousands of users who write about any “alternative” form of sexuality are also “offenders?”
On one hand, you might think that this is no big deal. Real sex offenders will continue to use the site by masking their identity, and law-abiding perverts will simply migrate to some other service that allows them to rant about their kinks. On the other hand, though, you have to wonder about the consequences for a person if he is dubbed a “sex offender” even by a private company. For example, suppose that MySpace decides it would be a public service to share its sex offender registry freely. How would you like your potential employer or landlord to know that a major American corporation considers you a sex offender or deviant?
You quickly begin to realize that MySpace / Fox could wield a lot of power with this information. Certainly they recognize this too. Why else would they be lobbying for a law that would make it illegal for a sex offender to use an anonymous email address? Setting aside the fact that this law would have zero efficacy, it still represents a disturbing desire on the corporate level: to tie virtual identities to real people is to extend power from cyberspace to society. It’s one thing to be banned from a web site. But to have this ban spill over into your “real” life? Sound scary?
None of this is to say that MySpace is wrong to combat the illicit use of its services by sexual predators. Cross-checking its registrations with established sex-offender registries will weed out the few criminal dopes stupid enough to register on the site using their real names. But it will also encourage sex offenders to use other identities, anonymous email addresses and ad-hoc names that will be impossible to police. Wouldn’t it be better to focus on age verification? This is a more objective measure — either you’re 18 or you’re not — with less potential for censorship or slander. You’re not supposed to be able to get into a bar without showing identification, and perhaps MySpace will need to institute the same regulations. This will enable them to keep children in virtual playgrounds and leave the adults to fend for themselves, as they should.
the problem with age verification is that most sites who want to verify age ask for a credit card number as a means to do so. really, it would prevent people who are smart from joining because that’s the info i don’t want people having. also, nothing would stop little suzy or billy from swiping mom’s card and registering under her name since you can opt not to have your real name show anyway.
how about we start taking personal responsibility. parents: watch your kids internet habits. you wouldn’t let them run off into an unknown part of town with people you don’t know, so why give them complete freedom online? and kids: just cuz he SAYS he’s 16 and SAYS he loves you… let’s just say he’s not and he’s gonna ‘love’ you in a way you’re not ready for. please, let’s grow some brains. coorporations don’t need to rule our lives or take charge of who goes where. cyber-crimminals would have a lot less to work with if we just guarded our personal info and our children a little better. it’s like asking the grocery store to moniter who goes in so we can let the kiddies run free and not keep an eye on them.
sounds like a profitable little side business for mr. murdoch. creating a private sex offender registry which can then be sold (on a subscription basis) to other corporations (insurers, health care providers, etc.) could help him he to wring every cent out of his recent acquisition. not to mention that it would make him shine in the eyes of the federal telecoms regulators, with whom he has a very tender and loving relationship….
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