MySpace Should Offer Age Verification, Experts Say

The safety provisions will require members 18 and up to know the e-mail addresses or the first and last name of all members under 16. Privacy settings will bar visitors from viewing personal interests, friends and other personal material. MySpace owner Fox Interactive Media recently named a Chief Security Officer, Hemanshu Nigam, a former federal prosecutor active against Internet child exploitation.

The changes go in the right direction, but aren’t enough, said Teri Schroeder, CEO of iSafe America. MySpace needs an age verification system, said Shroeder, whose group has been working with security company Verisign on a prototype. “They have to come up with something to provide a safety mechanism to ensure that the community is under age 18,” she said.

Isafe and Verisign’s pilot program, tested in 8 states, lets parents decide what ages of user their children can interact with. The digital ID acts as a sort of virtual ATM, Shroeder said. Isafe has presented its program to MySpace and other social networking sites but nothing has been developed, Shroeder said. “I just hope [MySpace] looks at other options and reaches out to those who are trying to offer alternative solution,” she said.

On June 19, MySpace was sued for $30 million by a girl sexually assaulted at 14 by a man she met on the network who posed as a minor, according to the filing. The suit cites the arrests of at least 12 men on charges of sexual predation who used MySpace to search for targets and boasts it has backing from several state attorneys gen. who have pressed MySpace for age verification systems and other measures. “MySpace.com is fully aware that adult sexual predators are contacting young children on their website and MySpace.com has not done enough to stop it,” Adam Loewy, the girl’s attorney, said: “We hope this lawsuit forces MySpace.com to start taking the safety of their child members seriously and implement meaningful security measures.”

Myspace reiterated it’s taking “aggressive” steps to guard members, it said. But the company also said Internet safety is a shared responsibility. A company statement said: “We encourage everyone on the Internet to engage in smart web practices and have open family dialogue about how to apply offline lessons in the online world.”

A major problem could be that MySpace sees itself as “more of a forum and less of a regulator,” said Paula Selis, senior counsel for the Wash. state Attorney Gen.’s office. Wash. Attorney Gen. Rob McKenna is among 21 attorneys gen. urging MySpace to change its policies. MySpace’s methods need some “teeth,” she said: “The company needs to be more proactive and more protectionist of their users… That is not happening right now and online stalking is proof of that.”

Many attorneys gen., such as Richard Blumenthal of Mass., have written to MySpace requesting it raise its minimum age for participation. None of their suggestions have been taken.

Most experts fear sexual predators, but identity theft on social networking sites also should be a big concern, Ron Teixeira, National Cyber Security Alliance exec. dir., said: “Real security threats exist on these services and no one has been addressing those issues… We are sending a signal to parents that if they protect their children from online predators they will be safe from identity theft, which is not the case.” Viruses, trojan horses and other malware haunt the networking sites, he said. The only answer lies in educating children about how to stay safe online, he said.

Meanwhile, a new parental control will help Cox Internet customers monitor children’s online activity, Cox said. The control’s daily Web surfing logs show domains or sites kids visit or try to access while in the home. The service flags sites parents deem inappropriate using custom filters. A daily e-mail goes to one or both parents through their cox.net accounts. The feature will be available this summer, Cox said.