Social-networking site MySpace once again is in the sights of legislators, according to The Associated Press, as lawmakers in Connecticut last week introduced a bill that would require sites like MySpace, Xanga, and others—along with youth-friendly chat rooms—to verify the ages of their users and "obtain parental consent" before allowing minors to post profiles.
Although one of many popular social-networking sites, MySpace—which has more than 100 million registered users—has been plagued with unwanted federal attention because it occasionally has been used by sexual predators looking for underage users, including a case in which a man attempted to contact an 11-year-old girl for sex. This legislative proposal ideally would make it difficult for youngsters to upload explicit images that could lead to their being propositioned by adults, according to Connecticut officials.
"This legislation puts predators on notice," said Sen. Thomas Colapietro in a statement. "We are watching and will act aggressively to stop them. These measures will help shield children from on line sexual predators and inappropriate content."
As many as 20 other state legislatures are "considering similar legislation," according to Attorney General Richard Blumenthal.
"Strong interest in this measure was expressed to me by other attorneys general at our national meeting [on March 5]," Blumenthal said in a statement. "In Connecticut, at least six alleged sexual assaults involving older men and underage girls have been tied to MySpace in the last year. There have been dozens of similar arrests nationwide."
Approval of the bill would force networking sites to verify ages and obtain parental permission of users under 18 or face fines up to $5,000 per violation.
Recent unwanted attention by the media has spurred the mega-portal into making considerable efforts in preventing the possible exploitation of its underage users, but MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam said legislation should not be the answer.
"We have and will continue to focus considerable resources on developing effective ways to make our site safer," Nigam added.
To combat this predatory behavior, MySpace has increased education and partnerships with law enforcement, the AP reported, adding that the site "also adopted new restrictions on how adults may contact the site's younger users and has helped design tools for identifying profiles created by convicted sex offenders."
Currently, children under the age of 14 are not allowed to set up MySpace profiles, and users ages 14-15 can display their complete profiles only to people already on their friends' list.
