With mounting pressure for highly popular social networks including MySpace and Friendster to better police their members against sexual predators, the executives behind one new startup company hope to avoid the matter altogether by launching a social network for adults only: Utherverse.com.
“Our solution to providing adults with their own online venue was simply to prohibit anyone under 18 [from logging on],” says Brian Shuster, chief executive officer of Utherverse.com Inc. “Without children participating, the Deleting Online Predators Act (DOPA) is moot for us. Our users can feel safe and relaxed in the knowledge that they are dealing with other adults. As a purposely intended consequence, our users also get much more freedom to express themselves with their profiles, messages, pictures, and movies.
"We use three primary methods to ensure the age appropriateness of our users and the safety of minors," Shuster continues. "The first, and by far the most effective method, is that we simply state that minors are not allowed in the social network. By providing a minimum search criteria of 18 years or older, minors have no method of identifying themselves as being under 18, nor do any users have the ability to search for minors. Thus, there is no appeal to pedophiles to try to exploit our network to find children. There is no real method for them to do so.
"The second level of protection is our staff, community volunteers, and our community," Shuster further explains. "In order for a minor to be targeted by a sexual predator, the minor would have to announce their age in a posting. We have moderators constantly monitoring for such posts; and any accounts that are suspected of being held by a minor are immediately and permanently terminated.
"Finally, we have a special class of affirmatively age-verified users," Shuster concludes. "These users have gone through a credit-card age-verification process, and they receive a special designation on their profiles to let others know that they are age-verified."
By eliminating the censorship component that other social networking sites currently impose for the safety of children, Utherverse.com has tapped into a potentially explosive marketplace. According to research firm comScore Media Metrix, in May 2006 the top 10 social networking sites were visited by 126,734,000 unique individuals. Experts estimate that 65 percent of that marketplace is at least 18 years old. Utherverse.com is projecting more than 1 million registered users by the end of this year.
“With minimal promotion, users have already begun flocking to Utherverse.com,” Shuster says. “It’s amazing how a little thing like offering true freedom of expression changes the entire social networking online experience. Our users love it.”
Users of Utherverse.com are encouraged to upload everything from erotic photos of themselves to fantasy profiles. The site also includes a software option that provides an elaborate interface through which users can create a customized, animated 3D avatar, complete with a digital representation of themselves with their desired age, body, look, and style.
