United States Attorneys General endeavour to make social networking sites safer

New York (NY) – MySpace as well as Attorneys General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Roy Cooper of North Carolina announced an intention t o alleviate concerns about the safety of social networking sites by outlining a set of new rules that have been put in place to especially protect teenagers online.

Representing a Working Group on Social Networking covering 49 States and the District of Columbia, MySpace and Attorneys General Blumenthal and Cooper unveiled a Joint Statement on Key Principles of Social Networking Sites Safety. Presented as a rulebook for “industry-wide adoption”, the principles are split into four different categories.

First, the functionality of sites should be extended so that every image and video uploaded to the site, as well as group content is reviewed, profiles of 14 and 15 year old users are made private automatically, and profiles of registered sex offenders are deleted. MySpace also said that it is defaulting 16 and 17 year old users’ profiles to private and it will enforce the site’s minimum age of 14.

Second, with a focus on education, MySpace officials said that the site will be providing a free parental software that currently is under development ; also, its communications with consumers who report a complaint about inappropriate content or activity on the site will be “increased”.

Furthermore, the site aims to improve the collaboration with law enforcement with a 24-hour hotline to “enhance the ability of law enforcement officials to investigate and prosecute Internet crimes.” The company also announced that it will organize an “Online Safety Task Force” with the goal to develop to develop “online safety tools, including a review of identity authentication tools”. The Task Force is expected to include Internet businesses, identity authentication experts, non-profit organizations, academics and technology companies.