MySpace bars sex offenders

All you need to get a Myspace page is an e-mail address...and we all know you can have hundreds of different free e-mail addresses with free services.

This is just a ploy to make parents feel more comfortable about myspace.
It's not going to change anything.

Anything they do will not be enough! There are way too many undocumented sex offenders out there.

I was thinking just this, how are they going to enforce this? A sex offender could make up an identity just like underage girls do to get a myspace page

Exactly, they can't enforce it. Sex offenders can lie about their age and who they are in order to make a page, even if they're banned. I think minors are required to have private pages, but that doesn't stop sex offenders on false accounts asking for friend requests, which alot of teens will grant just to rack up their friend count.

Can they enforce it by barring the IP Address from their site? I remember TCS doing this to one person, not so long ago.

Also (I didn't read the article fully) is this strictly child sex offenders they're banning or is it all sex offenders? If its all that's way out of line because I could be peeing on the side of the road and if I were caught I would have the sex offender label stamped on my PR.

By all means I'm not supporting sex offenders, but I do find it a little silly that once they've been found guilty, possibly served some time, shouldn't they be allowed some freedom? I guess IMO if MySpace is banning them and courts are allowing this, they are admitting that our prison system is a failure. If the sex offenders have served time AND LEARNED THEIR WRONGS then shouldn't they be rehabilated and ready to face the world? However they will always have the sex offender label to them.

Again I am not supporting sex offenders, but I'm just trying to bring up a point. They served their time and if under a psych's signature is deemed "OK to return to society" then why are they still on watch? They basically are getting to a point that they may as well stay in prison for the rest of their life because what's waiting out here for them?

Minors lie all the time to have adult privelges on their pages. Years ago, I made my age state "15 years old" on my page so that creepy people I don't know couldn't see my page (I was in my 20s at the time). Now, thankfully, there is a different way you can privatize your page to keep the creeps away. Any skanky old man can say he's a 14 year old girl with the SN "PrincessNSyncLove"...and end up with 1000 underage girls and boys to target.


About the IP Address, you can randomly change your IP address, there are ways to do this, especially if working on a networked system AND dial-up IP addresses change with each and every single dial-up. So whenever they log on, it's impossible to track them this way, and trust me, those predators are good at what they do, they're always a step ahead with technological ways to get away with abuse.

I must say , what you said about the "serving time and being deemed ok"....... I'm a bleeding hearted liberal who feels the same way about this to a point. Not so much about myspace, because honestly, like I said, this is just a ridiculous ploy to make uneducated parents feel more safe (uneducated as far as how the internet works and how easy it is to corrupt), but certain sex offenders commit completely rehabilitable crimes and are stuck with the stigma the rest of their lives. (think about the older teenagers charged with statutory rape of freshman, or something along those lines).

This is a multiple sided topic.

End point, this myspace thing is a joke.

Only those under 16 are listed as private. However, I did see a girl I know who lied and said she was 16 when in fact she just turned 15 (sure she's not the only one).

These preditors will have another page up in 2 minutes. I know a lot of people have told me I need to get with the times and make one already, but I refuse to conform because of the weirdos.

Duh, I keep forgetting about dialup. Typically your cable modem or DSL keeps the same IP Address for x years (yes years) or at least around here they do. I remember running a command and saw that my IP expires in 2038
There are ways to get around it though, true. At that point though you're working with their ISP.

I guess really that article just cracks me up as its basically the law makers saying "We KNOW that the prison system can't rehabilitate, so we're making laws to counteract that. In the end, it's a bunch of overpaid professionals that don't understand the basics of computers (we talk about them all the time and the director of the program I am in encourages us to all get law degrees because we understand IT, the criminal's head and what they can do, and make laws for them.

All they have to do is register with fake information. Anyone can go and enter in whatever information they want and get a user name anywhere, criminal or not.

i couple of years ago,my cousin who is 30 talked me into doing myspace so she could keep in touch .

well i did, my cousin kept telling me post pics post pics ,, fine whatever so i posted some, i would say within days, i had 20 some friend requests, i woudl say most of them FROM under age girls. lol i have not really been back since.
really, the way i see it(and granted i may be wrong) myspace is for kids, or younger people. Blah, i have no use for it.

as for ip, they are not that hard to mask, i can make mine appear to be coming japan, or where ever. Its not that hard.

All the young persons need to do is make their page private, and only have their known friends access it, bot a bunch of random nobodies.

Having said that, parents should have the software to allow the to monitor their kids activities on the net.

The internet is such a dangerous place for young people.

I don't get the whole myspace thing but this is a good step on paper. I really don't see how it will be enforceable, though. I doubt that even 10% of people on myspace are truly honest about who they are. Even people who have no reason not to be.

one other point as far as IP addresses, I'm sure some folks use the library, even creeps, they can't block the library's IP address.

My ex step daughter is 12 and has had a myspace page for at least a year it has her age listed as 16. I even told my ex that I didn't think that was a really good idea, but who I am anymore

and to me, and this is just my extrememly cynical opinion, but our prison system does not rehabilitate anyone, we barely have enough room and resources to simply house the criminals, let alone give them the counseling they need. There has been so many cases of a sex offender released from prison and then within a year he is back to his old ways, but now, having served prison time, he is even more hardened and most likely has learned a lot of bad things, that this time its not just abuse, but murder. to be frank, the prison system in this country is severely messed up

I have had a myspace page for a couple of years. All the adults in my family do. We use it to keep track of my neices and nephews' pages and who is on their lists. My page doesn't say anything exciting because I really don't care, just there so I can access the kids' sites.

Predators aren't that stupid. Internet cafes, libraries, etc are easy places to get online. Just a laptop near downtown Portland will get you there. We have free internet thanks to MetroFi. This "news" is just a way to make myspace look responsible.

The only way it will ever be more safe is if they make MySpace 18+ and you need a credit card for verification...unless of course a kid steals his parent's credit card and uses it.

I have one and so does my wife. We just use it to keep in touch with friends. I don't put much personal information on it other than a bit about me, my interests, and what not.

Besides kids putting personal information which can help a pedophile stalk them, the biggest problem I always hear about are kids who think they're talking to someone their age and they go and meet these people. I put some of that blame on the parents. When I was a teen there was no WAY that I would have been able to get away meeting someone without my parents knowing...especially if I didn't have a driver's license, which alot of these kids aren't old enough to have anyway. Parents need to talk to their kids more about how you don't meet people online alone at that age. If they want to meet someone, the parent has to be there. That was the rule when I was growing up.

What you bring up is true. Certainly pedophiles have a certain fetish (if you will) that isn't easy to resolve and often become suppressed.

When I read about how children (12/13/14/15) changing their ages to 16 so that they can talk to older people, well that just tells me that the parent don't know a whole lot of whats going on. I know if I saw my kid changing their age on a site I definitely would be questioning them.

MySpace is just trying to exercise their due diligence or make it look like they are. If anything happens to a kid, the parent immediately blames the web site. Nevermind that the parent probably didn't know their kid was on Myspace or perhaps was pretending to be 18 when in fact they are 14.

Oh goodness, that is an extremely ill-informed statement. ( I mean no offense by this, but that sounds like something my grandmother would say from watching the news! )
It's like people thinking things they don't understand MUST be evil.

I reconnected with almost 80% of people I've known since elementary school, middle school, high school, camps, workplaces, etc. etc. etc......
Their profiles weren't fake, granted there are many fake ones on there....but those are a minute portion of the actual site in its entirety.

I like MySpace, myself. Minors are ENCOURAGED to set their profiles as PRIVATE, so as not to be viewed by anyone but their friends. If they have made their profile viewable by everyone, then it's up to THE PARENTS to make sure their kids are not letting their profile been seen by any and everyone. I also think it's up to the parents to make sure they APPROVE their childresn's friends list. Why should it be MYSPACE job to parent these kids? I have several underage nieces and nephews on MySpace and all of them have private profiles

I do realize a sicko could request to be "friends" with a kid, but it's pretty easy for them to refuse, and like I said, I think the parent should make sure WHO their kids pick as friends.

I don't think you have to be internet savvy to look at your kids profile, and see the list of "friends" someone has. I mean they are listed right there on the profile. True, there are a million ways for a kid to get away with something, like creating an account that their parents can look at, as well as an account where they claim to be over 18 that they keep secret from their parents, and I do know a lot of parents might not know enough to check the "History" on the computer, especially if they're not internet savvy.

However, I think if a kid wants to get away with something they're going to do it, no matter what. I mean, even here at TCS, who's to say that everyone who SAYS they're over 18, really IS over 18. You still have to rely on the word of the person signing up, that they're not a minor.

I think they are doing as much as is humanly possible at MySpace to protect the kids. The rest is up to the parents to make sure their children aren't on the net lying about their age et et. If I were the parent of a teenager, I'd try to make sure I became as internet savvy as I could, especially if I were going to have a computer and the internet in the house, and even that might not be enough, because a kid can get on the net at school, at internet cafe's, or at a friends house. If a kid wants to put themselves in jeopardy, they're going to do it. They don't need MySpace to do it. They can go on almost any message board, or chat room and lie about their age, and chat with anyone. I don't know what the answer is..but I don't think it's fair to just blame MySpace. I think MySpace has gone just about as far as can be done to protect kids, the rest is up to the parents to know what their kids are doing.

Yup! There is a software out there that helps parents monitor what their kids are doing on the internet: Net Nanny
This software can do all sorts of things that doesn't require you to be a genious on your home computer. You can even use it to set up sites to block at home.

Like Hope said, there's always a way for kids to get around though, such as making a friend in the neighborhood whose parent doesn't care what their child puts on the net and has their own computer in their room.

Lol that is so funny. Yes, it did sound a bit nanna didn't it? By `I don't get' I mean `I am not remotely interested in' myspace. I have a page, too, but I just can't get hooked like some people.

And I'm not implying that everyone on myspace fakes their profile, either, but I would hedge a very large bet on the fact that little white self-bettering lies are commonplace in nearly all profiles, because we're all human, and online we can be more like the people we want to be.

I guess on my profile, the only thing I don't share with everyone is my age. I say I'm like 99 yrs old. I don't think it's anyone's business how old I am, and I'm not a minor, either. I kind of wish I was a minor, though.

HA! I tell them my age. Actually all my info is correct, but my photo is a cartoon of me. The only actual photos are of the kitties. I'm just a little paranoid.

That's what I mean, too - it's rarely safe to give exactly the correct details about yourself in an online community. You don't have to lie, but certainly you don't have to reveal everything, either.