MySpace has discovered that more than 29,000 convicted sex offenders in the U.S. had profiles on the social networking site, a huge increase in the figure of7,000 given back in May. The good news is that all of them have been removed. With more than 80 million subscribers and massive popularity, MySpace could be seen as a natural forumwhere predators could prowl, using the social network to meet and groom young people. However, the figure found must raise eyebrows, given that there are around 600,000 registered sexoffenders in the U.S., the figure of 29,000 represents almost half of one per cent of all registered sex offenders. Certainly it’s raised an outcry in both Connecticut and NorthCarolina, two states that have been pressing for legislation requiring parental permission for kids to create a MySpace page, which they say would make children safer. Under current MySpace rules,users must only be over 14. MySpace made no response to that, but said, “We’re pleased that we’ve successfully identified and removed registered sex offenders from our site andhope that other social networking sites follow our lead.”
