A disturbing excerpt:
The arrest Tuesday of a 27-year-old man in Connecticut on charges of illegal sexual contact with a 13-year-old girl he met through MySpace underlines the risks of the fast-growing Internet site that boasts about 60 million members.
"MySpace has not taken sufficient steps to ensure that the MySpace Web site is a safe place for minors," Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly said in a letter to MySpace on Tuesday.
The rest of the article can be found here --> http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12618278/from/ET/
10 years ago, I would have scoffed at the Massachusetts AG, Tom Reilly, and protested that he is threatening our free speech.
But I have kids now.
Reilly is right. And a "report inappropriate content link" otherwise known as the "click here to rat" button is not going to fix the problem.
Kids under 18 clearly enjoy using myspace and it's unfortunate that they have to be wary of stalkers and wierdos. Adding some exclusivity and privacy to these social networking sites may be the only way to solve the problem. Eventually linking the private communities will allow users to benefit from the size of the network. Another benefit of having several private communities is that monitoring the entire network for safety becomes more manageable.
There is definitely a great deal that can be done and just throwing our arms up and saying, "there's nothing we can do about it" is simply unacceptable.
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