MySpace purged over 36,000 registered sex offenders who had accounts on MySpace in 2007:
Those identified are among a national total of about 7,000 registered sex offenders whose names were deleted and handed over by Fox Interactive Media, the owner of MySpace, to law enforcement authorities in all 50 states in late May.
Prodded by a gaggle of state attorneys general, MySpace canceled the accounts of 29,000 people who are registered sex offenders,
This was done because dozens of state Attorney Generals were falsely accusing those RSOs of CONTACTING minors on MySpace. While it is true that some were on parole or probation, and some of them were not supposed to be on the Internet, and those will suffer the consequence of TECHNICAL violation of parole or probation and MAY return to jails or prisons, there is no proof they were contacting minors.
Todate (1-15-2008) MySpace still has not changed its Terms of Service (TOS) to advise persons who sign up for an account, that if they are a registered sex offender they may not sign up for an account. Yes, MySpace verbally tells folks that, but fails to change the TOS. Obviously they are using a form of civil entrapment.
Subsequent to that fiasco the truth is slowly being revealed:
New Hampshire: "Last July, MySpace identified and expelled 29,000 sex offenders from its site, including 153 offenders from New Hampshire. The state Department of Corrections reviewed all of the New Hampshire cases but found none of the registered offenders had violated probation or parole conditions, Ayotte said (NH Attorney General)." source: Union Leader.com 1-15-2008
Illinois: Here they have done a wonderful analysis of the activities of the 1,558 Illinois RSOs who had MySpace accounts, but notice, not one of them contacted a minor, yes some violated parole but that is a technical violation not a crime. One was later caught with child porn, but again, nothing to do with his MySpace account:
1,558 RSOs had MySpace accounts and logged on;
202,986 Number times those RSOs logged into their profile between February and April 2007
(Source Chicago Sun-Time 1-15-2008)
Opposing Thoughts
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JupiterResearch analyst Barry Parr took issue with the approach taken by the attorneys general, suggesting they were looking to grab headlines and were pushing for laws that would infringe on everybody's privacy and right to anonymity.
"I think it's stupid to look at anything like this," he told TechNewsWorld. "The Internet's a communication medium. If you want to control the communications of offenders, you don't do it by controlling the communication media. You don't have telephone companies registering sex offenders or the post office."
Law enforcement, Parr said, should keep track of sex offenders' actions. "But you don't make the rest of us pay consequences," he added. "There are good and valid reasons for anonymity on the Web. People should be allowed to speak anonymously. If you have verification of identity and tracking of what everyone does ... society is going to be diminished. I think this is an upside-down approach to tracking sex offenders." ..more..
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