2-13-2009 Global:
At meeting of MySpace-formed task force, social networks show how kids are kept safe
MySpace is using technology to analyze whether potential users trying to sign up for the social network may be registered sex offenders, the company's chief security officer said Wednesday.
Hemanshu Nigam, who is also the CSO of Fox Interactive Media, described the new system and other measures taken by MySpace to protect children online during a meeting of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force Wednesday at Harvard University. The task force was created by MySpace as part of a January agreement with a group of state attorneys general to beef up online safety at social networking sites.
The task force is charged with exploring and developing age and identity verification tools for social networking sites.
The task force was formed after a lengthy battle between 49 (minus Texas) of the 50 US state attorneys general and MySpace over turning over the names of registered sex offenders who had accounts on MySpace. In July 2007, MySpace said it had identified more than 29,000 registered sex offenders among its users. Facebook subsequently joined the task force and agreed to work with the AGs on bolstering online safety.
Nigam noted that the company's new Sentinel technology looks at various criteria - like names and images of known sex offenders - 24 hours a day to ensure they are not using the site.
"We have proactive, zero tolerance for sex offenders," he noted.
He noted that this method of aiming to identify potential predators before they have a chance to make contact with any other MySpace user is part of its new proactive approach at online safety.
"[We] don't just do 'notice and take down', but merge it and combine it with proactive measures," Nigam added. "That should be the ultimate goal - take care of [potential problems] before you get an email, a call or a complaint."
The company also reviews videos and photos uploaded to the site for nudity, pornography or overt violence, he added. MySpace is trying to deter users from adding such content to the site by telling those posting illicit videos or images that their IP address is logged and could be used in an investigation if the content is found to be illegal.
"We are looking for teachable moments," he added. "When your are uploading images or videos, we put up a warning to let you know that other people can see what you're putting up."
Chris Kelly, Facebook's chief privacy officer, said via a video presentation from the meeting that one of the company's biggest advantages in the quest for online safety is that unlike MySpace, it requires that users use their real name to identity themselves on the site.
He went on to note that users choose who can view the information on their profiles, and that only 0.1 percent of the 100 million profiles on the site are publicly available to all other users.
For users under 18 who join groups, their profile is only available to other under-18-year-old users in that group, he added. "This provides a built-in neighborhood watch program for every user on the site," Kelly noted.
Like MySpace, Facebook has an automated system aimed at detecting potentially dangerous behavior. Called Karma, the system will flag suspicious behavior like a 34-year-old user attempting to befriend a 14-year-old or 15-year-old child.
He added that 100 percent of reports from users to Facebook about nudity posted to the site or harassment complaints are reviewed with 24 hours and resolved within 72 hours. Furthermore, users who are age 13 though 17 will have their account disabled if they send friend requests to other users who cannot verify that they know the minor, he added.
Kelly pointed to a Facebook poll of 500 13 to 17-years-old users that a majority had not seen nudity on the site, that they know most or all of the people they interact with.
Simon Axten, a privacy and public policy associate at Facebook, noted from the meeting that the site allows users to report suspicious behavior, which can help catch criminals who may fall through the cracks and not get flagged by the automated systems.
"We are constantly working on these systems," he noted. "We're still approaching this problem from a technical perspective. A challenge that we have is enforcing that real name culture or getting across to users how the site is to be used. There is some inclination to use the site on a pseudonym or fake name basis."
Richard Blumenthal, AG of Connecticut and co-chair of the group of AGs who have honed in on online safety, noted that anonymity on social networks is a real concern to law enforcement. MySpace, he added, has identified 50,000 child predators who have established profiles on the site using their own names.
"For all those 50,000, there are a lot more that don't use their real names," he said. "The anonymity of the Internet is one of the greatest threats law enforcement sees to apprehending and preventing criminal assaults."
However, he commended the task force for taking on the challenge of putting into place better online child protection measures. "It is a passion that has united AGs as I have never seen before in 18 years in my office," he added. "Other than the [anti] tobacco effort there has been no other multi-state task force that has attracted so much support and interest as this one." ..News Source.. by Heather Havenstein
February 13, 2009
MySpace, Facebook show tools to ward off child predators
September 25, 2008
MySpace, Facebook show off tools that can ward off child predators
9-25-2008 National:
At meeting of MySpace-formed task force, social networks show how kids are kept safe
MySpace is using technology to analyze whether potential users trying to sign up for the social network may be registered sex offenders, the company's chief security officer said today.
Hemanshu Nigam, who is also the CSO at Fox Interactive Media, described the new system and other measures taken by MySpace to protect children online during a meeting of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force on Wednesday at Harvard University. The task force was created by MySpace as part of a January agreement with a group of state attorneys general to beef up online safety at social networking sites.
The task force is charged with exploring and developing age and identity verification tools for social networking sites.
The task force was formed after a lengthy battle between 49 (minus Texas) of the 50 state attorneys general and MySpace over turning over the names of registered sex offenders who had accounts on MySpace. In July 2007, MySpace said it had identified more than 29,000 registered sex offenders among its users. Facebook Inc. subsequently joined the task force and agreed to work with the AGs on bolstering online safety.
Nigam said that the company's new Sentinel technology looks at various criteria -- like names and images of known sex offenders -- 24 hours a day to ensure they are not using the site.
"We have proactive, zero tolerance for sex offenders," he noted.
He said that this method of aiming to identify potential predators before they have a chance to make contact with any other MySpace user is part of its new proactive approach at online safety.
"[We] don't just do 'notice and take down,' but merge it and combine it with proactive measures," Nigam added. "That should be the ultimate goal -- take care of [potential problems] before you get an e-mail, a call or a complaint."
The company also reviews videos and photos uploaded to the site for nudity, pornography or overt violence, he added. MySpace is trying to deter users from adding such content to the site by telling those posting illicit videos or images that their IP address is logged and could be used in an investigation if the content is found to be illegal.
"We are looking for teachable moments," he added. "When you are uploading images or videos, we put up a warning to let you know that other people can see what you're putting up."
Chris Kelly, Facebook's chief privacy officer, said via a video presentation from the meeting that one of the company's biggest advantages in the quest for online safety is that unlike MySpace, it requires that users use their real name to identity themselves on the site.
He went on to note that users choose who can view the information on their profiles, and that only 0.1% of the 100 million profiles on the site are publicly available to all other users.
For users under 18 who join groups, their profiles are only available to other under-18-year-old users in that group, he added. "This provides a built-in neighborhood watch program for every user on the site," Kelly said.
Like MySpace, Facebook has an automated system aimed at detecting potentially dangerous behavior. Called Karma, the system will flag suspicious behavior like a 34-year-old user attempting to befriend a 14-year-old or 15-year-old child.
He added that 100% of the reports from users about nudity posted to the site or harassment complaints are reviewed within 24 hours and resolved within 72 hours. Furthermore, users who are aged 13 though 17 will have their account disabled if they send friend requests to other users who cannot verify that they know the minor, he added.
Kelly pointed to a Facebook poll of 500 13-to-17-year-old users that a majority had not seen nudity on the site, that they know most or all of the people they interact with.
Simon Axten, a privacy and public policy associate at Facebook, noted from the meeting that the site allows users to report suspicious behavior, which can help catch criminals who may fall through the cracks and not get flagged by the automated systems.
"We are constantly working on these systems," he said. "We're still approaching this problem … from a technical perspective. A challenge that we have is enforcing that real-name culture or getting across to users how the site is to be used. There is some inclination to use the site on a pseudonym or fake-name basis."
Richard Blumenthal, AG of Connecticut and co-chair of the group of AGs who have honed in on online safety, said that anonymity on social networks is a real concern to law enforcement.
MySpace, he added, has identified 50,000 child predators who have established profiles on the site using their own names.
"For all those 50,000, there are a lot more that don't use their real names," he said. "The anonymity of the Internet is one of the greatest threats law enforcement sees to apprehending and preventing criminal assaults."
However, he commended the task force for taking on the challenge of putting into place better online child protection measures. "It is a passion that has united AGs as I have never seen before in 18 years in my office," he added. "Other than the [anti] tobacco effort there has been no other multistate task force that has attracted so much support and interest as this one." ..News Source.. by Heather Havenstein
January 16, 2008
Registered sex offenders on MySpace - Who did nothing wrong with minors
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..
