Social Networking Safety—

Attorneys General Joins 49 States, D.C., In Agreement With MySpace

HARTFORD — On January 14, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper and Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal on behalf of 49 states and the District of Columbia announced that MySpace has agreed to significant steps to better protect children on its website, including creation of a broad-based task force to explore and develop age and identity verification technology.

MySpace acknowledged in the agreement the important role of this technology in social networking safety and agreed to find and develop online identity authentication tools. The attorneys general have advocated age and identity verification, calling it vital to better protecting children using social networking sites from online sexual predators and inappropriate material.

Other specific changes and policies that MySpace agreed to develop include: allowing parents to submit their children’s email addresses so MySpace can prevent anyone using those addresses from setting up profiles, making the default setting “private” for profiles of 16- and 17-year-olds, promising to respond within 72 hours to inappropriate content complaints and committing more staff and/or resources to review and classify photographs and discussion groups.

The agreement culminates nearly two years of discussions between MySpace and the attorneys general. The attorneys general were led by Mr Cooper and Mr Blumenthal, co-chairmen of the Executive Committee consisting of Connecticut, North Carolina, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Every state except Texas signed on to the agreement.

In the agreement, the attorneys general commend MySpace for its efforts to address social networking safety issues.

Mr Cooper said, “We’re joining forces to find the most effective ways to keep young children off these sites and to protect the kids who do use them. This agreement sets a new standard for social networking sites that have been quick to grow but slow to recognize their responsibility to keep kids safe.”

Mr Blumenthal said, “This agreement is a promising step toward an industry gold standard for social networking safety. Together, today, we open a new frontier in social networking safety — acknowledging the importance of age and identity authentication and committing to explore and develop it. This agreement reflects my longstanding, deeply held belief that the industry must aim higher to keep kids safer. I urge others — social networking sites, technology companies, nonprofits — to support these principles and join the task force.”

Calling the report a step forward in the fight to better protect children from predators and inappropriate content on social networking sites, Mr Blumenthal was clear the initial agreement does not go far enough.

“The report unfortunately downplays the threat of predators — in relying on research that is outdated or inadequate — and it fails to provide specific plans to implement technology in improving social networking safety. But it clearly acknowledges and advances technologies to better protect kids from inappropriate content and predators,” he said. “Law enforcement officials know the reality: children are solicited every day online. All too often, they fall prey. MySpace alone has identified and removed more than 50,000 profiles of convicted, registered sex offenders. For every one of them, there may be countless others using false names and ages.”

Saying technology companies and social networking sites must do more — and do it now — Mr Blumenthal said placing responsibility on the victim is “appalling and outrageous.”

“Especially significant, the report identifies 40 technologies that can make sites safer now, including age and identity verification tools. What’s especially missing from the report is a call to action,” he said. “We are determined to pursue this fight for social networking safety.”

But in the end, Mr Blumenthal said parents remain the first line of defense against social networking abuse, and urged the industry to adopt technology and tools that empower and enable parents to better protect their children.

Under the agreement, MySpace, with support from the attorneys general, will create and lead an Internet Safety Technical Task Force to explore and develop age and identity verification tools for social networking websites. MySpace will invite other social networking sites, age and identify verification experts, child protection groups, and technology companies to participate in the task force.

The task force will report back to the attorneys general every three months and issue a formal report with findings and recommendations at the end of 2009.

The Joint Statement on Key Principles of Social Networking Safety recognizes that an ongoing industry effort is required to keep pace with the latest technological developments and develop additional ways to protect teens, including online identity authentication tools. The Principles of Social Networking fall into four categories:

Online Safety Task Force. As part of the principles, MySpace will organize, with support of the attorneys general, an industrywide Internet Safety Technical Task Force to develop online safety tools, including a review of identity authentication tools. The task force will include Internet businesses, identity authentication experts, nonprofit organizations, academics, and technology companies.

Site Design and Functionality. The principles incorporate safety initiatives that MySpace has already implemented and initiatives it will work to implement in the coming months.

Examples of safety features MySpace has in place include reviewing every image and video uploaded to the site, reviewing groups, making the profiles of 14- and 15-year-old users automatically private helping protect them from being contacted by adults that they do not already know in the offline world, and deleting registered sex offenders from MySpace.

MySpace has also agreed to consider a common abuse reporting mechanism and provide a means to report abuse on every content-containing page, also allowing users to easily categorize the offensive content at issue via a drop-down menu. MySpace will try to acknowledge reports made via the report abuse mechanism within 24 hours and will report back to consumers within 72 hours of receiving complaints

Education and Tools for Parents, Educators and Children. The principles acknowledge that MySpace has already been devoting meaningful resources to Internet safety education, including a new online safety public service announcement targeted at parents and free parental monitoring software that is under development.

MySpace will explore the establishment of a children’s email registry that will empower parents to prevent their children from having access to MySpace or any other social networking sites. In addition, under the principles, MySpace will increase its communications with consumers who report or complain about inappropriate content or activity on the site.

Law Enforcement Cooperation. The parties will continue to work together to enhance the ability of law enforcement officials to investigate and prosecute Internet crimes.