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States Keep the Heat on Facebook, MySpace

Attorneys general demand stricter measures to protect children; feds silent

By Truman Lewis
ConsumerAffairs.com

October 18, 2007

• Facebook Agrees to Upgrade Safety Measures • Hanna Montana Photo Flap Part of a Trend • New Jersey Investigating College Gossip Site • No Easy Remedy for Imposter Postings on Social Networking Sites • Social Networking Sites Not the Biggest Danger for Teens? • Keeping Teens Safe Online • MySpace Agrees To Toughen Security For Young Users • MySpace Harassment Case Takes Odd Turn • Texas Sues Kids' Web Sites • States Keep the Heat on Facebook, MySpace • Texas Rounds Up 14 Sex Offenders on MySpace • New Jersey Subpoenas Facebook • Predator Who Used MySpace Gets Seven-Year Sentence • Facebook Has 'A Long Way to Go,' Investigators Say • Cuomo Charges Facebook Ignores Sexual Predators • MySpace Deletes More Sex Offenders • New Jersey Targets Sex Offenders With MySpace Profiles • States To Get MySpace Sex Offender Data • MySpace Deletes Thousands Of Sex Offenders • States Press MySpace For Data On Sex Offenders • Survey Finds Teen Behaviors Linked with Victimization • New MySpace Security Measures May Be Too Late • MySpace Builds Database to Target Predators • Pittsburgh Man Arrested in MySpace Sex Case • New Scam Targets MySpace Users • States Cracking Down on Dating Sites • MySpace Glitch Gives Hackers Teen Data • FTC "Concerned" About MySpace & Other Networking Sites • Texas Teen Sues MySpace for $30 Million • MySpace Debuts $1.99 Video Downloads • Massachusetts Puts Heat on MySpace.com • MySpace Names Security Czar • Connecticut Asks MySpace to Provide Blocking Software to Parents • What's Inside MySpace.com? • Connecticut Opens MySpace.Com Probe --- • MySpace Complaints • Facebook Complaints

In a settlement with New York, Facebook has agreed to beef up security on its social networking site, but the chairman of a 50-state task force says the site still has a long way to go.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said Facebook must go beyond the New York settlement.

"Much more must be done to protect children on Facebook. Our national coalition will continue fighting to make Facebook and other social networking sites safer," Blumenthal said. "We will explore all options -- including possible legal action."

Blumenthal co-chairs the national social networking task force of all 50 attorneys general with Attorney General Roy Cooper of North Carolina.

In the absence of federal action, states have targeted social-networking sites, primarily Facebook and Rupert Murdoch's MySpace and their users. Facebook had been seen as a prime acquisition target but the spate of litigation and prosecutorial pressure may have taken some of the bloom off its rose.

The 50-state task force is expected to urge that Facebook and similar sites adopt the following measures:

• Requiring age and identity verification for users 18 and older, and parental permission for users younger than 18.

• Implementing filtering technology to screen out sexually explicit, racist, violent or other mature images and significantly increasing the number of staff reviewing such images.

• Prohibiting sexually explicit and other inappropriate word and phrase searches.

• Hiding minors' profiles from adults.

• Limiting minors' search options.

• Removing inappropriate advertising targeting minors.

• Barring minors from accessing sexually orientated and other inappropriate web site groups.

"New York's settlement with Facebook is a step forward, but giant strides are needed to make the site safer," Blumenthal said. "We will demand that Facebook take powerful, practical measures -- age and identity verification, parental consent, purging inappropriate content, restrictions on minor access to inappropriate material. Dramatic, drastic changes must better shield children from sexual predators, unsuitable content and unsafe adults.

New York settlement

Earlier this week, Facebook scrambled to adopt measures demanded by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. Cuomo charged that Facebook had taken weeks to respond to some consumers' complaints about abuse and solicitation of children.

"If it's illegal to do on the corner of Main and Fourth Street, it's illegal to do in the Internet space," Mr. Cuomo said in a Wall Street Journal interview. "The question becomes who enforces the law; who's responsible for it?"

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