Jul 30, 2008 8:51 pm US/Eastern
MySpace Helps AG Crackdown On Sex Offenders
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ―
The records of nearly 200 Pennsylvania residents registered as sex offenders are being reviewed to see whether they've violated terms of their release - especially since they at one time had MySpace accounts on the net. MySpace says it is using the latest technology to help with the investigation.
"We have renewed our request with MySpace and Newscorp to turn over to us all those individuals over the last year who they've discovered on their site and they've kicked off their site who were listed as registered sex offenders and who live in Pennsylvania," said Pennsylvania Attorney General Tom Corbett.
"That number is 185 names," he added.
Earlier this year MySpace and Attorneys General from 49 states and the District of Columbia announced a joint effort to make teen websites safer. After a June court order from Dauphin County, more than 300 records were reviewed.
But once the cross checking resulted in the 185 names of concern, there was a fear that some internet networking could focus on more than just music, movies and books.
"It's just like being out on the street," Corbett said. "You have to be careful who you talk to. You have to be careful with strangers. This is a case where 185 people in Pennsylvania registered their own name - even though they are registered sex offenders.
"So we were were able to discover who they were - at least MySpace was. Our concern is that there's other people who are registered sex offenders that probably have MySpace accounts that there's no way if they use an alias that we're going to discover."
Beyond MySpace, the Child Predator Unit had reason to be concerned about the luring of kids on other sites. Just last week, four Pennsylvania men were arrested and charged with sexually propositioning people they believed to be teenaged girls but were actually Child Predator Unit agents.
They included Kevin Michael Cool of Franklin County, Monte Ray Schutter of Lancaster County and John Lee Kerns of Mercer county in western Pennsylvania.
Among the charges against him - that he sent sexually explicit webcam pictures to the person he thought was a 13-year-old girl.
"We know if they're doing it to our agents they're doing it to other children," Corbett said.
MySpace says deleting registered sex offenders became part of the principles it adopted earlier this year through its work with the Attorneys General across the country. The principles include making the profiles of 14 - and 15-year-old users automatically private and adding new safeguards to protect them from contact with adults they don't know.
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