8 States Ask Myspace For Names Of Sex Offenders

STATE ATTORNEYS GENERAL

A Communication From the Chief Legal Officers
Of the Following States: Connecticut – Georgia – Idaho – Mississippi – New Hampshire – North Carolina – Ohio – Pennsylvania

May 14, 2007
Mary Ellen Callahan
Hogan and Hartson, LLP
Columbia Square
555 Thirteenth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20004

Dear Ms. Callahan:

As our states' chief legal officers, we are gravely concerned that sexual predators are using MySpace to lure children into face-to-face encounters and other dangerous activities.

We write to you regarding MySpace's December 2006 announcement with Sentinel Tech Holding regarding the identification of registered sex offenders on MySpace.

It is our understanding that the data from Sentinel reveals that thousands of known registered sexual offenders have been confirmed as MySpace members.

If true, this dramatically exceeds the report from Wired magazine, which found 744 registered sex offenders with MySpace profiles. Perhaps thousands more sexual predators - not registered or using fictitious names - are lurking on your web site.

We remain concerned about the design of your site, the failure to require parental permission, and the lack of safeguards necessary to protect our children.

We therefore request the following information:

First, how many registered sex offenders in the Sentinel database have been cross-referenced against MySpace's membership?

Second, what is the exact number of known registered sex offenders who have been identified as members of MySpace to date? Please forward a list of the names of the registered sex offenders that you have identified with profiles on MySpace and the states in which they reside.

Third, what steps has MySpace taken to alert law enforcement officials as well as MySpace users of such sex offenders? Finally, what steps has MySpace taken to remove sex offender profiles and how many have been removed?

We request a response by Tuesday, May 29, 2007. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Roy Cooper
Attorney General North Carolina

Richard Blumenthal
Attorney General Connecticut

Thurbert Baker
Attorney General Georgia

Lawrence Wasden
Attorney General Idaho

Jim Hood
Attorney General Mississippi

Kelly A. Ayotte
Attorney General New Hampshire

Marc Dann
Attorney General Ohio

Tom Corbett
Attorney General Pennsylvania


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WHP CBS 21 Harrisburg - (WHP)

May. 15, 2007. 07:45 AM EST

The Attorney General of Pennsylvania, along with his counterparts in more than a half-dozen other states is, asking the popular networking website "myspace.com" for names of registered sex offenders who use the service.